Nokia N900 Review of Email
Email is a very important feature for me and it works pretty well on the Nokia N900… for the most part. I’ll show you how it looks on the pre-production Nokia N900 from setup, to reading the inbox, replying, and creating emails. In this post, I use my Nokia Messaging account to push my emails from Gmail.
The Nokia N900 referred to this post is running software version 1.2009.41-10.
Video Overview
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Setup
During the setup, there’s a pre-loaded list of service providers like Gmail, Yahoo, or Exchange. The list makes it easier for you to just log in and start using email. Most of the other info like ports, server addresses, etc. are no longer needed. For advanced options, select ‘Others’ to manually fill out all the credentials.
Multiple email accounts are supported. There’s no option to combine the accounts into one inbox, but you can choose from a dropdown which account you’d like to send your new emails from.
For some weird reason, Nokia Messaging does not show up in the list when I’m using a SIM card from AT&T or T-mobile here in US. It is available when I insert my European Vodafone SIM.
Inbox
Browsing through the inbox is fairly easy. Flick your finger up or down to see the list of emails. Those in white mean already read, while the ones in color are still not read. Long-press on an email activates a popup while blurring the background. You can mark the email as read or delete it from there.
Search is currently missing. You will not be able to look for certain emails.
Reading Emails
HTML email is supported by the Nokia N900. Images do not load automatically, so you’ll have to press the load image button at the bottom of the screen. If there’s an option to load images automatically, I haven’t found it yet. Other options while reading an email include the usual reply, reply all, and forward. It’s very straightforward.
Writing Emails
As I previously mentioned, you can select in a drop down which account you are sending the email from. You can also use the bottom panel options to change the font, size, format, and color. More options are available by pressing the status bar panel. This includes attachments, CC, and BCC. Attaching images is pretty straightforward as well.
Finishing Thoughts
Email on the Nokia N900 is simple and easy to use. Many users will be happy with it. However, it is not exactly perfect yet.
Issues. There are some issues on this pre-production Nokia N900′s email experience that hopefully gets resolved before hitting the shelves.
1. If I login using the Gmail account, the app becomes too slow. I will often get a “not responding” warning and force quit the application. I think it is trying to download all my emails since a couple of years ago, but I could be wrong.
2. Google Sync for Email is not fully supported. It can download some emails, but will not display the content or recipient.
3. Nokia Messaging is not in the preloaded list if I am using an American SIM card. It shows up when I have my Vodafone SIM card from Netherlands.
4. If I am using Nokia Messaging as an email account AND use Exchange for Google Sync, I can read emails but cannot send emails. Mike from Nokia Conversations has the same setup, but told me he is able to send emails.
