Customer Avenue

Weight: 5 ounces
Dimensions: 4.61 x 2.76 x .63 inches

Display: 320 x 240 pixel active matrix display with up to 16 million colors

Price Range: $253.69 to $312.00

It’s an attractive device overall, with an all-silver casing that makes it appropriate for the business set. At 4.6 by 2.7 by 0.5 inches and 5 ounces, the E62 is slightly bigger than the Moto Q, and will take some acclimation to use as a phone because it has a wider, blockier body. There are three buttons on the left spine–Volume Up, Volume Down, and Voice Record–but nothing on the right side, where we looked instinctively for a jog dial and a Back button like those found on the Q and BlackBerrys. We missed these controls, and their absence made it harder to use the E62 one-handed. Also, a Hold button would have been nice, since it was fairly easy to trigger the voice record function, and we ended up with a handful of useless recordings.

The E62’s roomy keyboard is its biggest draw: It’s one of the most spacious arrangements I’ve ever seen on a candy-bar handset, with wide, flat keys that are beautifully sized and spaced. Setting up e-mail is a breeze, and sending and receiving messages are just as simple. The E62 handles attachments with aplomb, and its included office suite lets you edit documents easily. Though the included MP3 player is loud and clear, you’ll want to use the bundled headset in lieu of the tinny internal speaker.

The E62 comes with a POP3/IMAP e-mail program that handles attachments, but the smartphone also works with a dizzying array of push-mail software, including GoodLink, Intellisync, Visto, DataViz RoadSync for Microsoft Exchange servers, Consilient’s new push-POP/IMAP mail solution, and even BlackBerry Connect. Unbelievably, I loaded Consilient’s and GoodLink’s clients simultaneously without any problems. Consilient’s software is very basic—no attachment support or formatting—but it does push mail from POP and IMAP accounts and is very affordable ($5/month). GoodLink works much as it does on other platforms, including full integr

he E62’s Web browser built specifically for S60 has two unique features. One is a ‘mouse’ cursor that can be moved across a page with the nav switch. The other is a thumbnail version of the current page that appears when scrolling down or across long pages, making navigation easier. Hit the back button and you’ll get a timeline of recent page views shown as a series of thumbnail images. Very cool. No other phone comes close to E62 when it comes to rendering pages with high fidelity, but every other one boasts better speed; our throughput averaged 100Kbps.

Email and Messaging

• Support for personal and business email accounts such as POP, IMAP (with idle) and SMTP1
• Supports third party email clients: Good Mobile Messaging, BlackBerry Connect, Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email, Mail for Exchange (Microsoft ActiveSync) and Xpress Mail 1
• Attachments viewers and editors support the most common features of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel (Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP and 2003). Compatible with Zip Manager and Adobe Reader
• Instant Messaging client (Yahoo, AOL, OMA)1
• SMS distribution list
• Email LED indicator, vibrate and tones to alert you of new email
• Full messaging keyboard for easy text and data input

Messaging and Imaging

• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS, ver. 1.2) for text, voice clips, video clips and still images receiving, editing and sending1,14
• Distribution list
• Video and audio streaming (GPP and RealMedia: Real video and Real Audio)1

Connectivity

• miniUSB port
• Remote and local (peer-to-peer) synchronization over Bluetooth technology, IR or data cable
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.022
• HTML browsing with Nokia Browser1,2,12
• EGPRS (Class B, MSC 10)1,15
• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Multislot Class 101,15
• GSM Circuit-Switched Data up to 14.4 and 43.2 (HSCSD) kbps
• TTY/TDD (requires HDA-11 adapter)

Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia

Weight: 144 g (with Nokia Battery BP-5L)
Dimensions: 117 mm x 69.7 mm x 14 mm, 108 cc
Form: monoblock

Display: Active matrix display
Supports up to 16M colors
Adjustable display brightness and contrast control
Ambient light sensor for keypad display lighting control

