Nokia doesn't even consider this a phone - it markets this as a personal digital assistant WITH a built in mobile!
Funny things mobile phones - from the 'bricks' of the 1980s which said as much about conspicuous consumption as it did about technological innovation, through the nineties when they became the latest 'must have' gadget, to the 'naughties' when they reached true commodity status, and anyone NOT owning one was regarded with the same suspicion as a person claiming not to own a television they are now well and truly ubiquitous.
In most of the Western World, the mobile phone market reached saturation about five years ago. Anyone who was likely to WANT a mobile HAD a mobile - unless you counted the pre-teen market children become old enough to want one.
Along with falling birth rates, this is hardly a business model likely to attract the multi billion dollar investment which handset manufacturers need to stay solvent.
In a market driven economy, the only way to succeed is to offer new and innovative products.
NOKIA have aimed the 'E' series fairly and squarely at the business market.
Instead of carrying a pager, mobile telephone, digital camera, MP3 player, PDA and goodness only knows what else, they have provided a range of handsets which combine all these functions and more.
The E50 is the current entry model of the range.
As mentioned before, it isn't so much a phone with frills, as a PDA with connectivity.
It's true to say that many of the 'native' functions have been supported by handsets for several years; address book, contact list, calendar etc, where the E range differs is that it runs on a 'proper' operating system, so additional functionality (applications) can be acquired from third parties.
The core of the phone is based on 'Symbian' - an operating system designed specifically to provide a platform for developers and vendors to provide a rich variety of functions.
Or to put this in plain English - it can do a lot of smart stuff running other people's software.
The E50, despite it's entry level status, boasts an impressive range of connectivity and software functions.
USB, Infra red, tri-band connectivity, Bluetooth, Java, Flash, Mini-SD memory etc - all reasonably commonplace by current standards.
In terms of build quality and size, it differs from 'personal' phones by adopting a conventional 'one piece' design.
Construction has a very 'solid' feel - my handset is silver, but instead of being some sprayed-on or laminate effect, the shiny parts are made of 'real' stainless steel - I don't recommend you try and knock nails into wood with it, but it gives the feel of being substantially more rugged than 'designer' phones such as the Motorola RAZR or Nokia's own 6111 'Catherine Kitson'.
I found a single charge lasted around a week, even with the Bluetooth function enabled.
The built in 70Mb of memory is perfectly adequate for storing a few photographs and MP3 tracks as well as address book etc.
I bought a 1Gb additional memory card for less than a tenner on ebay, which ought to give me plenty of storage in the meantime.
The phone comes with a special USB cable (pitty it doesn't support the standard 'mini USB socket) and features the 'small' Nokia power socket (an adapter to the 'big' socket was supplied) - handy, if like us, you had half a dozen chargers for different phones!
Bluetooth to a headset worked fine, considerably better in many cases to my previous Motorola V550. It even pairs well with my TomTom Rider, although it doesn't seem to support the OBEX Address Book function (I've read about this problem in relation to this model linking to some In-car Bluetooth solutions, Nokia claims that isn't their problem!)
The infra-red link worked first time with my IBM T23notebook, I was able to synchronise Microsoft Outlook without difficulty.
The web browsing function should be an example to all.
It has software onboard which allows limited access to Microsoft Office applications, although doing 'serious' work is probably beyond the capabilities of the phone.
There's even a version of 'Real Player' and 'Flash' - so it's getting to the stage where it's capabilities rival that of a laptop computer.
The only thing which lets it down is the patchy support for some of the broader functionality of Bluetooth (specifically Address Books)
I didn't actually pay for my handset- it came as a 'planned upgrade' as part of my 'business contract' which my employers pay for - saying that street prices of around £250 are quoted for a 'non-contract' model.
Overall, I'm pretty impressed with this handset. It provides a lot of the features I'd wan,t were I to be paying for it myself, my only gripe is that my GPS can't pick up the stored phone numbers.
In summary; outwardly bland, but solidly built. Has a very broad capability - especially if you want to load your own Symbian apps, or look at MS Office documents, but singularly lacking on Bluetooth functionality.
If this isn't a priority, then its an ideal model, otherwise expect to be disappointed, the technical support offered by Nokia is little less than appalling.
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Ease of use
Easy
Battery talktime
Excellent
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