Review of Nokia E50

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Review of GSM-Smartphone Nokia E50

Live photos of Nokia E50

Sales package:

Smartphone

Li-Ion 970 mAh battery (BL-5C)

Charger

USB-cable

User Guide

CD with software

Mono-headset

Charger adapter

Nokia E50 was introduced in summer, 2006 as an addition to the enterprise line-up goingby the name of Eseries, the announcement itself went without any needless fuss, though,and against all gossips and expectations, the E50 came alone back then without being

accompanied by two other Eseries-branded devices, meaning that the companys tradition

to unveil three offerings at a time, like it had done it at Nseries conferences, was broken.

Back then, neither the handsets design, nor its functionality generated much of a stir afew can be blown away nowadays with a 1.3 Mpix camera and a 2-inch big QVGA

display. Bluntly speaking, there was no flavor in this offering, nothing that would have

drawn the crowds attention.

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Here I would like to devote a couple of words to the very philosophy of the Eseries line-up in general why it was established, what are its prerequisites for further development

and what the future holds for it. The niche of enterprise-smartphones and communicators

has been around for quite a while, but was filled up with proposals based off Windows

Mobile, mainly HTC-branded solutions and Research In Motion (RIM) very ownBlackberry. Devices running Symbian operating system didnt have any solid

representation till the 2Q of 2006. Back in the days of first Eseries models release

(9300/9500 never made it to mass products category) the situation got turned over.There was something good about them, something bad as well, but they fulfilled the

mission they were endowed with and secured initial loyalty of consumers, even though

their sale rates (except for the E70, the most highly tailored device) are still revolvingaround pretty low, yet stable figures. The pricing policy applied to these handsets may be

described with this: enterprise solutions at affordable price. Once three pioneers have hit

the market, it is about time to come up with another model that should become theranges best selling device owing to several reasons we will be breaking down below.

Summing everything up for Eseries, I would like to say that competition within the

companys range is minimal after all, the gap separating Eseries and Nseries

positioning-wise is considerable, at the same time Nseries devices are placed higher inthe Nokias charts, have not-so-long lifecycle and more frequent announcements of

newcomers to the line-up.

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Having done away with this little digression, we are getting back to the E50. What newdoes it bring to the table and what its trumps in the competition are?

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Our forum saw some intriguing debates on so called the line of succession between the

iconic Nokia 6310i and the E50. Honestly, I had pretty much the same thoughts mostly

due to the following reasons: similar positioning of the devices (both are aimed atbusiness-users); akin dimensions (with the bottom getting thinner, which allows both

phone to fit in hands nicely); missing camera (E50-2) and finally, not the least of the

factors, battery life. The last point we mentioned can be barely called similar for thesehandsets, but still, among smartphones, the E50 is one of the longest lasting offerings.

To me, what didnt happed with the 6230 and the E60 that were dubbed as the successors

to the 6310i, has finally become a reality with the advent of E50 the handset got an

inheritor that fits the needs of the 6310is audience in terms of both looks and positioning,and suite of features. While these models designs prove to be resembling to some extent,

there is no way we could call them similar it is all about the feeling itself here.

Model E50 is rivaled, though strange it might sound, by a handset made by Nokia itself,

specifically Nokia 6233 you will surely notice a ton of similarities between them should

you take the position of an ordinary consumer, including dimensions- and display-related

ones (the E50 is a tad thinner and taller). But the 6233 is much more multimedia-heavy,packing a 2 Mpix camera with VGA video recording and stereo-speakers at a lower price,

though. Maybe this is the reason why the gap between the sale rates of these models is

gigantic the 6233 is thirty times more demanded.

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Now onto the handset itself. Nokia E50 utilizes the candy-bar form-factor with the

external antenna being shaved off and is positioned as the most portable Eseriessmartphone (113x43.5x15.5 mm). Nokia, as always, is as honest about dimensions of its

offerings, as only possible, so that 15.5 mm is the utmost limit of thickness on this

handset, while the bottom part is a tad slimmer, measuring up at about 12 mm. Thus the

E50 turns out to be the Finnish manufacturers slimmest smartphone around, and one ofits ranges thinnest offerings.