Price: $384.95 to $519.90

The E61’s 2.8-inch screen certainly demands attention. It’s large and bright with a 320×240 pixel resolution and 16-million-color output. Text and images looked excellent, and even better, it was still readable in sunlight; you can also adjust the backlighting and contrast. Just be aware that it’s not a touch screen, so keep this in mind as you’re shopping around for your new smart phone. You can enter all of the E61’s commands via the navigation array below the screen and the full QWERTY keyboard. The array consist of left and right selection keys, Talk and End buttons for phone calls, a Menu shortcut, an e-mail launch key, and a four-way navigation joystick that acts as an OK button when you press it. We found all controls well spaced and easy to use, and they’re large enough that even users with larger digits shouldn’t have too many mishaps.

Most people are going to be dialling numbers from the built in contacts application, probably synced to Outlook on their PC. There’s a natural assumption from Nokia that the E61 users will be PC based, and using Outlook – and to be fair with the E61 being a business device that’s probably correct – so the services are geared to this integration. This means that synchronising contacts (and notes, tasks and calendar entries) is something I now implicitly trust the software to do. That’s far cry from the 7650 days.

Packed with powerful productivity apps and wireless options, the Nokia E61 is sure to be a corporate crowd pleaser. The E61 runs Symbian OS 9.1, Series 60 third edition, and comes with full support for viewing and editing Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents–an advantage it holds over the Moto Q. We used the included USB cable to transfer all three types of files to the E61 and had no problems opening them; we were pleased that little, if any, formatting was lost. In particular we were pleased to find we could edit the documents, including the PowerPoint presentations, which is a feature you won’t find on too many devices. If that’s not enough, there’s a Screen Export function that allows you to display the E61’s screen via a compatible projector. The smart phone also works with Adobe Reader and Zip Manager, and comes with your basic PIM apps and organization tools, such as a calendar, notes, a calculator, a clock, a voice recorder, and a currency converter. There’s 75MB of built-in memory, which is a bit on the lower side, but it’s helped by the miniSD slot.

With the landscape screen of the E61, the built in applications have all needed tweaking to take account of the extra number of pixels, and the different orientation. Looking at the contacts application, we can see the tweaks made to shoehorn S60 into the larger space. We still have a bar on the bottom of the screen that labels the two soft keys, but because of the size of the screen, there is a massive blank space in the middle. The background wallpaper does minimize this, but cramping the labels into the corners of the screen isn’t a great user experience, and it looks sloppy. There must be a better way to use this screen space, and I’m confident that we’ll see some third party applications that will in the next few months.
Sadly no one won our sweep stake as the E61 is much smaller and thinner than we’d expected, measuring 117 x 69.7 x 18 mm and weighing 144 grams. Nokia have really managed to keep their beast of the slim fast plan, meaning your jacket pocket might just cope with its bulk. But why would you put yourself though carrying the E61, most blackberry users are corporate’s who have them forced upon them. We wondered if anyone would actually buy the E61 with their own money, surely a good test?

Power up and the screen is the first thing that makes its presence felt, the large 2.8″ screen seems much bigger due to its landscape orientation, the colours are vibrant and the backlight is good and strong. Like many mobiles the screen is equipped with a light sensor but this one actually works and manages to maintain a bright readable display even in direct sunlight.

Key Features:
Supports the most common features of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel (Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP and 2003). Compatible with Zip Manager and Adobe Reader
Multi-tasking abilities: send and receive emails while talking on the phone
Access to up-to-date calendar and contact information
Works in offline mode – read and write email even when network is unavailable
Large user memory: up to 64 MB + support for miniSD card
Mail for Exchange*
POPs/IMAP supported in native email client

WCDMA provides fast, wide-area connectivity
WLAN provides fast, local-area connectivity

Large, advanced high-resolution screen shows images sharper and reduces scrolling
Documents and applications appear with high clarity
User-friendly, sleek design
Easy to configure
Rapid and simple deployment and management
Feature rich device – conference calling capability, speakerphone, email, and messaging

