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Introduction:
Many
of the mobile unit manufacturers dedicate a lot of effort to developing
phones, targeted at business users. So is the E-series of Nokia, which
has been created for and is intended to encompass the above circles.
After the brief introduction it is now time to present the phone that
will be reviewed in the following text, namely – the Nokia E51. Being a
“successor” to the E50 and, as you may be already aware, meant to serve
the needs of business customers, it comes with a very pleasurable and
stylish design, compact size, and quite a good set of functions.
The kit consists of:
- Nokia E51
- Nokia Battery BP-6MT
- Nokia Travel Charger AC-5
- Nokia Connectivity Cable DKE-2
- Nokia Headset HS-47
- Nokia E51 CD ROM
- Quickstart guide
- User guide
- Cleaning cloth
Undoubtedly,
the box contains numerous accessories necessary for the adequate usage
of the phone. Yet, quite a few of us would like to find a carrying case
as well, which, regrettably, is not to be found there.
Design:
On
hearing the words “a business phone”, many of the mobile technology
admirers will think of an exceptionally big-sized device featuring an
unsightly design. Though true for other models, in our case it is vice
versa: the Nokia E51 is both extremely compact and light-weight; in
fact, it can be ranked as the smallest of all E-series phones.
| Model |
Dimension (Inches) |
Dimension (mm) |
Weight (oz) |
Weight (Gramms) |
 Nokia E51 |
4.51" x 1.81" x 0.47" |
115 x 46 x 12 |
3.52 |
100 |
| Nokia E50 |
4.44" x1.71" x 0.61" |
113 x 43.5 x 15.5 |
3.67 |
140 |
Nokia E65
|
4.13" x 1.92" x 0.61" |
105 x 49 x 15.5 |
4.05 |
115 |
BlackBerry Pearl
|
4.20" x 1.95" x 0.55" |
107 x 50 x 14 |
3.40 |
96.50 |
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| E51, E50, E65 and Pearl |
You can compare the Nokia E51 with many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare tool.
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| TFT Display |
Still,
surprise is not over yet – the front panel is classic black and is
framed on the edges by steel lining, contributing to the feel of luxury
and perfect quality.
Along with its positive features, a
negative one should be noted as well: we consider the small, merely 2
inch display, to be unthinkable of for a business-oriented phone. The
type of the display is TFT, with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels
visualizing up to 16.7 million colors. The coloration of the images is
well-saturated and highly contrasted; the brightness is automatically
controlled by a light sensor depending on the environment. At bright
daylight the display performed exceptionally well, remaining clearly
visible, with easily distinguishable details.
Similarly to E65, the E51 adds keys for fast access
to the calendar, the phonebook, the mailbox, and the menu. It is an
intriguing fact that despite having precisely the same functions as
that of the standard “menu” button of any Nokia S60, it bears a
different logo on its surface. The D-Pad has raised edges for better
distinction; however, being too small, it will frequently be confused
with the one just below resulting in pressing the latter instead. The
size of the other buttons also takes its toll; moreover, they are
situated too close to each other. This drawback is compensated by their
easy-to-feel relief, soft touch, and good tactile feedback. Generally,
the positive features prevail over the negative, so handling the phone
is trouble-free indeed.
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| Side keys |
In contrast to the navigation keys, the numeric ones
feature a sufficiently large size. In addition to the same good tactile
feedback, it provides for their pleasurable and easy usage.
We would be glad if we could say the same about the side buttons,
but this is impossible; despite their good surface relief they are so
hard to press that using them turns into a difficult and particularly
unpleasant job. If you ask us, we will refrain from using them.
Describing what one will find on the upper part of
the unit will not take long, since the sole key here is the on/off
button. On the opposite side things are entirely different: all the
connector sockets of E51 are to be found on its bottom.
Similarly to most of the telephones, the camera
here is also positioned on the back. The resolution is only 2
megapixels and, regrettably, it also lacks both auto-focus and
flashlight; still, this is normal with regard to the target customers
of Nokia E51. You will not find a special button for taking shots,
either – this is done through pressing the central part of the D-Pad.
Stainless
steel - the material that is used for the frame of the front panel – is
what the manufacturers made the entire back lid of. This designer
solution forms the overall impression of an elegant, yet reliable and
solid device. Besides the battery, one will also find an extension
memory slot beneath the lid – a positioning that makes the unit’s
simplified design even more conspicuous.
One thing we must
note is the discomfort when inserting the SIM card. When pushing it, it
is possible to hit the battery connectors, which definitely isn’t
pleasant.
We should note here the inconvenient insertion of
the SIM card in its place. When pushing it, one’s finger will
inevitably press hard directly onto the battery connectors – a feeling
that is definitely unpleasant.
Interface:
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| Home screen |
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Е51
is a phone running on Symbian Operating System with S60 interface. To
be precise, the exact version is Symbian 9.2 with S60 3rd Edition
Feature Pack 1, which is the latest one used in a Nokia phone up to
now. This means that the phone is almost absolutely identical to other
using this OS/UI and the only changes are due to minor personalization
of the OS.
The top part of the home screen displays a clock and
the date, as well as the usual signal strength and battery, while the
name of the carrier can be seen in the middle. Just below these is
located a row of 6 shortcuts which can be personalized to suit you
best. In the area for notifications (below), the E-series smartphone
adds shortcuts to the email and the voice mail, in addition to the
standard ones for calendar, etc. Located at the bottom of the screen
are the two software buttons which can be personalized from the
Settings menu. As a whole, the standby screen resembles one of a Pocket
PC with Windows Mobile OS and is really useful and pleasant to use.
The main menu can be viewed as 3x4 grid of icons that can also be displayed as a list (it’s chosen directly from the main menu)
With
the E 51 we will also encounter the new option (also present in N95
8GB), namely the availability of an animated mode of displaying the
icons.
Phonebook:
Еvery
phone should have a good system for managing the contacts. The
phonebook of Symbian S60 phones is one of the best on the market,
together with those of Windows smartphones. All the contacts are
displayed as a list and if there is a picture ID, it can be seen in the
top left corner of the screen as a thumbnail with a very small size
(it’s the same when you have an incoming call and that’s why we find
this feature useless) when you select the contact. If you want to
search, you type in directly from the keypad and searching is done for
the whole name (not only the first word), even if the name is saved in
more than one field (first and last name for example). If you want to
edit a contact , you can only change the already defined fields. For
adding more information you need to select the Add Detail menu. When
adding a new contact you are provided with the “basic” fields, but with
the “Add Detail” function you have almost no restrictions on the fields
and their number and you can add a lot of phone numbers.
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| Voice commands |
The
phone has a set of voice commands – they are speaker independent and
you don’t have to “train” every command, something that can save you a
lot of precious time. By holding the voice commands key on the right
side, the “recognizer” turns on and you can say a name (from the
phonebook) to be dialed. Names like “Father”, “Brother”, “test”, “John”
and “Neo” were no problem, but we had no success with others like “Amy”
for example.
The commands can activate various programs or
perform different functions, like “Silent mode” for example, but a list
with different capabilities must be added to the menu - not all of them
are added by default so that they’re easier to recognize with any
speaker – thus by adding only the ones you need you can achieve best
possible accuracy without the annoying training. Аnd it works, the
voice commands were very accurate and we rarely experienced mistakes
when launching applications.
A voice recorder can record your
voice by the means of speakerphone as the duration of the recording is
limited to 1 hour. You can record on the memory card, which will allow
longer recording times. In that way the smartphone replaces your voice
recorder without needing third party software.
Organizer:
The organizer is an important part of a business phone and E51 has paid due attention to these functions.
The Calendar
has preserved the functionality of its Symbian fellows. You can add 4
types of entries (Meeting/Memo/Anniversary/To-do), to select Subject,
Location,Start/End Time and connect an alarm.
Alarms
are located in a third menu - Clock (in Office). In Symbian 9.2 you can
add as many alarms as you wish and for each one you could choose
whether it should repeat each and every day for example or not. This is
excellent and there is no stupid limitation in the number of the alarms
like with other even smart phones (i.e. Symbian 9.1 allows for only one
alarm that even can not be set to repeat).
The World Clock
is also located in this menu and you can add various cities that you
like to view – that's very convenient and saves a lot of time compared
to the standard way with “moving across the world map". You can easily
review given cities, which you are interested in without searching them
each time.