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The handsets casing is made of high-grade (so it feels) black plastic with the edging on

the sides varying from white glossy plastic or black, perfectly matching the sides color

scheme. The battery cover is made of metal, just like the framings on the face around thedisplay and beneath the keypad are. So markets will soon see third trim - Metal black,

which comes in sole black.

The only complaint about the build quality of the E50 and the materials used thephones top end, specifically the power button doubling as a profile switcher. It utilizes

pretty soft type of rubber that easily draws scratches from your nails and on top of that

once pressed the button gets back to its initial position in a somewhat sluggish way, so

that after some time you might encounter a sticky button problem.

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Apart from this, the E50 is clear of gripes actually it is one of the few Nokias devices

released lately that doesnt creak, has all details finely attuned, as well as the batterycover firmly fixed dont tell us there is a gap, as it is the most improbable thing we have

ever heard thank to the material used and a tight latch.

The keypad is made of metal-look-alike plastic. The keys offer you good tactile feelings

and are big enough in spite of the E50 being quite tiny width-wise. Dedicated buttonsMenu and C are, bluntly speaking, squeezed into the set of function keys, so due to

sporting minor size, they might cause a couple or more accident presses. The E50s

joystick is small and very tough, meaning that this handset is more likely to go missingon the short-lists of gamers. The joysticks design is totally opposite to what we see on

Sony Ericsson-branded devices, in other words you cant manage it by holding your

finger pad on its top on the contrary, it has to be in motion, lean it at certain angles. Wewont make any judgments here, but insted will strongly recommend to play around with

the joystick on the E50 a bit more before going for this phone.

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The light indicator can be hardly called a novelty (dont confuse it with ambient light

sensor) we have already seen it with such Nokias products as the E61, N80, but in the

E50s case it circles the joystick. The indicators color cannot be changed, though it isalways green, and starts flashing, once one of the four events (found in the settings) has

taken place. This approach is fetching, indeed and in future we would really like to seeexpansions of the indicators usability more triggers, various colors, but this might be

something superfluous for an enterprise-solution.

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All keys are lit in blue while the numberpad has even backlighting, the function keys

are a bit out of focus, while hand up key has no lights coming from beneath at all.

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Already familiar to you Pencil key was moved to the right side of the handset, which

makes more sense than Nokias N91 side-mounted menu button press rates are

incomparable in my opinion. Next to the Pencil is dedicated contacts/voice functionsbutton (running a few steps forward I want to note that voice tags recognition boasts high

quality of implementation errors are rare guests here). But we were really disappointed

to find out that this button can be assigned to no other application. On the left you willfind volume rocker switch, nothing special about it. Ambient light sensor present on

senior models is missing on the E50, so that expect the backlighting to turn on during

daylight as well.

Overall, the keypad feels very good we have no real gripes with it, everything lives upto the makers name.

The display is topped by a grill-covered earpiece, whose volume is just enough for mostsituations. The bottom end is occupied by interface socket Pop-Port and the now standard

slim charger clot. Removing the battery cover reveals hot swap-enabled microSD

memory expansion slot. The battery coming included with the E50 is Li-Ion 970 mAh(BL-5C) unit. As the manufacturer claims, it can keep the handset up and running up to 9

days in standby mode and 6.8 hours in talk mode. You should bear it in mind though, that

these figures can be achieved only in ideal conditions and will never end up at the users

disposal.

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On average load (about 30 minutes of web surfing, 15-20 snaps, 1,5 hours of calls and apair of SMS messages), the handset lasted two days, which is not bad at all for a

smartphone. Should you be easier on its phone functionality and get your talk time to 30

minutes, the E50 will put up a bit more than 3 days of operation. You can also turn yoursight to a more capacious battery BL-6C (1100 mAh), but for that you will need a special

battery cover or have to remove the cover found inside the default cover. With the BL-6C, as its owners say, Nokia E50 stays alive for about 4 days on comparable load. It takesthe phone about two hours to charge up from empty to full.