Other features:
Personal shortcuts
Customizable profiles
Alarm clock
RealOne Player
Music Player (MP3/AAC)
Notepad for short notes
Auto lock for keyboard
Calculator

Navigation:
Two soft keys with five-way joystick, power key can be used as profile key
Configurable right and left soft keys
Input method: Full keyboard
Active standby enables user to configure 7 applications for fast access
Symbian operating system OS 9.1
Series 60, 3rd edition

Connectivity:
Pop-Port™ interface
USB port full speed supported via Pop-Port™
Remote and local (peer-to-peer) synchronization over Bluetooth technology, IR, cable
Bluetooth wireless technology 1.2
Video and audio streaming (3GPP and RealMedia: Real Video and Real Audio)
WCDMA (3GPP Release 4)
Multiconnectivity
WLAN connection can be shared by multiple applications at the same time. For example: email, browser and synchronization
Possible to use WLAN, Bluetooth technology, USB and infrared at the same time
Maximum six Bluetooth technology connections in use at the same time. Note: only one for Bluetooth wireless connectivity for audio

Email and messaging:
Email client for connecting to personal and business email
Supports POP, IMAP(with idle) and SMTP protocols, and MS Active Sync
Settings via OMA Client Provisioning, OMA Device Management
Supported email clients: Intellisync Wireless Email,Visto email technology ,BlackBerry Connect, GoodLink and Seven Always-On Mail1
Attachments viewers and editors support the most common features of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel (Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP and 2003). Compatible with Zip Manager and Adobe Reader *
Instant Messaging client (Yahool, AOL, OMA)
SMS distribution list

Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia

Dimensions: 4.49 x 1.81 x 0.47 in
Weight: 3.53 oz

Display: 2″ (240 x 320 pixels), active-matrix color display supports up to 16 million colors

Price Range: $346.14 to $629.00

Its design is classic Nokia understatement - a slim candybar phone with an elegant metal trim and back panel adding a classy feel to the package. The metal edging is available in three flavours: shiny silver, black or bronze.

The E51 is a 3G, HSDPA capable phone — our test sample came configured for Telstra’s Next G network. It also boasts Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities, as you’d expect from a business-class phone. The E51 runs on the Symbian 60 platform, with support for push mail via Mail for Exchange, Visto Mobile, and Seven Always-on platforms. On the office side, QuickOffice provides access to Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, although critically this is in a viewing capacity only. We can’t imagine seriously editing a business document on the E51’s two-inch display, so perhaps Nokia has a point in not including a full editor; still, some business users may find this a distinct drawback.

The bottom half is peppered with various shortcut keys and a generous-sized keypad. Above that is a modest 2-inch QVGA display with an ambient light sensor and LED light indicator customizable to light up in the event of missed calls, incoming text/multimedia messages or emails. The screen is readable even in bright outdoor conditions, which is great. However, it’s probably not suitable for prolonged Web surfing or document reading, unless you want to end up straining your vision.

Nokia E51 takes functionality to a higher level than E50. The successor measures 114.8 x 46 mm, which is pretty much the same as the old Nokia E50, but its 12 mm slimness makes good sense in Nokia’s business line. The E51 is the thinnest Eseries squad member. The weight has gone up by only 4 grams to a total of 100 sharp, which is a great achievement, given the features this handset offers.

Key features

• Thin design loaded with features to help balance your business and leisure time
• Access your email while on the go with support for most leading corporate and personal email applications
• Browse the web and email with high speed 3G, HSDPA, or WLAN connection
• Make lower cost voice calls over the internet with the built-in WLAN
• Stay connected to the people

Camera and video

• 2 megapixel camera with 4 x digital zoom for high quality still imaging and video capture
• Video streaming and playback with H.264 (MPEG-4), 3gpp, and Real codecs
• Video recording in H.263 (3gpp) and MPEG-4

