The Nokia Blog » email

Nokia N900 Review of Email

Mark Guim — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:24:48 +0000

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

You can also watch this video in HD on Youtube. Subscribe to the channel to preview the latest videos before they get published on the blog.

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.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

What’s New in Nokia Messaging

Al Pavangkanan — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:09:14 +0000

Hotmail access was restored Thursday morning in Nokia Messaging. HTML and S60v5 support were announced last month. I don’t like the HTML implementation much. It’s confusing browsing around an email when there are large images. I’ve yet to try it out on a touchscreen (I have the N97 on pre-order), so I don’t know how different it might be.

Internal Storage

Over the past couple of months, I’ve noticed my internal memory shrink. I kept clearing out the browser cache and looking for stray install files and could never find the culprit. Recently, my internal memory was creeping down to 10MB free. After playing around with Nokia Messaging, I found over 100 emails in the deleted folders of each of my mail accounts.

To easily clear out your deleted items, highlight a message, click the left soft key for “options”, then select “empty folder”. It can take a couple of minutes for the entire cache of email to clear out. As you can see, I now have 26MB of internal storage left.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

Nokia Messaging Updated – Yawn… Still No HTML Support

Mark Guim — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:49:28 +0000

Nokia let us know a few days ago that Nokia Messaging was updated with a patch. What I only cared about was whether it finally supported HTML email. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t. I’ll be sticking to Profimail on my phone for my email solutions until they support it.

Davis Fields, the product manager for Nokia Messaging, wrote,

This is a patch, not a whole new service release. HTML support and other improvements are coming in the big release in Spring. The E75 and E55 feature our first clients that include support for HTML, but don’t worry, we are close to our next release for older devices that includes support for HTML.

I think it means, “We want you to buy the E75 or E55 to get HTML email.” Why do I have a feeling Nokia will also make consumers wait much longer after the release of the E75 and E55 for HTML support on older devices? I hope I’m wrong.

This is the reason I prefer HTML with my email:

Without HTML (left) vs HTML on Profimail (right)

I still think Profimail is currently best email application on our Nokia phones, and suggest you try out the demo. I believe the demo lasts for 60 days, until it requires a license purchase of $25 with the coupon SAVE20NOW.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

Nokia Email Graduates Without HTML – Thanks But No Thanks

Mark Guim — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:12:34 +0000

Nokia Beta Labs announced today the official release of Nokia Messaging by taking Nokia Email out of beta. They included plenty of highlights for the release but excluded HTML support. I’ll stick to Profimail until they do, but at least they acknowledge that they are close to delivering that feature.

Nokia Email without HTML (left) vs Profimail (right)

Why I need HTML

I moderate the comments on this blog and it is done through emails from Wordpress whenever I’m away from the computer. From the screenshot above, we see that three links on Nokia Email took over most of the screen because of the long URL addresses, while links appear properly on Profimail.

Nokia mentioned that it is an important feature that they want to bring:

I want to acknowledge specifically the omission of HTML in this release – we have spent plenty of time figuring out the best way to implement HTML and we are close to delivering it, but not in this release. It’s an important feature to us. – Davis Fields, Nokia Messaging team

In the meantime, I’ll be using Profimail until Nokia Email brings HTML. Please don’t make me wait too long!

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...

Vlog: Profimail 3.x Brings Push Email and Built-In HTML To S60 – Replaces Nokia Email

Mark Guim — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:30:43 +0000

I’ve been using the new Profimail 3.x that just came out a few days ago and I really like the update. With IMAP IDLE mode, I have “push email” that notifies me whenever I get a new email. Messages in HTML format showing images or color changes the sender made are also built-in. This totally replaces Nokia Email for me until Nokia adds HTML support.

In Action

See Profimail in action in a video I made below. Head to the blog if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

Push Notifications

On Profimail, an icon shows up on the upper right corner with the number of unopened mails. You can have it vibrate with sound as well. You have the option when to activate the connection to check for emails. I have it set up to only check between 10AM and 11PM every day. Unfortunately there’s no option to show the inbox on the active display.

HTML

Nokia Email also offers push email, but the problem with is that messages sent in HTML format do not appear properly. Profimail supports HTML messages the moment you open the email. This feature alone made me uninstall Nokia Email and replace it with Profimail.

Download

Profimail is free to try, but the demo expires after a certain amount of time. The full version costs $31.99, but use the code SAVE20NOW for 20% discount (expires December 31st, 2008) bringing it down to $25.