Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Serious phone, 31 Jul 2008
I have a lot of respect for this phone but would advise potential buyers to consider if it suits their needs before buying. My reason for this is that although it is undoubtedly a powerful business tool, in my opinion leaves a lot to be desired as far as style, ease of use and dare I say, entertainment are concerned. In other words, it's a powerful but seriously dull handset.
The looks are nothing special (I have the black version), no better than a £30 pay-as-you-go handset and will gain you no pub-kudos if that is a concern of yours. The keys are small and close together making fast texting and navigating pretty troublesome. On the subject of texting, predictive text is poor. Type in "at" and it will continually default to "cv" for example, "new" becomes "mex" - and it doesn't learn from it's mistakes. The menu system is not particularly intuitive - each action seems to take one more press than necessary. The screen font is tiny, even when on large setting. The battery on mine failed within two weeks of use so that did little to endear it to me, though Vodaphone replaced it quickly and without fuss. The camera is adequate but only 2mp though the screen is quite bright and colourful, if a little small. Ring and call volumes are also not great, even on max - I find myself missing a lot more calls than with other phones.
On the plus side, I'm a fan of the Nokia PC suite software. Connect it to your computer with the USB cable provided and things start to look up. Your texts pop up in the opening menu and can be replied to from your keyboard (much easier). Updating your contacts list is much easier on your PC too. You can download your Office files to view offline via Quickword and Quicksheet, pretty useful if you don't want to lug your laptop around. When out and about, find yourself an unsecure wireless LAN and surf away. Having said that, it's a pretty tedious and unenjoyable affair on the small screen.
Overall, it's a good phone that does much more than I've mentioned here, but it is not too user friendly. It is definitely aimed at the business/power user rather than the teen bus stop texter but I wouldn't call it a joy to use - my colleagues issued with the same model agree. If you do own it however, I would recommend the Krusell leather case (see other review) as the phone is quite small and easy to lose if you're not careful.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very sturdy and fast S60 phone, 25 Jun 2008
I recently upgraded to this phone. Compared to my last Nokia S60 phone (N80), the E51's increased in performance (faster processor and more than double the available RAM) made Series 60 a far more useable operating system. The 2" 240x320 resolution LCD is bright and works well in doors as well as out under the sun. An ambient light sensor automatically adjust the brightness.
The phone is very light (100g) and its sturdy construction ensured it does not feel cheap. The stainless steel body is tough. In fact I accidentally dropped the phone twice (3 feet) onto our hard flooring and not a single dent or scratch was found. It feels great when held, though it can get slippery at times. The E51's battery was capable of lasting a few days despite medium usage of WiFi, text, Bluetooth GPS and voice calls (I did turn 3G off).
The E51 has built-in Bluetooth with A2DP support (wireless stereo), WiFi and HSDPA. Curiously there is no front camera for making 3G video calls, though this does not concern me as I never make video calls. The 2Mp camera is average at best and does not come with auto focus. If you need a better camera it is best to invest in one of Nokia's many N-series phones instead like the N82 or N78.
There are three short cut buttons that allows you to map it to any applications (both for short and long presses). These I find as very useful. The side buttons (and power button) are encased in rubber, making them rather difficult to press though it does ensure that there are not accidentally pressed.
Overall the E51 is a great little Series 60 smartphone that won't break the bank. My only wish is that it comes with a built-in GPS receiver and 3.5mm headphone socket. Otherwise it is close to perfect.
Highly recommended.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
After 3 months..., 18 Jun 2008
So I've had my E51 now for 3 months. I bought this unit because I wanted something powerful and not loaded up with gimmicks. The phone is a superb product. The main functionality of the phone is accessible from shortcut icons on the main screen (messaging, contacts, bluetooth etc). Beyond that there is a very nice icon-based menu. Sadly there are lots of tools to choose from in the menu so it can get a bit confusing, but this represents the power of the phone. I have tools to view MS Office documents, listen to music, view Flash animations and even open RealMedia files (streaming audio). The most powerful feature I have found though is the ability to connect to wireless networks (wi-fi). I was sat on the train home browsing the internet for free, which beats buying overpriced magazines from the newsagents! Obviously you need to be careful with the networks you connect to - the phone will not provide much information about the available networks (name and signal strength) so it could be easy to connect to fake (hijacker) networks who would steal your email details, for example. Also, the calendar is superb, as is the to-do notes function. The calendar synchronises perfectly with my Outlook 2003 calendar via USB (lead & software included).
The only downside I have with this phone is that it can freeze and crash quite often. The internet browser is very good but can freeze up when viewing complicated pages (web pages with tons of JavaScript for example). Also when on charge the menus seem to freeze up quite often. Maybe its a patchable bug?
Overall a great phone for business and personal use. A great blend of useful features in a small compact device.
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