Nokia Surge review
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 31st 2009 1:00PM
posted Jul 31st 2009 1:00PM
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Design
We can't help but start our evaluation by focusing on the motif. Nokia has managed to pull off a distinctly creative and atypical design on the Surge, and while some may pass it off as mildly unsightly at first glance, we're actually big fans. The recessed "lip" at the bottom provides a great spot for sliding the screen up in order to reveal the spacious QWERTY keyboard, and the gliding motion is nothing short of delectable. The handset is sufficiently small, thin and light, though we do feel that it's one of the more sturdy featurephones we've had the pleasure of handling.
The glossy black finish is a fingerprint magnet, though the glowing backlit keys more than compensate. We will say, however, that Nokia could've stood to insert a slightly larger screen here. We mean, look at that bezel! There's more than enough room around the current LCD to have expanded things a bit, and considering that this thing's rocking Symbian S60, more pixels would've certainly been appreciated. That said, the combination of buttons on the main screen and the QWERTY keyboard underneath allowed us to navigate the OS sufficiently well, though we found ourselves tapping the screen on numerous occasions in a futile attempt to magically turn the non-touchscreen display into one that heeded our every finger press.
As for the button layout, we were generally pleased with the hard shortcuts (MEdia Net, main menu and Messaging) on the front of the device, though we would've loved for the central square "Enter" button to support scrolling. As it stands, the button only understands downward pressure, not swipes in any direction. Around the horn (read: edges), there's a volume rocker that could stand to be more pronounced, a dedicated camera button, a woefully small 2.5mm headphone jack, an external speaker, an AC input and a USB socket. Sadly, you'll have to remove the rear cover in order to access the microSD slot, but at least you don't have to remove the battery / SIM card.
Upon sliding the screen upwards, you're presented with a majestic, backlit QWERTY keyboard that puts most other text-friendly phones to shame. We'll just go ahead and say it: the Surge's keyboard is the best QWERTY board we've ever used, and considering just how long we've been pecking on those vertical iPhone and BlackBerry keyboards, that's saying something. It took next to no time for us to fully adjust to the landscape layout, and within a few minutes of getting ourselves acclimated to the spacing, we were in texting heaven. The key travel is perfect, the spacing is utopian and unlike the XPERIA X1, the top row isn't encroaching too heavily on the top of the display. It's one of the first mobile keyboards that we've really felt comfortable using for long periods of time, and we honestly started dreaming of things to say just so we had an excuse to text yet another member of our contact list. If you're one of those folks who puts out 10,000+ texts per month, you owe it to yourself to try the Surge.
Software and features
Despite the fact that Nokia gifted the Surge with just a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 resolution display, it still went ahead and loaded up S60. We can't say that we didn't find ourselves wishing for more screen real estate, but there's plenty here if you're willing to compromise. Put simply, using S60 was a pure joy on the Surge. Flipping the phone open and closed (and from horizontal to vertical) yielded screen refreshes that were startlingly quick, and we couldn't find even a hint of lag anywhere in system. Every single application we opened was ready to rumble within a matter of nanoseconds, and unlike HTC's Hero, we really felt as if the hardware was plenty capable of keeping up with the software. Even when flipping from the camera to the Messaging screen and onto the web, each transition was alarmingly quick. We never witnessed even a hint of lag while texting / banging out emails, and the general responsiveness of the entire OS had us marveling.
Of course, it's not like everything was peaches and cream. S60 still has quite aways to go before it's as robust as Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 and Google's Android, and the overall dearth of applications was evidence of that. Plus, the built-in email setup only supported a handful of clients, none of which were Gmail. We still managed to get our Gmail account established via a far less glamorous method, and while it's certainly better than not having mobile access to your email, it's definitely an antiquated system that looks more like something suited for SMS / MMS than unadulterated email.
To its credit, S60 handled all of the basics with class. Music playback was sufficient, IM / SMS / MMS was more than adequate and the MEdia Net web browser was perfect suitable for viewing web pages that were hand-crafted for use on mobile devices. Unfortunately, the cost of having access to these luxuries makes things entirely less appealing, a point we'll harp on more in the next section. We must say, the 2 megapixel camera on the Surge left a lot to be desired. Particularly in house light / low light situations, it was borderline unusable. In broad daylight you can probably get the point across, but this definitely isn't going to be your next P&S backup.
Wrap-up
The thing that really puts a damper on the Surge isn't the design, the software or the lackluster web browser that isn't good for much of anything outside of checking mobile news pages. No, it's the obscene data plan price forced upon you by AT&T. You see, users can purchase this phone sans a data plan for $129.99 on contract, but you won't see the fully subsidized price of $79.99 unless you also tack on a $30 per month unlimited data plan. On Apple's iPhone, the $30 per month is (barely) understandable given its robust email client and best-in-class web browser, but on a featurephone that will literally use only a smidgen of data compared to the average iPhone user, it's just senseless.
