Nokia E51  

If you are looking for a business phone that is both affordable and user-friendly, look no further than the Nokia E51.

THERE are plenty of different mobile phones in the market that come tricked out with all the bells and whistles that you don’t necessarily need. But all that doesn’t describe the Nokia E51.

On the contrary, the E51 combines both style and business functionality into one stunning slim candy bar phone.

While it still takes a page from the average conservative business phone, the E51 is elegant enough that it is sure to make some heads turn.

Attractive design

When it comes down to looks, the phone looks absolutely stunning. Measuring less than half an inch thick, the E51 is easily the thinnest E series phone.

It is also very lightweight and pocketable as it weighs in at only 100g.

The E51 has a respectable-looking 2in TFT screen that displays 16 million colours at a 230 x 320-pixel resolution, which is quite common amongst most mobile phones these days.

The screen is easily viewable even under bright conditions and is clearly visible in low light conditions.

The E51 isn’t all about looks. The buttons are well laid out, the five-way navigational pad is comfortable and easy to use.

The inclusion of four shortcut buttons placed next to the navigation pad comes in very handy and I was able to quickly access my phonebook, calendar and messages.

I was also able to get used to text messaging with the E51 very quickly.

The keypad has a nice tactile feel and is nicely spaced, giving me optimal room to move my fingers around.

EASY BUTTONS: The buttons on the E51 are nicely laid out and the four shortcut keys around the navigation pad are useful for accessing various functions quickly.

However, the rubberised volume control buttons and the recording button on the side of the phone are extremely hard to press.

The hard buttons really don’t help especially when you are talking and need to raise the volume.

On the flip side, the hard keys make it less susceptible to being accidentally pressed.

Phone functionality

The phone itself is pretty good and functional. Suffice to say, it meets most of an average user’s needs.

Voice quality on the E51 was good — calls came in loud and clear and it was easy to turn on the speakerphone function when receiving a call.

On that note, however, I was disappointed to find that the speakerphone wasn’t very loud.

Even in a car, the volume is barely audible enough to be heard.

After having used it for a few days I was pleasantly surprised to find that the E51 has an exceptionally long battery life. It lasted a good three full days of use on a single charge.

Features

In terms of features, I was quite impressed to find WiFi connectivity, which is very commendable for a basic business phone to have.

The WiFi feature comes in handy when you need to check your e-mail or your favourite website while on the go.

The included Nokia web browser may not be the best out there but it does a servicable job in rendering webpages as how they would appear on your computer.

The E51 also has some decent multimedia features that include a music and video player.

The media player doesn’t offer much in terms of innovation and the interface does feel a bit stiff, but all in all, it is still good for its intended purpose.

If you find the onboard 130MB of memory insufficient, the E51 does offer the option of expanding its memory to up to 4GB using hot-swapable microSD cards.

The back mounted 2-megapixel camera isn’t fantastic as images tended to have high noise and most displayed a strange blue tint.

Video capture on the other hand is only QVGA quality, so that means your video clips will be blurry and jerky at the slightest hint of movement.

Other useful features on the E51 include a office document viewer that allows you to view, but not edit, your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

There’s also a handy PDF reader included for the occasional PDF file you might get in your e-mail.

Although the phone does not come with a built-in GPS receiver, the inclusion of Nokia Maps still allows you to view maps and roads around Kuala Lumpur. It’s another nice addition that will come in handy if you are stuck somewhere and need some help finding your way back.

Conclusion

The Nokia E51 is a good value-for-money business phone that has all the necessary features and capabilities to meet most business user needs.

The phone is ladened with all sorts of decent applications for office work such as an office document viewer and other useful applications.

While the E51’s multimedia functions, such as its built-in camera and music player, may not be as good as other more dedicated phones, they so serve their purpose.

The most useful feature to grace the E51 is its WiFi connectivity that allows busy business users to check their e-mail and surf the Web on the go.

All in all, the E51 is a great buy if you are looking for a simple phone with great features and it is both affordable and user friendly.

Pros: WiFi connectivity; comfortable text messaging; lots of useful applications included.

Cons: Side buttons feel stiff; multimedia features aren’t that great.

E51

Nokia
Business phone
Camera: 2-megapixels
Display: 2in LCD (320 x 240pixels)
Messaging: SMS, MMS, e-mail
Connectivity: GSM 900/180/1900, HSDPA, Bluetooth, USB, WiFi 802.11g
Phone Memory: 130MB
Expansion slot: microSD
Standby/Talk time: 310 hours/four hours 20 minutes
Operating system: Symbian 60 3rd edition
Other features: Music player, organiser, stopwatch, calendar, voice recorder, Adobe PDF reader, Quickoffice.
Weight: 100g
Dimensions (w x d x h114.8 x 46 x 12mm
Price: RM1,388
Review unit courtesy of Nokia Malaysia, 1-300-88-16-00