Nokia E51 review

Average user rating

9.1

spectacular

Average user rating from 7 users

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Nokia E51 user reviews

April 19, 2008

Posted by: whatever35

"Best thing ever"

What I like:

Nokia the way Nokia used to be

What I don't like:

Nothing

Review:

WELL DONE NOKIA!!! The E51 is a prime example of the original designs that made Nokia great. After years of producing nothing short of a series of abysmal, poorly designed, bulky, over-engineered and impractical excuses for mobile phones, Nokia have finally hit the jackpot and re-discovered their roots. The origins that every other aspiring copycat mobile manufacturer attempted to mimic, but failed to even touch. Unfortunately some of the misguided designers who worked for those other companies managed to make their way into working for Nokia, and nearly destroyed every element that made anyone with a miminal understanding of technology faithful to Nokia. It would seem as though Nokia have brought back one of their old designers, and given him up-to-date tech to work with.
The E51 seems is almost perfect, in the real sense of the word. It just WORKS - it does everything right, and quickly; using the best aspects of the brilliant Symbian base platform (as pioneered by another groundbreaking company - Psion). Whats good? It switches on and off, fast. It crams every type of wireless technology you could dream of into a neat and compact package, with hotkeys to access and switch these services on or off with ease - good for business users. The E51 accesses files, switches between applications, opens, shuts and reopens programmes and functions in every sense the way modern technology should - almost as fast as your addled brain can. It is full of all the Right technology; with none of the nonsensical junk manufacturers load onto anything electronic nowadays, in a desperate attempt to capture marginal markets. If you really must have games and other gubbins, you can easily download almost anything you could imagine onto the handset. And as Symbian is open source, more and more programmes are being designed all the time, and to satisfy almost every taste. Before praising the other successes, I have to mention what one addition that really make the E51 stand out from the crowd; you can use it as a Skype /VOIP phone! And it works! Unfortunately Skype themselves have yet to get their act together and adapt software to suit the E51, but Gizmo and Fring are adequate bypassers.
One of the most important, nay vital elements in a phone today is the ability to backup all the data you build up on the handset. In this the E51 is fantastic - it allows you to choose where you want to save you contacts, folders, files etc. Automatically to the phone or set to save to an external memory card? Quick settings fix and you're running off extractable memory, as easy to access, copy or format as a camera memory card. Without the need to clutter up your computer with dubious software. The E51 apparently only takes up to 4GB but I have a perfectly functioning 8GB card stuffed in, the options are almost limitless, and you can hot-swap the Micro-sd without shutting the handset down. Periodically, or as often as you prefer, you can also run a full backup to the card, you're not reduced to copying file by file. If you really must opt for the software interface, Nokia provide a package and cable (but of course, nothing doing if you are a non-intel Mac user). Last if not least: the E51 is strong, LIGHTWEIGHT and most importantly, SLIM. Finally, a handset that will fit a jacket pocket and doesn't need its own forklift truck. In the E51, Nokia begins to take advantage of new technology that but which until now had apparently passed them by but has been available and increasingly exploited by companies like Samsung (thinnest phone etc, etc). Now we seem to be on the hopeful path of redemption and can escape from the clutches of more attractive equipment marred by those shamefully deficient interfaces almost every manufacturer other than Nokia continue to be afflicted with. Hopefully the next version will be even slimmer, but not at the expense of battery life, which although good, could do with a little improvement. Now if only they would make 3 other versio