Of all the large manufacturers, Nokia have been the quietest recently. At the recent Mobile World Congress there were no announcements of new devices, and whilst Samsung, HTC and Sony Ericsson have been releasing new handsets recently, Nokia have been noticeable only by their absence. Well, that changed today, with Nokia announcing three new QWERTY based devices, two in the newly create C class of social media devices, and one in the E Series of enterprise handsets. We are going to take a closer look at that E Series handset now, the new Nokia E5.
Dimensions wise, the E5 suits very closely the previous E Series devices with QWERTY keyboards, the immensely popular E71 and its successor, the E72. However the E5 is a more mid range device, more in keeping with the budget E63. The Nokia E5 measures in at 115 x 59 x 13mm, and weighs in at 126g. The display measures in at 2.4 inches, and has a standard 320 x 240 QVGA resolution. Supporting up to 256,000 colours, the TFT display is non touchscreen. Underneath the screen is a large band separating the screen from the QWERTY keyboard. On the band are located the send/end keys, and soft option keys, flanking the traditional Nokia menu Navi key. There are two buttons on this band that sit either side of the Navi key, one is the home key and one is the mail button. Personally I don’t like the look of the band, I think it makes the device look none too attractive, and also appears to be larger than is necessary. Underneath is a traditional four row QWERTY keyboard, which from experience with other Nokia QWERTY devices should be extremely comfortable to use.
The Nokia E5 is a quad band GSM device, with support for tri band HSDPA, offering the strongest array of connectivity options for the business user on the move. As well as supporting HSDPA at up to 10.2 Mbps, the handset also offers HSUPA at up to 2.0 Mbps. This is all ably backed up with full WiFi support, plus GPRS and EDGE are also included. For local connectivity the E5 has a Micro USB connector for connecting to a laptop with a data cable, as well as offering Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support for stereo wireless connectivity.
Running on the popular tried and tested Symbian S60 3.2, the E5 is going to be compatible with a whole range of applications that you can download from the OVI store. Being a 3.2 device also means the handset will be able to support the full, free OVI Maps navigation, which gives access to free voice turn by turn navigation as well as access to extra content like Michelin and Lonely Planet guides. The handset is fully compliant with Nokia Messaging, which allows you to simply set up the device to retrieve your email on the move from a variety of accounts; in many cases all you need to know are your username and password, as once you’ve entered these the handset will set up the rest of the required information automatically.
As with many business devices, the E5 also has a strong set of media options, to keep you entertained during long journeys or boring business meetings. Including a full media player, the E5 supports a variety of music and video formats, including MP3, AAC, WMA, MP4, H.263 and H.264. There is ample storage memory available, with 250MB of internal memory, expandable to a whopping 32GB with Micro SD memory cards. You should also find a 2 GB card included in the retail pack. There is also a 5.0 Megapixel camera included, which has an LED Flash and supports fixed focus. The camera is also enabled for video recording, but the lack of a front facing camera means no video call support. Nokia have long had a decent web browser on their Symbian devices, which the E5 also has. As well as all the usual web activities, the handset also includes Flash Lite v3.0.
The Nokia E5 delivers in all the areas where the Finnish manufacturer is strongest; a hard working, reliable device, with a good set of features that is designed to get the job done. Whilst this may seem a little stale to some, it is a level of stability that many other manufacturers would be proud of. The handset is expected to release during Q3 2010, and will be available in a choice of colours including Carbon Black, Chalk White, Sky Blue, Copper Brown and Silver Grey. With a low price point of around €180 SIM free, the E5 is bound to be attractive to companies with a large mobile workforce.