During the buildup to the launch, through the launch, and shortly after, Nokia and AT&T had been promoting the Surge 6790 as the multimedia He-Man of smartphones. Now that it has been out for a while, it’s obvious that the Surge has its shortcomings, but we wouldn’t go so far as to call it Prince Adam; we might, however, second guess it as Man-At-Arms – although, nobody liked him either.
Why the pessimistic view? Well, while the Nokia Surge does have MMS and SMS capabilities, it only features a weaker-than 2-megapixel camera that, in all honesty, doesn’t take very good pictures. Fine, but you can still upload and message your candid moments, right? Yes, thanks to the preloaded JuiceCaster app; however, you only get that JuiceCaster app for a seven-day trial, after which you have to front $2.99 a month. Sure, you could argue that you have to pay for everything, but that added fee on top of the $30 data plan is akin to finding a worm in the juicy apple you’ve been enjoying. And sure, the Nokia Surge is only $79.99 after the $50 rebate (and all the clicking and creaking it makes when you press any of the buttons proves it), but after a couple three years of JuiceCaster fees, you could have bought an iPhone.
Still, what the Nokia Surge offers to those who must post their mood or status or whatever every five minutes isn’t all that bad; it has 3G support like the big boys, it has fast and easy access to the likes of Facebook and Twitter (and a full QWERTY on this slider makes interacting with social media real easy like), it has GPS (but no geotagging abilities), Bluetooth, and Flash support. But, if you’re not part of that set but wish you were when you’re grinding away in the office after dark, you’ll be pleased to find the Nokia PC Suite that allows you to sync with MS Outlook, QuickOffice, a PDF viewer, and a full file manager.
Undressing the Nokia Surge
Like I said, the Nokia Surge has a 2-megapixel camera and it does have a bunch of features, but a flash isn’t one of them. Around the edges you’ll find a micro-USB port, a single mono speaker, a 2.5 mm audio port (so you’ll have to buy an adapter if you want to use normal headphones), a covered 2 mm Nokia charging port, a volume rocker, and dedicated camera button. The Surge, while coming with 128MB of onboard memory, has expandable memory of up to 8GB via the microSD card slot, but you’ll have to frig around with the back panel to access it.
As far as dimensions, you’re getting a 2.4-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution display on a 4.4 ounce phone that comes in a package measuring 3.84” x 2.28” x 0.61”.
The Nokia Surge runs on the Symbian S60 platform with support for Exchange and SyncML for Google account synchronization. There’s also quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) support and dual-band UMTS (850/1900MHz) with HSDPA support for AT&T's 3G network. Reception on the Surge is far better than average and the phone has no problems with locating and staying connected to signals.
As a smartphone that has been touted as a multimedia monster, you’d think that a better music player interface would have been used, but what’s there now shares the same kind of features as what’s on the iPod. Why mess with something that works I guess. Another point that is kind of disappointing is the e-mail: The Nokia Surge defaults to AT&T's Mobile Email application and you have to go on a treasure hunt to access the Symbian messaging application to connect to most web e-mail services.
Despite some shortcomings and a bigger reputation, the Nokia Surge is cheap and it works.
