Nokia E51 review

Nokia E51 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 14 January 2008

Being a business phone, the E51 comes prepped to handle email and supports POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP, in addition to Exchange. There's no Qwerty keypad but if you're just looking for a phone to check emails and compose short replies then it's fine.

There's an MP3 player, an FM radio and a 2-megapixel camera that isn't great but works well for MMS messages and small prints. There's no 3.5mm headphone jack so you have to contend with a 2.5mm pair or stereo Bluetooth headphones.

Performance
Audio quality during calls sounded good but there were times when it was slightly distorted, which may have been caused by network interference. The loudspeaker worked as expected but isn't fantastically loud.

Picture quality from the 2-megapixel camera is grainy when blown up but fine for MMS messages and small prints. You can also record video using the E51's camera but don't expect to shoot a hi-def short film.

The Nokia E51 only has a 2-megapixel camera and no LED photo light or flash

The battery lasted for over two days with moderate use and drained much faster when HSDPA and Wi-Fi were used for prolonged periods. Given its size, we were satisfied with the E51's battery life.

Conclusion
You may have started the review expecting something spectacular and then been disappointed that the E51 doesn't have a trick up its sleeve, but that's what makes it great -- it looks good, it's simple and it works. Do you need anything else?

It's not perfect and it's a little rough around its literal edge but overall we fell in love with this phone because it sticks to Nokia's old school winning formula of a simple phone that's easy to use and comes with a few extra features to boot.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday