Nokia E52 user reviews

Reviewed by Frank Lewis on 7 September 2009

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4.0 stars out of 5

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Average user rating

3 stars out of 5

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User reviews14

0.5 star out of 5

the1beard 11 February 2010

Good: Full featured

Bad: May as well be made of paper

Comment: This is simply not built to the usual Nokia standard.

When compared to an E51 or a 6230i it just does not have the same build quality.

The two buttons either side of the toggle switch are just attached to some sort of soft glue and will com off if caught by a pocket thread they really are that flimsy.

I can’t believe Nokia are even making this very very fragile phone.

I was hoping for a replacement for the e51, 6230i and the legendary 6310i all fantastic solid fully featured nokia business phones.

So I’m incredibly disappointed it makes an iphone look rugged.

Nokia could do much better I’m returning this one regardless of the features it just won't last I wouldn’t recommend it even at ½ the price.

Terrible

0.5 star out of 5

glen_b 26 November 2009

Good: it's pretty, nice heft in the hand, great screen...

Bad: A ROYAL PITA TO USE!

Comment: Recently my beloved Nokia 6267 got stolen hier in Zürich (seems to be a rash of that of late). I had really gotten used to that unit's ease of use, and anyone who's been through this knows you're suddenly confronted with all these decisions: do I move 'up'? 'Down' (to something simpler..), to an iPhone, or one of its clones?
Well in order to try to approach the 6267's great combination of biggish screen and large keys (i.e. not designed for a 12 year old girl's fingers), I got an E52.
I'm astonished.
This phone is the worst piece of over-engineered, user-hostile piece of junk I ever saw from Nokia. Compared to the 6267 (or the 6131, 6310i. or venerable 6150...!), it's hard to believe it's a Nokia. First off, the most obvious and clear advantages of a folding phone:
1. you can get a big screen and a big keyboard into a compact package
2. both screen and keyboard are protected, by default (see below re: 'unlocking')
3. when open, earpiece and microphone are comfortably near ear & mouth, respectively..
I should say at the outset that I worked in mobile engineering (GSM & 3G) for 7 years, in engineering, but also that I see a mobile telephone basically as a tool for making calls and texting, it's the mobility that attracts me, not the bells and whistles.
Most of my gripes with the E52 have to do with texting (SMS).
A BASIC, OBVIOUS FUNCTION: you can't 'use detail' on an incoming SMS, i.e. someone texts you a telephone number, you have to WRITE IT DOWN, you can't just 'use number' and call it, store it, etc. THIS IS ASTONISHINGLY STUPID. When you receive and sms, the stupid phone asks how you want to reply, instead of just defaulting to sms (the obvious and logical choice). WHY WOULD I WANT TO RESPOND BY EMAIL TO AN SMS? Maybe there's a reason, I don't know it, but the default should be...sms. DUMB. You can't delete all sms in the Inbox, you have to step through menus to mark them and then delete them. DUMB - the 6267 was super easy in that regard. While typing, you want to insert an emoticon (smiley face): THE E52 DOESN'T HAVE THEM. 'Business phone'? well, I send lots of 'business' sms, sometimes a smiley face is useful to tailor a message or adjust the tone. Not to mention private use. Not having them is a needless step backwards. DUMB. Which leads to the next issue: symbols. If I want a smiley face now,
I have to type it :-) trouble is, the symbol list - sort of a 'symbol cache' - on the E52 is DYNAMIC. So (for a simple example) if I use a divisor sign, equals, ampersand, +, *, @ and a few other symbols, the :-) are pushed off the 'cache list' and I have to - you guessed it - tap more keys to get find them & get them back. DUMB - the symbol function was great on the 6267... You trigger the camera, and there are all these %&+§$ KEYSTROKES to DO THE OBVIOUS: TAKE AND SEND THE PIC
TO SOMEONE. The reason to have a camera in a mobile phone is to make it EASY to send someone a photo of something RIGHT NOW...I don't want a Windows experience when I try to do that. Or better: a DOS experience (for those old enough to remember..) I could taylor the 6267 'top left button' to list all kinds of functions I use every day (in box, missed calls, alarm, etc) In the highly Advanced Sophisticated E52, I have to step thru stupid complex menus to find this stuff, and there's no means to set up a pre-set list similar to the 6267. And along with all this, it seems like all I do is unlock the g#dd#m keypad - the stupid thing shuts
off in SECONDS. This was something else that was great with the 6267 - you flip it open and OPEN that sms! Invariably the stupid E52 has reverted to the menu list and to answer an incoming sms, you have to 1) press the upper left-hand key, 2) press the upper right-hand key (to get the keyboard unlocked...), 3) press the sms icon (if you're lucky enough that the phone has reverted to that, else you have to tap around to it) 4) tap down to the Inbox icon... In this time I would have already been answering the s

4.5 stars out of 5

flyingbear 12 October 2009

Good: Form, function and build quality

Bad: Incompatibility problem with Nokia 616 car kit

Comment: I am updating flyingbear's previous review (i.e. my own) to retract the comments about the poor battery life. With help from nokia and my supplier , who replaced the review model with a fresh one, it is clear that the original E52 had some kind of fault which caused the phone to get hot and eat the battery in 4-5 hours. The replacement has been running with my typical (relatively modest) usage for 2 days and still has all battery bars. There is no heat.

Now if only someone in Nokia would just come clean and be a bit more specific about why they had to change something in the bluetooth which causes the dropping of the connection with the 616... Nokia's party line is that it is incompatible - but in fact everything works exactly as expected but for the random dropout. The E52 and the 616 are so good for me that I will have to live it.

So it's just me then - not many people use the 616, in which case as an all round business phone, this stunning package is the BEST.

3.5 stars out of 5

flyingbear 24 September 2009

Good: Complete functionality in a perfect package

Bad: Battery life and connectivity

Comment: As a long term Nokia user (I've had most of them), I felt that the E52 was approaching perfection. Slim, light, well made, good size display, easy keypad for larger fingers, full email and internet functions as well as all the standard phone stuff - I had great hopes. I had been using the E51, which was the true successor to the legendary 6210/6310 generation. I had also recently come through encounters with the 5800 Express music and the much-vaunted N97 - both gone down the eBay road now.

I have to say that in respect of the two last phones, I found Nokia's resistive touchscreen a total disaster. Long live capacitive (as on my ex-iPhone and my current Hero). Something else had happened, though...

I am also a long term user of the magic Nokia 616 car kit. Its most clever feature is its use of the bluetooth based Remote SIM profile that is in most decent Nokias. It connects automatically, and the 616's built-in GSM takes over. This relieves the mobile of responsibility for radio transmission, saving battery and making the car's antenna do the work - obviously better than if the phone is buried in your pocket inside and below the car's metal waistline. But oh dear - Nokia have done something to the 5800, N97 and now the E52 which means that although they have remote sim, and it seems to work, the bluetooth connection annoyingly and randomly drops out.

This issue was originally explained to me as being a "feature" of S60 version 5 in the case of the 5800 and N97. However - the E52 is S60 V3, like the E51, so no problem then. Sadly not. The E52 drops out just the same. Enquiries to Nokia were met with "sorry not compatible" (hard luck, in other words). What a pity.

Now let me turn to the battery. All the reviewers have understandably been wowed by the specification. A few days of actual use confirm what is being said in the Nokia Forums - the battery barely gets through the day. Usage is 3 email accounts updating from time to time, maybe 30 minutes of talk, a few minutes of web browsing. Bluetooth is on, but when disabled makes no difference really. From time to time the battery is hot, suggesting some function is really hitting it hard - but who knows what?

So please Nokia, at least sort out the power problem with a firmware update (if possible...!). I'd like a proper explanation of how and why the remote sim profile has been trashed in such an irritatingly marginal way, too.

I will persevere because basically I love the E52 - she is slim and gorgeous, light, easy to handle and text on and I can synchronise her via Mac isync to anything, and yes, as it seems that Nokia have dumped remote sim, I will put up with an ordinary handsfree connection. This phone could so easily have scored a perfect 10.