Nokia packs a full smartphone into a compact, unusual-looking QWERTY slider. Is this AT&T's surprise messaging hit? Find out in our Nokia Surge review.
Review summary of the Nokia Surge:
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 The Nokia Surge is something of an ugly duckling among the inexpensive, full-QWERTY messaging phone set. Actually, it's not even that ugly, and with its Symbian S60 smartphone OS, it's definitely more swan than duck. If you skip the junk that AT&T has piled onto this phone, you're left with a powerful device with business-class e-mail, contacts and calendar sync, a respectable, full-HTML Web browser and suite of multimedia options that were capable of handling our basic music and video needs. We loved the keyboard. It's our new favorite among compact messaging phones, and even though the aging Symbian interface doesn't compare to new-fangled, top-of-the-line smartphones, it still outclasses other, simpler messaging devices by a mile. We wish the phone had more built-in options for our favorite messaging addictions, like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but that Symbian S60 OS means an intrepid user will find third-party options available. In the end, some messaging fans might prefer a friendlier QWERTY feature phone like the LG enV3 on Verizon Wireless or the LG Lotus on Sprint, but the Nokia Surge is the best compact messaging phone on AT&T's lineup, and a solid choice all around. Release: July 2009. Price: $80.
Pros: Great keyboard. Full smartphone OS in a small package. Nice Web browser, especially for a compact device.
Cons: Aging Symbian OS not as friendly as other smartphones, or simpler feature phones. Lacks advanced IM and SMS options.
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Full Nokia Surge Review:
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Design – Good
When we first saw the Nokia Surge for AT&T in press photos, we thought it was a downright ugly device. We should have known better, especially from Nokia, and in person we were pleasantly surprised to find a compact, appealing phone with a clever design well-suited to frequent messaging. The compact phone fits nicely in the hand, and that strange contoured edge made opening the slide easier than on any other slider we've tried. With the Nokia Surge, you'll be opening the slide often. Though you can use the phone in portrait mode with the slide closed, dialing is very difficult and slow, and it's impossible to enter text without the keyboard.
The Nokia Surge has a dazzling, 2.4-inch display that keeps up Nokia's reputation for quality, deeply colorful screens. Unfortunately, the Symbian S60 interface does little to take advantage of the QVGA display, with it's jagged, dated-looking fonts and uninspired themes. One of those themes presents a series of convenient calling options on the home screen, but don't expect any advanced features like desktop widgets or customized icons. For a smartphone, it's too static, and for a feature phone it's boring and bland.
We wish Nokia hadn't used so many port covers on the Nokia Surge. Both the microUSB port and the power port up top use flimsy, tiny covers that were difficult to remove and sure to break off after a couple month's use. If your phone gets tossed into a messy bag frequently, they might be convenient, but you'll have to be careful not to tear them off.
Calling – Very Good
Call quality on the Nokia Surge was very good. Our calls sounded clean and clear, and callers were equally impressed with what they heard. We got occasional background static and a bit of muffling in our voices on our callers' end, but it was minimal, and for the most part the Nokia Surge sounded great. Battery life was also quite impressive. Though Nokia claims the phone won't last a full 5 hours, we tested the phone and got more than 5 hours of talking time out of it, probably thanks to the high capacity battery included with the device. Nokia phones also sip power very slowly, so you can leave this phone in standby for more than a week and it will hold plenty of charge.
AT&T doesn't include any sync software with the Nokia Surge, so new buyers should head directly to Nokia's site to download the Nokia PC Suite. With the PC Suite, the phone synchronized perfectly with the address book on our desktop, and though the software may be a bit buggy, it was certainly packed with features. You can also sync the phone's address book with a Microsoft Exchange server using the Mail for Exchange app.
For calling features, the Nokia Surge packed all of our favorites. Conference calls were easy to connect on the phone. The Surge uses speaker-independent voice dialing, and it was surprisingly one of the most accurate Nokia phones we've used for voice dialing. The speakerphone could be much louder for our tastes, and it wasn't loud enough to carry on a conversation in a fast moving car. The Nokia Surge had no trouble connecting to our Bluetooth headsets.