When trying to buy this phone through AT&T's website, the elusive $15 unlimited MEdia Net data option is nowhere to be found; you're stuck with the same $30 / month 'PDA Personal' plan that BlackBerry and iPhone users have to select, which totally kills the value proposition. The web browser here is so antediluvian that it can hardly render any non-mobile webpage on the entire internet, and the email client is so unembellished that you'll probably never use it with any sort of regularity. In other words, asking $15 per month to access the Surge's limited web-connected applications suite would be justifiable, but once you hit that $30 mark, you might as well drop $99 on an iPhone 3G (or $49 if you're okay with refurbished wares) or select your favorite BlackBerry -- both of which will absolutely take advantage of a $30 data plan more so than Nokia's Surge.
As a phone sans a data plan, the Surge is still a winner in our eyes. The keyboard is phenomenal, the OS is snappy and texting fiends will undoubtedly adore it. It'll be tough knowing you have a functional email client and a ho hum web browser there that you can't use without being charged eleventy billion cents per kilobyte, but at least you won't be forking out $30 per month for a data plan that's really too rich for what the Surge offers in terms of connectivity. If you could somehow figure out a way to hook this bad boy up on a $15 / month MEdia Net plan, however, it's pretty much the perfect phone to get for those not quite willing to shell out the big bucks on a full-blown smartphone. Good luck with that.
Ugly...period.
Agreed. Engadget dogs on phones like the G1, but call THIS pretty? Wow.
The pictures don't do it justice... It's a very nice device to hold in your hand. Looks very nicely built, glides open, etc...
Weird. If it's the standard Nokia S60 E-mail client it should set up Gmail no problem.
What version of S60v3 does this run? FP1 or FP2? If it's running either then it should be able to use Nokia messaging. Also, if it is S60 it's a smartphone not a featurephone - S40 is Nokia's featurephone OS.
AT&T is hating bigtime on Gmail! It started with the Samsung Eternity not supporting gmail and has just gone on to every phone released from there. I hate hate HATE it! People just dont understand when I tell em that theyre gonna just have to open a yahoo account to replace their old gmail that theyve had for the last 5 years... what a freakin joke AT&T.
AT&T/yahoo/microsoft feeling threatened...
I love how you put all the blame & design on Nokia. like "NOKIA was trying to hit a specific market with this one"...this has AT&T hands all over it -- i bet Nokia didn't even have a say on it.
I know exactly where you're coming from because I thought the exact same thing too when I first saw it. I mean, why else would they stick a screen that small on something with that much room on the face? Surely they'd put a 2.8" display on there at least. Unless AT&T said no to that because they wanted it to fit a particular design idea they had for a segment they think exists. Then when I learned about the 6760, which is the unbranded global version of this, I started having second thoughts about all of that. Maybe this could be something Nokia did in fact design on their own that worked with what AT&T wanted so they went with it and went global at the same time since Nokia does need a few more QWERTY phones in its lineup. It could also be an AT&T spec'd phone Nokia was told to design that could be an experiment for Nokia to see how the supposed desires of US consumers work on a global level with a few changes to the device but I really can't see them wasting that kind of money to do something like that. Either way, the face of the phone is pretty ugly and definitely could've been designed much better.
Use Nokia Messaging (http://email.nokia.com) for email; it supports multiple simultaneous email accounts, html email etc., and even gmail ;)
Nokia messaging plain sucks, all your emails go through Nokias server and they plan to charge for this service later on, or at least team up with the networks to charge for email separately.
I've no quarrel with the device, but that data plan makes this thing DOA.
This phone has tweener written all over it, but it's not going to hit that market at an extra thirty bucks a month. Honestly, if they were going to force it into this plan, I don't know why they even bothered releasing the thing.
I looked at this phone when it was first available, and then opted for the non-contract Nokia E75. A larger screen may have made the difference. The E75 is truly more phone than I need.
While Nokia's Web Browser isn't the most robust out there, that situation is easily remedied by downloading either Skyfire or Opera.
I'd say Opera Mobile at least gives Safari Mobile a run for it's money.
That's interesting - this may be one of those places where ATT's 'If it has a QWERTY you pay more for data' rules may fall flat. There are a lot of phones out there these days that look pretty crappy compared to a sub $100 iPhone. Kudos to Nokia for the awesome keyboard though...