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| Calendar |
Alarms |
World clock |
Calculator |
In
the Office menu you will find other applications, part of the
organizer. By the File manager you can view the phone memory and the
memory card and copy/move files. Like other phones using this operating
system, the calculator does not have scientific functions and the
converter doesn’t have the most attractive interface but it works.
Notes is for short notes without alarms and reminders.
Preloaded
you have a QuickOffice to view Word/Excel/PowerPoint files, and to be
able to edit them you will have to order a full version (Quickoffice v3
(activate editing) full license for EUR13.59 or 30-day license for
EUR0.68 or Quickoffice Premier (v4 upgrade + editing) full license for
EUR20.39). The inconvenience with Quickoffice is that it opens files
saved only in the Documents folders of the memory of the phone and the
card. Still, if you reach a file through the file browser and select
it, it will be opened by the program. A complex Excel file is
visualized OK and scrolling in it is easy, too.
Adobe
PDF takes care for viewing of the pdf documents in your phone’s memory.
Like with the office applications, we loaded a 50 pages document (and
over 1 MB) and searched through it without any problems.
The office files are often received with the e-mails
archived in series and that is why the phone is supplied with a ZIP
manager, which can zip/unzip files.
The Search option allows
you to search in your Messages/E-mails/Calendar
events/To-dos/Notes/Contacts/Other files which is very convenient. Thus
you can find contacts by (part of) a word, coinciding with their
profession or company, files in the phone memory, etc. This is an
excellent system which must be present in all smart (and not only)
phones. Unfortunately, a shortcut to it is missing from the home
screen, as it is in the new N-series phones (N81, N82, N95 8GB …).
As
a phone of the E-series, E51 comes with several more extra
applications, not available in the other Symbian S60 phones. Teams is
an application which makes it easy for you to conduct a conference
conversation/send a message or use PushToTalk with a preset group of
people differentiated as Team.
Messaging:
For
a phone to function as a mobile office, it must be able to handle
messages very well. Like the other Symbian phones, in the Messaging
menu you will find everything arranged. By the New Message button you
can start writing a text/multimedia or e-mail message. The T9 system
can help you input text faster. It works very easy which is typical of
Nokia phones.
Inbox
is a shared box for the received text and multimedia messages as well
as for messages received via Bluetooth. Unlike the N-series, here the
headings of the individual letters are visualized by smaller font so
that more can be fitted on a single screen. This is so because it is
assumed that the business users use/receive lots of messages and should
be able to view them faster.
The email is set by means of a
Wizard which saves you a lot of writing by automatically ‘completing’
part of the settings. If you know how to configure your e-mail, this
will take one to two minutes and then you will be able to use it in
your phone. You can preset your phone to download headers only and then
a whole message when you want to view it, or download up to a fixed
limit (a limit in KB set by you) or directly download the whole letters
together with the attached files. We made the settings using the first
possibility and downloaded separate messages via WiFi or using the UMTS
operator’s net.
Connectivity:
Nokia
E51 is quad-band GSM phone supporting 3G UMTS/HSDPA at 850/2100 MHz
bands, which means that is has one of the US 3G frequencies and the one
for Europe/Asia.
E51 supports WiFI 802.11g which is the standard
for a wireless LAN network. By the link in the active standby screen
you can find and connect to networks whose range covers you and use
Internet connection via them. This is very convenient because you don’t
depend on the operator’s coverage.
Using WiFi or HSDPA data,
loading and viewing standard HTML web pages is easy job. The phone has
no problem rendering all pages and reading phoneArena's news was a
pleasure. Scrolling left-to-right and top-to-bottom is done with the
phone's d-pad, and a mini-map shows you, which part of the page you are
looking at.
What we loved about it is the history: when you
use 'back' to see pages you've seen earlier, you see the pages as
thumbnails you can open from the phone's cache.
Camera:
Nokia E51 disposes of a 2 megapixel camera, but regrettably, as mentioned above, it has neither a flashlight nor an auto-focus.