Messaging – Very Good
The Nokia Surge comes packed with great e-mail features, and some nice messaging apps all around. AT&T confuses the issue somewhat by bundling their own redundant software with the phone. We think most users will be happier skipping AT&T's Mobile Email app, which is limited compared to the built-in Symbian e-mail software, since it only works with a select few services. Though AT&T's Mobile Email doesn't work with Gmail, the Surge's plain old e-mail app had no trouble finding settings for the popular service online and setting up our mailbox automatically. For corporate users, the Nokia Surge also uses a basic version of Nokia's Mail for Exchange app. You won't be able to access subfolders in your Exchange account with MfE, unlike the recently improved version on the more powerful Nokia E75.
Beyond e-mail, the Nokia Surge does an adequate job with simple SMS messages and instant messaging. Text messaging is not threaded, so messages show up individually, and not as part of a larger conversation. We prefer the latter method. Also, the Surge did a poor job helping us add contacts to the recipient field on a message. For instant messaging, the only option on the phone is AT&T's dated-looking Instant Messaging app, which supports AOL, MSN and Yahoo only. There's no social networking or Twitter app built into the phone. Of course, as a Symbian device, there are third party options available, but we'd rather have these packaged on the phone out of the box.
The keyboard on the Nokia Surge was fantastic. Of all the compact messaging phones we've seen, this is the best keyboard we've used so far, certainly better than the stiff, nubby keys on phones like the Samsung Propel or the LG enV3. The keys were roomy and very comfortable, with plenty of travel. We'd like to see more dedicated symbol and function keys on the keyboard, especially an @ key or a ".com" button, since this phone is so focused on messaging. Still, the Surge quickly rushed to the top as our favorite compact keyboard.
Multimedia - Good
For multimedia playback, the Nokia Surge gets a nice music player, the same as we've seen on much more expensive Nokia Symbian phones. The phone could handle all of our music tracks, and packed plenty of playback options to tweak the sound to your liking. Playlist creation could be a bit easier, but you can also use the Nokia PC Suite software to synchronize music with the phone. The Nokia Surge uses a microSD card slot hidden under the battery cover, but not under the battery itself. Unfortunately, there's no included card, but you can fill the phone with your own memory, up to 16GB. The Surge also uses a sub-standard 2.5mm headphone jack, instead of our preferred 3.5mm jack. You'll have to buy a new pair of headphones for this device, since AT&T is stingy about accessories. The phone also has a microUSB port, but you'll have to buy a cable if you want to sync this device, since there's no cable in the box.
Web browsing - Good
For a compact messaging phone, the Nokia Surge gets one of the better Web browsers on the market. The Nokia S60 browser is a quick, capable app that will render your favorite HTML pages faithfully. Our own homepage looked great in the browser pane. We especially like the mini map feature that lets you browse a large page quickly and hone in on the section you want to read, as well as the thumbnail images of Web pages that the browser saves for moving forward and back in your browsing history. This is a real smartphone browser, not a mobile WAP browser. The Nokia Surge also uses Flash Lite in its Web browser, but we had serious trouble getting Flash to work. On YouTube and other streaming video sites, we couldn't get a single video to play. Still, for basic Web browsing, the Nokia Surge does a better job than most phones this size (and this price).
Camera - Mediocre
The 2-megapixel camera on the Nokia Surge was pretty disappointing. It lacked significant shooting features, like auto focus or advanced shooting modes, and the images we got from our photo sessions were pretty lousy. Even on a bright, sunny afternoon, pictures looked a bit dark with a slightly reddish tint. At full crop, detail disappeared, making way for blotchiness and blurring. Once you've snapped your shot, it's easy to send in an MMS message or from an e-mail account, but there were no built-in options for uploading to one of your favorite photo sharing Web sites. Check out our sample images below.
Gate House
Chairs by the Lake
Self Portrait
GPS – Very Good
For GPS navigation, the Nokia Surge comes with a couple of nice options. AT&T Navigator provides turn-by-turn navigation for the phone. The Surge found us very quickly, even when our view of the sky was obscured, and it tracked us smoothly on our travels through the Dallas metro area. With it's 3G connection, the Nokia Surge was also able to load our maps and driving directions very quickly. In addition to AT&T Navigator, the Nokia Surge also gets the Where app. Where is a widget based point-of-interest program, with widgets for the Buddy Beacon location-based social network, a Starbucks locator and even a Yelp widget. Both of these will tack on a small monthly fee to your bill, though.
Price and availability
The Nokia Surge is available now from AT&T for $80 with a contract agreement.
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