I’ve had the Nokia 6790 Surge from AT&T for quite a while now, and have unboxed it for you, thrown out some rough first impressions, and even gone over things I love and things I hate about the phone. I also discovered that it is, in fact, quite anti-social, annoyingly. However, the biggest factor to any phone, in my opinion, is its build quality. I mean, regardless of the features, if the phone is falling apart constantly, then it’s going to be no good in the end, right? Right.
Build
Given its $80 (with rebate and 2-year commitment) price tag, it’s no surprise that the build quality of the Nokia 6790 Surge from AT&T is questionable. While there are no odd squeaks or other unwelcome noises when using the phone, it’s very obviously built of plastic, and what feels like rather thin plastic, at that. There’s one exception to this, however: the slide.
Nokia has built slider phones for several years now, and they’re starting to really get good at it. Even on a more affordable phone, like the 6790 Surge, the slider is smooth as butter, with a very solid thud at either end, when opening or closing the slide. There is absolutely zero wobble, either in the open or the closed position, which is also a good sign. Given this is being marketed towards the younger, text-crazed crowd, it’ll need a solid slide if it’s going to last long.
Buttons
The buttons on the Nokia 6790 Surge are somewhat of a mixed bag, really. The full QWERTY keyboard and the S60 navigation buttons, including the d-pad, softkeys, and end/send buttons, are extremely clicky. There’s just enough travel when you press the keys, and it’s just…nice. Unfortunately, while the clickiness is much appreciated, I’m stunned by how loud the buttons are. For a phone marketed towards the messaging fiends, who will no doubt be using the phone hidden under their desks at school, this thing might as well have a siren attached to each button.
Even more disturbing is that, while the navigational cluster and the QWERTY keyboard have awesomely tactile buttons, the 3-button column of shortcuts on the front of the phone are completely the opposite. These buttons are frustratingly mushy, to the point I almost am unsure if I’ve actually clicked them properly.
The QWERTY keyboard, by the way, is awesome. The keys are large, evenly sized, with legible labels and excellent response. I did notice what I initially thought was a keypress bug, but it turned out to be that I simply needed to press slightly harder than I do on my E63, which makes sense, given the additional travel. Comparing the Nokia 6790 Surge’s keyboard to that of the E75, for instance, shows that Nokia does, in fact, know how to address the E75’s issue of being too flat. The 6790 Surge’s keys are tapered down around the edges, giving the perception that they are rounded, when in fact they’re rather flat, themselves.
Along the right side of the phone, there is the volume rocker and the dedicated camera key. Unfortunately, unlike any Nokia I’ve ever used, these two buttons are frustratingly close together, and hidden behind the display, when the keyboard is slid out. This resulted in me frequently launching the camera when I intended to change the volume. Also, these volume buttons does not change to suit the orientation of the phone. Thus, when in portrait mode, the top volume button is up and the bottom is down. When you rotate the phone to landscape, these should swap, so that the left part (previously the top) is volume down, and the right (previously the bottom) is volume up. They don’t, so I was consistently fumbling around with the volume rocker.
The camera button is about what I would have expected. Since there is no autofocus, it is simply a one-stage button, and it works fine. There is no struggle to press it, so photos are captured quickly and easily.
Connections
There are three connection points on the Nokia 6790 Surge, and they’re all frustrating. At the top of the device, you’ll find the 2.5mm audio port, uncovered, and the 2mm Nokia charging port, with an attached door to keep debris out. I’m not real sure why there’s no cover on the audio port, but there’s not. Along the bottom edge, centered, is the microUSB data port, also covered by a small door. Given that there is no USB cord included in the sales package, this is really frustrating. I’m also unsure as to why we need both of these ports, when Nokia has already begun shifting its other phones to be able to charge over the microUSB. Also, other phones that AT&T currently offers, such as the LG Vu or BlackBerry Curve 8900, charge over microUSB, so I doubt that it was an AT&T request.
The 2.5mm port bothers me quite a bit, as well, mainly because it’s not a super-thin device, by any measure. As you can see, there’s easily enough room to bump that up to a 3.5mm jack, specifically if they had combined the 2mm Nokia charging port with the microUSB one.
Conclusion
Overall, while the build quality of the Nokia 6790 Surge for AT&T is decent, the build materials feel cheap, and the buttons are either extremely clicky or extremely mushy, with no comfortable medium. The charging, data, and audio connections, while easily accessible, are quite inconvenient, as well, and could easily have been improved without adding to the cost of the handset at all. I would give the phone a 5 out of 10 here. It’s not horrid, but it’s not really spectacular, either. Tomorrow, we’ll have a full rundown of the software portion of the Nokia 6790 Surge from AT&T, including the camera quality and other features.