The
camera is started in 2.5 seconds and then you are faced with its
definitely unattractive interface. It differs from the one of the
multimedia N-series and resembles that of the Symbian 6 phones, and is
the same as that used in the E50. Thus the manufacturer wants to show
that this is not a multimedia phone and defines another difference
between the E and N-series.
The camera's interface does not
even take up the whole display and the Viewfinder only occupies half of
it. When the left or right D-pad directions are used, a toolbar pops
up. It houses shortcuts to three options: video, night and sequence
mode.
Generally speaking, the camera of the E51 should only be
used as a last resort, so one must not expect too much. Shots are of a
very poor quality at even bright daylight; as for low illumination,
objects in the picture will be rendered hard to make out due to the
excess “noise”. We may conclude that this camera is one of the worst 2
megapixel ones on the market.
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| Strong light |
Medium light |
Low light |
| Indoor images |
The video capture allows for up to QVGA resolution, but unfortunately only with 10 frames per second, which is less than enough.
Multimedia:
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| Music player |
The music player
is not the one we know from the N-series phones with Symbian 9.2
either, but is quite similar. We’ve seen it in other Symbian S60
phones, like the 6120 Classic for example. In the Now Playing interface
you can navigate the directions of the d-pad, while information on the
played track is visualized below. Album cover (if one is present) is
visualized on the left.
You can sort your music by
Artists/Albums/Genres/Composers, as well as by Track lists, including
most played tracks, Recent tracks, Recent additions.
The sound
of E51’s loudspeaker is not quite loud – a feature that should be
considered acceptable since the unit is not intended to be a Music
Phone.
In addition to the Music Player comes the built in FM
tuner. It is nothing extraordinary but allows you to listen to local FM
stations, delivering music or audio information (news for example) over
the air. The interface is standard and allows for saving of up to 50
stations to your "favorite" list. As always, wired headphones should be
attached in order to be used as an antenna for the phone.
Unfortunately
MPEG4 H.263-encoded video clip with QVGA Resolution and 460kbps bitrate
appears to be too "heavy" for the device and the video lags, so only
lower quality clips should be played.
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| Video playback |
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| Nokia maps |
Software:
The
telephone disposes of 130 MB built-in memory. However, there is the
indispensable option of extending it up to 4 GB by means of a microSD
card.
Even without a GPS, Nokia E51 comes with the application
Nokia Мaps, which is free and can be downloaded from the Nokia website
to be used in any S60 phone. The functionality is standard, you can
look up addresses or an exact location, as well as points of interest,
including places for shopping, accommodation, eating, as well as
different sights of interest. If a GPS device is activated, the program
provides a paid option for voice navigation for some regions.
Performance:
Nokia E51
works with a processor of the ARM 11 type featuring a clock rate of 369
MHz. During the time when we were operating the phone it made quite a
few slow-downs, especially at opening heavier applications. The phone
even crashed several times and had to be restarted when attempting to
close down the Nokia Maps program.
Our test have established
that the sound you will be hearing when speaking on the phone is one of
high quality and sufficiently strong at that. About the only negative
aspect here is the presence of a faint background noise.
At the
other end the sound is very similar, so collocutors there will not be
disappointed. At your side of the line, though, certain types of voices
will be reproduced more sharply – something undesirable if yours is
among those.
Conclusion:
The
general impression E51 left with us, apart from the compact size for a
business phone, is one of the inevitable user’s satisfaction by its
numerous functions. Compared to E50, the E51 offers better more options
for internet connection via the HSDPA technology for faster data
transfer, besides the Wi-Fi, also a novel feature for the unit.
Moreover, the 3G technology can now be used worldwide, despite the
availability of only one accessible frequency in the USA.
Yet,
the compromise Nokia have made in order to achieve so small a phone as
E51, is the display size – only 2 inches, as mentioned above – too
small for the convenient viewing of a site or document. We should also
note the lack of a QWERTY keyboard, which would prove useful for
business people with a view to the constant need to write e-mails. In
case you make it a point to dispose of the above two features, we would
recommend models such as Nokia E90 or Motorola Q9m; but if it is a
small and good-looking phone you want, and a one that has a lot of
functions at that, then the E51 is an excellent choice. It is up to you
to make it.
Taken From
http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Nokia-E51-Review-review-r_1883.html
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