Music

• MP3 music player
• Compatible with Bluetooth stereo headsets
• FM Radio: lets you see information about songs or artists, and read up on celebrity news

Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia

Weight: 104g (with Nokia Battery BL-5C)
Dimensions: 113 mm x 43.5 mm x 15.5 mm, 70 cc
Form: monoblock

Display: Active matrix display
Supports up to 262,144 colors within 240 x 320 pixels
Adjustable display brightness control

Price: $249.95 to $399.00

The Nokia E50 Smartphone is the business users perfect partner as it comes with S60 software on a Symbian operating system. The handset is very attractive & comes in a silver coloured casing with black sections to add style & class to this business mobile phone. The handset weighs 104 grams & measures 113 x 43.5 x 15.5 mm which provides the user with a neat & easy to handle mobile phone. The E50 comes from the E range designed beautifully by Nokia which includes the Nokia E60, Nokia E61 & the Nokia E70.
The phone comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera complete with a 4 x digital zoom. The camera feature provides the user with a fun element to this highly equipped business phone. The large TFT screen works as a viewfinder & provides a 262k colour display & a screen resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The user can store their pictures on the very capable memory, share the pictures with others via multimedia messaging or email. The Nokia E50 comes with 70 Mbytes of dynamic memory which is a large amount & can be expanded even further by using the MicroSD™ cards. The memory cards are hot swappable cards that can be inserted & removed easily. The user can record video for up to one hour & store it on the phones memory & play it back on the video player. The Nokia E50 has a built in music player which plays music in either MP3 format or AAC music format. The RealPlayer feature allows the user to play streaming sound & video footage.

The design of E50 is rather conservative. It is mostly silver and black which merge in some areas and create a pretty ergonomic impression. The phone is not flat and the keypad part is positioned lower than the rest of the body. This leads to a significant ease when writing. The joystick bulks in front of everything and smashes to pieces the nice impression of the otherwise perfect design of the phone.
The phone’s size can be very well understood when compared to other phones. We have made such comparisons for our readers with N93 and E70. You can see that E50 is smaller, narrower and thinner than both phones. All three smartphones run on the same Symbian OS with Series 60 user interface.

One of the major highlights of the E50, distinguishing it from other Eseries-branded offerings, as well as Nokia’s smartphones, is the revamped active standby mode, packing even more functionality and ease-of-use. The modifications are as follows: now the standby 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, without any 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 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.

Key Features:
High-quality handsfree speakerphone allows conference calls and multitasking (combining voice calls with calendar viewing, SMS, and email)
Quadband GSM works on 5 continents (where GSM networks supported)
Easy speaker activation and mute when call is active
Nokia Office Tools allow more effective communication with work teams:
Create and edit work-related or personal teams
Initiate conference calls or Push-to-talk sessions with your team
Use a team-specific conference number for conference calls
Send SMS, MMS, and voice messages and emails to your team

Other features:
Music Player (MP3/AAC)
Calendar
Customizable profiles
Alarm clock
RealPlayer: play streaming sound and video clips or downloaded content
Notepad for writing short memos
Calculator

Navigation:
Two soft keys with five-way scroll; power key can be used as profile key
Configurable right and left soft keys give shortcut access to features like calendar, camera, or Bluetooth wireless connection
Input method: Phone keypad
Menu items displayed as list or grid
Active standby feature gives quick access to up to 6 phone applications from the standby screen
Symbian operating system OS 9.1
S60 platform, 3rd edition

Imaging:
1.3 megapixel camera*
Resolution up to 1280 x 960 pixels
4x digital zoom
Video capture up to one hour
Video resolution: 176 x 144, 128 x 96, 15 frames per second

Email and messaging:
Email client for connecting to personal and business email
Supports POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP protocols
Settings via OMA Client Provisioning 1.1, OMA Device Management 1.1.2.
Support for Nokia’s Intellisync Wireless Email , BlackBerry Connect, Visto Mobile, Activesync Mail for Exchange, and Altexia
Email data roaming (where available) provides automatic switching between various networks without requiring the user to reconfigure settings
View Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel attachments (Microsoft Office, 2000, XP and 2003). Compatible with Zip Manager and Adobe Reader
Instant Messaging and Presence Services IMPS 1.2: exchange text messages and multimedia clips practically in real time. Presence allows you to see the status of other users

Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia

Weight: 172 g
Dimensions: 132 mm x 51mm x 21mm, 126 cc

Display: Resolution 128 x 128 pixels
Supports up to 65,536 colors
Active TFT color display

Price: $420.35 - $770.97

The Nokia 9300i is an amazing mobile phone which is completely stylish & very small considering it is a mobile office. The 9300i is similar to its predecessor the Nokia 9300 but the 9300i has a few improved features. The 9300i is focused towards the top end business user market & it is truly packed to the brim with all the portable office requirements.

Connectivity is a key feature of the 9300i, with support for wireless LAN, Bluetooth and USB 2.0. A fax port is included, and an EDGE connection enables data to be downloaded at speeds of up to 236.8 kbit/s.

The Nokia 9300i comes in a very sleek & professional silver coloured casing. When the 9300i is closed it looks like any average phone with a clear 65k colour display screen (128 x 128 pixels) & easy to use number keys for making all those important calls. The phone can be open using a side opening mechanism which opens smoothly to display a large 65k active transflective colour screen (640 x 200 pixels) complete with a full keyboard with eight application shortcut keys.

The 9300i comes with 80 Mbytes of internal memory, plus an expandable MMC memory card. The 9300i weighs slightly more than the 9300, but only a few grams. The benefit of wireless LAN should more than compensate for this inconvenience. Be aware though that vibration alert is not supported by either the 9300 or 9300i.

What’s amazing about the 9300i (and its close cousin the 9300) is the size of the device. A few years ago the size of a closed 9300i would have been a great size on its own for a new phone (the Nokia 6230 springs to mind in terms of size). And while it’s a little bit bigger than the norm, it’s now possible pull out a communicator in the pub without getting laughed at. One of the biggest benefits to this is that it’s comfortable to use as a phone, it fits nicely in the hand, and can stay welded to your ear with no problems.
Part of this relatively diminutive size will be down to a missing camera. Consumers almost demand a camera in the specs of any smartphone, but again it comes down to where this device is aimed. The 9300 was designed with no Wi-Fi and no camera through extensive ‘focus group’ testing from Nokia.

Key features:
Small and stylish, yet powerful
Wide color screen and full keyboard
Flexible and fast data connections with integrated WLAN and EGPRS
Large memory: 80MB built-in, expandable with hot swappable MultiMediaCard (MMC)

Email:
Access your own and private email accounts
Supported email clients: Intellisync Wireless Email, BlackBerry Connect , Seven Always-On Mail, Visto email technology1
Support protocols: IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, and OMA Data Synchronization

Data Transfer:
EGPRS Multislot class 10
Data transfer up to 236.8 kbit/s in EDGE networks
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Multislot Class 10
Data transfer up to 53.6 kbit/s in GPRS networks
Circuit-Switched Data
HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data)
Fax Transmission

Imaging:
Possibility to attach portrait images to contacts
Video player: RealVideo, MPEG4, and H.263 formats supported

Applications:
Word processor (Documents), spreadsheet viewer and editor (Sheet), presentation viewer and editor (Presentations)
Compatible with the most common features of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (MS Office 97, 2000, XP and 2003)
Other applications: calculator, file manager, voice recorder, and music player

Text messaging (SMS):
SMS distribution list
Message register
Predictive text input (T9) in cover
Picture messaging: receive graphics with text from other compatible phones

Multimedia messaging (MMS):
Multimedia messaging (MMS) with compatible devices: send and receive messages with text, a sound clip, and an image or a video clip to other compatible devices
Multi-slide presentations as MMS with compatible devices
Delivery reports
Multiple recipients
Scaling

Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia