Nokia E51 review

What is it: Slim, stylish smart phone with Wi-Fi and HSDPA

What we think: Don't be put off by all the business terms surrounding this phone -- it's great for everyone

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9.1

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Nokia E51 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 14 January 2008

Forget Nokia's N-series and all its fancy features -- feast your eyes on what the E-series has to offer. We think the business-centric Nokia E51 is worth looking at whether you're a business-type or not.

The E51 is currently available SIM-free for about £210 and free on a monthly contract with several networks.

Design
If you liked the Nokia 6300 then you'll like the Nokia E51. It's slim, encased in stainless steel and looks classy without overdoing it too much. However, unlike so many other attractive phones, the E51 also delivers when it comes to ease of use.

The E51's keypad is well designed and features large, easy-to-press keys. There are dedicated shortcut keys around the navigation key that take you directly to your contacts, the menu, the calendar and your emails.

The Nokia E51's keypad is very easy to use

While not massive, the E51's screen looks sharp and works in conjunction with a light sensor, adjusting the screen's brightness depending on the ambient light. It displays 16 million colours and is fine for perusing emails and browsing the odd Web page on.

Overall, we really like the E51's design but the power, volume and recording keys around the edge of the E51 are very hard to press, and while that means you can't push them by accident, it's not very comfortable when you do need to press them.

Features
For such a slim phone, it's impressive that it manages to pack in HSDPA and Wi-Fi, so you have plenty of choices when it comes to connecting to the Internet. The Wi-Fi receiver impressed us with its range and managed to pick up a connection very fast.

Although the Nokia E51's screen isn't massive, it's large enough to read comfortably

Because the E51 runs on the S60 platform there are a plethora of third party applications that you can download on to it, including IM and VoIP apps and a variety of others that will hopefully help you with your everyday life.

While there isn't a built in GPS receiver, the E51 does come with Nokia Maps and if you buy yourself a Bluetooth GPS receiver, then you can turn the E51 into a satellite navigation device -- albeit a small-screened one.