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Nokia E50s display measures 2.0 diagonally, and looks smaller than the rest of the

Nokia-branded smartphones screens because of being narrower, whereas the height is

equal. This display boasts QVGA resolution (240x320 pixels), making the picture smoothand almost free of pixel grid. Colors are vivid, at maximum brightness level your eyes

will hurt, so be ware the finest value, as I see it, is 70 percent for the screens

brightness. According to Nokia the display shows up to 262 K colors, which is not as bigas the senior models figures are. However you might even not notice this difference

they all have more than just satisfactory displays. The E50 behaves in the sun in the same

way other Nokias smartphones do, but due to tiny size the E50s screen falls short of, for

example, Nokia N73, but this doesnt make all the difference.

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At such physical screen size, tiny fonts are always a pain occasionally you will have to

peer at the display to make out what is written on it.

Handsets highlights

Smartphone Nokia E50 is a typical S60 3rd edition-based device, so we have nothing todo but redirect you to dedicated articles on the features of Eseries handsets and standard

functionality of the platform.

Software features of Nokia Eseries

S60 3d Edition Feature Pack 1 Description Nokia Web Browser S60 (OSS Browser)

Compared to the software Nokia Eseries smartphones come pre-installed with, this very

phone lacks office documents editing ability viewing only. Even though you can

seamlessly deal with it by installing, for example, Office Suite, many just dont get it why

the company would need to bring about such restrictions. Screen rotation is alsounavailable on the menu.

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One of the major highlights of the E50, distinguishing it from other Eseries-branded

offerings, as well as Nokias smartphones, is the revamped active standby mode, packing

even more functionality and ease-of-use. The modifications are as follows: now thestandby mode settings contain a list featuring those functions, whose notifications may be

taken to the display. At a glance, there is nothing very special about it, but still it does

make some difference. You are also at liberty to leave only shortcuts on the desk, withoutany notes.

Another novelty, which is quite handy among all other things, is Search application the way it works can be seen on the screenshots. As long as you have the search line

unfilled, the app will return you information on amount of messages, contacts, calendar

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events, notes, tasks and other files. With the release of the E50 this applications made it

to the mass market meaning that it is now available for other S60 3rd edition powered

smartphones for no fee.

Extra applications include Adobe PDF, Zip (handles corresponding archives) and Read

messages, which presents you with the functionality its name implies. By the way, textis read out quite legibly.

The device also fits for music playback sound quality achieved with the help of AD-41

or AD-46 adapter and good headphones proves to be reasonable and falls only marginally

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short of, for example, the N73. The way the music players interface is laid out is nothing

new compared to other Nokia-labeled handsets, lacking music-heavy positioning.

Other differences from the rest of Eseries include missing Wi-Fi and 3G/UMTS, whichmakes the E50 the only handset in the range (saving for the E62, tailored for the North

American market) that cant show off these functionalities. To some extent, the E50 stepsonto the scene as a replacement for the E60, since it will take a while for us to wait for its

true successor, and from this point of view, the fact that the senior solution is armed withfeatures that have went missing on the E50 is quite a letdown.

The handsets performance is about average, with the figures being more or less

comparable with Nokia N73 the gap is not something tremendous. To put it simply, the

phone is pretty sluggish, which will repulse a part of potential buyers; nonetheless formost the difference in interface speed between the E50 and ordinary handsets wont be

that crucial. On top of that, the phones abilities partly make up for its being somewhat

slow.

JBenchmark 1 JBenchmark 2 JBenchmark 3D

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Version 1.1.1

Total Score: 3359

Details:

Text 918

2D Shapes 835

3D Shapes 366

Fill Rate 193

Animation 1047

Screen Width 240Screen Height 234

Color Screen true

Number ofColors

16777216

Double

Buffertrue

Total Memory 819200

Free Memory 397588

MicroEdition

ConfigurationCLDC-1.1

MicroEdition

Profiles:MIDP-2.0

Microedition

Platform:

Nokia 50-

1/06.27.1.0

Microedition

Encoding:ISO-8859-1

Version 2.0.1

Total Score: 297

Details:

ImageManipulation

244

Text 340

Sprites 341

3D Transform 558

User Interface 144

Screen(canvas)