Seriously, texting needs to die. It can't cost the major teleco networks that much more to send an email than a text, and If you could tack on an extra $5 a month to your bill for unlimited emails, this would, as the review says, be a perfect dumbphone.
Tethering the phone to a laptop is the only way to justify getting an unlimited data plan on this phone, and at that point, the user has probably already bought a smartphone.
A good review, as expected from engadget. I have to agree with your data plan argument, however att looks at any phone with an OS they consider "advanced" (WinMo, BBOS, OSX, Symbian, etc) as a "smartphone" would you not consider an E71x a smartphone? They're view is because they both run S60 they're both smartphones.
Try Skyfire for the web browsing, and it may be worth the extra $15 a month vs. a standard feature phone.
Who said $30 bucks only gets you data? It gives you everything Unlimited. It's a bundle that gives you unlimited SMS, MMS, IM, Email, Web browsing, and anything else data related. on top of $40 bucks for 450 minutes that's only $70 + tax for unlimited everything except minutes. It's not unreasonable at all IMO. Plus like the other commenter mentioned, if it's running S60, Skyfire and Opera Mini make everything WAY much better when web browsing.
Did you read the article, it requires the PDA unlimited, that data plan does NOT include sms, mms, or im it is internet and email only. it is $30 per month
I misunderstood is all. When I signed on with AT&T a year ago I purchased online. I got the Nokia N75 which also runs S60. I didn't have to choose a PDA personal plan and was allowed to select the $30 MediaNet Messaging unlimited or whatever they call it. That's why I didn't know there was a difference. I have an unlocked E71 now so good thing I didn't get the E71x or else they would have changed my plan.
WRONG. The PDA personal plan that attaches to this device is just for data services( web, email and im) It DOES NOT inculed any text messaging of any kind. If you want unlimited text ( sms and mms) you are going to have to pay another 20 dollas a month for that. To recalculate for you that is 39.99 (450 minute rate plan) + 30 for data + 20 for text = 89.99 plus monthly taxes. You are looking at over 100 a month. You could pay the same thing and have another PDA that actually can do something.
I simply don't understand how this runs S60 but is still called a feature phone.
Some insight, please.
Because of the weak e-mail client and the subpar web browser.
These are the same applications included in all S60 devices. The rest of the S60 devices are all smart phones. This one isn't an exception.
I'm not entirely sure why they are hating on the web browser so much... if it's the same one the E71 has, it's perfectly capable of handling pretty much any webpage. I use a gigabyte or so of data every month on my E71.
I find your criticism of the web browser a bit odd, if it's the standard S60 browser it shouldn't have problems opening most websites, maybe AT&T tampered with it in some way or something.
Anyway there are still Opera mini, Opera mobile and Skyfire if anybody doesn't like the default one.
This looks like shit... period.
I thought that it was a Motorola, but then very surprised to see that it was Nokia.
nice review...
i have to say that s60 is a smartphone and s40 is a feature phone....
anyway this device is running s60 which means that nokia messaging
is fully compatible and gmail should be as well.....
secondly if you dont like the browser install another one! the joys of s60!
freedom!
people often wonder why nokia "neglects" the US market...the answer is simple
as seen by the review....
nokia makes a device the US operators do their best to cripple it. ($30 data plan)
so its a matter where the niche market the phone was designed for are more unlikely
to grap the device just because of that $30...
maybe im wrong but thats just the way i see it.....
a discrepancy between target market and affordability.....
Off topic, but you guys have some tight music gear.
Ha, thanks! Rock on!
Want this phone with $15/month data? Here's what you do:
1. Buy a regular dumb/feature phone from your local big box retailer and add the $15/mo data.
2. Exchange the dumb phone for this (this works with every smartphone EXCEPT blackberries)
Since bestbuy gives all rebates up front, you don't have to take the expensive data option to get the best price. Plus, since they're not likely to know better, they won't even think to change your data plan.
NOTE: this won't work if you plan on insuring the phone, since they have to change the serial number in ATT system, at which point the system would recognize it as a smartphone and force them to change the data plan
Good to know. Thanks for the heads up!
Guys!! if you buy from AT&T, it is always going to be more expensive than you buy from third party websites or stores.
This Nokia Surge was available without any data plan wirefly.com for the entire last week. Now its not availabe without data plan,but is available free. Its also available without data plan at Letstalk.com where you can make $50. IT is backordered till 08/05. I think Amazon might also be having it.
Also even if you buy dataplan you can still cancel the data plan after first 6 months, but for iphone you cannot.
If you buy from AT&T, you can cancel the data plan after you receive the rebate which might be 2 months i suppose.