Width

240

Screen(canvas)Height

234

Color Screen true

Number of

Colors16777216

JPEG Supporttrue

Transparency(Alpha Level)

256

Double

Buffertrue

Total Memory 819200

Free Memory 398284

MicroEdition

ConfigurationCLDC-1.1

MicroEditionProfiles:

MIDP 2.0

Perfomance

Jbenchmark3D HQ: 123

Jbenchmark3D LQ: 228

Triangles ps: 38469

kTexes ps: 1295

Version: 3.1.0

Screen(canvas)width: 240

Screen(canvas)height: 320

3D Subsystem:

M3G Version: 1.0

Antialaising: false

True color: false

Dithering: false

Mipmapping: true

Perspective

correction:true

Local cameralighting:

false

Max lights: 8

Max Viewport

dimensions:

1024

Max TextureDimensions:

256

Max Sprite Crop

Dimensions:256

Max Transforms PerVertex:

4

Number of Texture

Units:2

Other propertiesColor Screen true

Number of colors 16777216

Transparency (alpha

level)256

Double buffer true

Total memory: 819200

Free memory: 301560

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Camera. Here we should make a note that in fact there are two editions of the handset

Nokia E50-1 and the E50-2, boasting a 1.3 Mpix camera onboard. The E50 is only

second Eseries solution to feature a camera, as previously it was the E70 alone,nevertheless both resolution- and quality-wise the reviewed unit is inferior to the

abovementioned senior model, which comes as no surprise, though. Another point of

interest is that the upcoming Eseries announcement will bring three camera-equippedhandsets along. The concept of a camera-less enterprise solution has already become a

thing of the past, so that now it is the market that rules the roost. This doesnt mean,

however, that we are not going to see more of the camera-less models coming, apparentlythe best thing to do is release two editions, which would be milestones from the

standpoint of positioning and sales, just like in Nokia E50s case.

A flash and a self-portrait mirror are absent on the handset. While handling the E50s

camera you can witness a curious effect when trying to snap the best shot playingaround with the viewfinder, colors look somewhat unnatural and blurry, but once you hit

the trigger, the picture literally gets a new life injected into it, as lines get sharp again.

Whether it is an issue we should attribute to the firmware or our unit, or the way the

camera works we do not know.

All photos look splendid on the smartphones screen thanks to the displays resolution

and top-notch quality; however on-PC-screen experience is not so great, as the quality

leaves much to be desired. The matrix utilized by the E50 is one of the cheapest out there,

to say the least. Green tint of the lens indicates that it home company is Samsung.

Self-time function (10, 20, 30 seconds) is available with the E50, as well as night mode,

multi shot and three overlays black-and-white, negative, sepia. Speaking of the new

things to the Eseries, we cannot overlook white balance settings (auto, sunny, lamplight,fluorescent light).

Below you can familiarize yourself with the quality of the snaps taken with the E50:

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(+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG (+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG

(+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG (+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG

(+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG (+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG

(+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG (+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG

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(+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG (+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG

(+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG (+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG

(+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG (+) maximize, 1280960, JPEG

Video can be captured in two resolutions 176x144 and 128x96 pixels. The quality is

mediocre; however it is not camera or video recording what the E50 is all about.

Video sample (3gp, 300 Kb)>>>

Impressions

This handset has no problems in terms of network reception quality, sound in loudspeaker

is pretty good, person whom youre speaking to will hear you well. The silent alert isquite strong be sure you will feel it in your jackets pocket. While the speaker is a bit

different from what we saw on other Eseries-branded models, it outputs just enough of

volume to not let you down in most situations.

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Over the time I had the pleasure of using this device, I got an interesting feeling: while

the E50 was so unsophisticated on the face of it, I had a really good time managing it. I

cant say what exactly made me think this way maybe the nice feeling of metalemployed in the casing and combined with slim and elegant design, maybe crisp display

and handy keypad, or some other aspects at the end of the day this doesnt change the

fact that I had almost no gripes with the handsets operation. I dont want to say the E50has no shortcomings the thing is, for its target audience they are minor.

This model can be recommended to people looking for a handy, slim and light handset

packing good functionality. And this is what Nokia E50 is about.