So overall, its still available for free without dataplan if you just shop around. You can also wait for few weeks when prices will even go down.
Wow. Engadget. Wow.
You find one little problem on the Hero and you ultimately slap HTC in the face.
Then you proceed to review this fugly Nokia and praise it, just because it has an oh so excellent keyboard and a craptastic browser and email.
Did Nokia pay you guys?
CNET and PhoneArena actaully spoke the truth about this device.
PhoneArena = Although equipped with a nice QWERTY keyboard, AT&T's second tasting of S60 leaves a sour taste in our mouth with its undecided design, lackluster interface, and sub-par workmanship.
CNET = The phone has a number of design quirks and doesn't have the best build quality. Even though the compact size is nice, we weren't so fond of the plasticky and slick feel of the phone, and the battery cover creaks at the slightest amount of pressure.
Hardware that can't even keep up with software is not a "little problem".
I totally agree with this review... I was (LIGHTLY) contemplating buying this until I found out that you needed the $30 PDA plan at which point I said NO WAY!... It's so ridiculous that they expect you to spend $30/ mo. when the $15 MediaNet should work just fine!... The 6650 runs s60 and yet it uses the MediaNet plan... I don't know who the idiots are that are running AT&T's pricing policies but I'd say they are really fucking over their customers and themselves... I'd say get the unlocked version when it's released in Europe and then use that one with the MediaNet plan... I have a 3120 classic with Opera Mini and I use the MediaNet plan and I think I use like 9 GBs a month or something... There's no reason you anyone should have to pay $30/mo. and if they do they're just ignorant and AT&T is taking advantage of them...
How do you use 9gb a month on medianet? The pda 30 is limited to 5 gb surely either you are going to be found out or they going to charge you for more than 5 gb
Wait so the S60 web browser we're all used to seeing on our Nseries and Eseries phones is no where to be had on this?
"Despite the fact that Nokia gifted the Surge with just a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 resolution display, it still went ahead and loaded up S60."
Heh, I'm quite curious what sort of experience the reviewer has with Nokia phones? Those screen specs are actually the norm for S60 Nokia phones (except the touch-screen ones, and the slightly larger (but same resolution) N-95/96).
And most N-series and E-series devices the last two years (at least at the higher end of the spectrum), has been basically lagless.
I'm very glad that this was emphasised though, as I often feel S60 is badly portrayed on American tech-blogs, but this review seemed very well balanced, well thought-out and excellent all the way.
As for adding another browser like some other commentators mentioned, Nokia devices generally have a lot lower specs than other smartphones, because S60 is just a lot less demanding, but when it comes to rendering internet pages, it shows that Nokia is a bit weaker, so I'd recommend getting a mobile browser that has a server pre-rendering the pages (like Opera Mini or Skyfire), rather than one that functions as a full browser (S60 browser (webkit based), or Opera Mobile).
Wait, so what'll happen if we have AT&T's $15 data plan on a dumbphone, pop out the sim, buy the Surge at full price (completely ignoring rebates, etc), and pop the sim into that? Will we be able to access the $15 dollar data, or will AT&T charge us per kb?
You then get to rock the phone with a 15 dollar MediaNet plan. I am currently using a Blackberry Bold with said plan by having an old phone on hand.. told them I wanted to put the plan under that IMEI... and have since used it with my Tilt, Iphone, N95, and so forth.
His is the Nokia phone I was dreaming for years before Android and iPhone hit. Something with S60, a fantastic keyboard and general Nokia goodness. The problem is that it's just too little too late. This would be an awesome choice for a decently priced phone for a text happy kid, but with the forced data plan and the baffling lack of a 3.5mm headpone jack, this seems like a tough sell. Bravo to Nokia for finally mixing up their design though, it's long overdue.
It is supposed to support Flash in the browser....
This has gotta be the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life.
Give up the $50 rebate and purchase it for $129.99 and you can get the lesser cost data plan, especially if you're on a family account with unlimited family messaging. Or get the rebate and change to lesser cost data plan later. Nokia also has a trade in program (nokia.eztradein.com) that gives you $25 plus the trade in value of the phone you send in and offers a quote for the value of your phone on the site. That's a good way to offset not getting the $50 rebate.
It looks awesome - should be the new Batmobile! =)
Huh. I use POP3 for Gmail, and setting it up was ridiculously easy. o.o
Looks like a super nice phone, if only it didn't need a data plan to get the rebate.
did u guys like the keyboard more than the mylo 2's keyboard, kuz that one's nice
Download nokia email (push html email), skyfire, opermini, bolt and you have 3 quick browsers and push email.
My unboxing is here: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/unboxing-the-nokia-6790-surge/