Nokia E55 review – Superslim smartphone
For:
Nokia E55 is superslim smartphone that offers multimedia and business-centric features. It offers Bluetooth, 3G supports for North America bands, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm headset jack, excellent call quality, affordable price tag and 3.2-megapixel camera.
Against:
The hybrid keyboard has little squishy keys.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Nokia E55 is based on GSM/WCDMA technology and supports the GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-band) / WCDMA 900/210 (dual-band). The smartphone has candy bar design and runs on Symbian OS 9.3 Third Edition.
2.4 inches LCD display sits on the front body. Nokia E55 has 3.2-megapixel camera, inbuilt media player, Web browser, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Nokia Ovi Maps. Supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.0 and IEEE 802.11 b/g.
The additional features are conference calling, voice command, voice dialing, micro-SD card slot, Class A GPRS, A-GPS, USB, 3G support, PC Sync and Intelligent Typing. The messaging features include multimedia and text messages, Instant messenger, push email accounts and support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP and Microsoft Exchange.
Nokia E55 has a batter life of 480 minutes talk time in GSM and 360 minutes in WCDMA. Accessories supplied inside the package are user manual, connectivity cable, battery, desktop charger, 2.5mm headset adapter, wired stereo headset and power adapter.
Razzle Dazzle:
Nokia claims that the E55 is the thinnest smartphone in the world till now. It is 4.57 inches tall, 1.93 inches wide and 0.39 inch deep and it weighs 3.46 ounces. Nokia E55 has candy bar design and looks long and lean. The battery cover on the back has spun metal surface and provides comfortable grip. The smartphone comes in white and black colors. Our test model had white color.
Inside Dope:
Nokia is launching a few Symbian smartphones in past years, especially the E series remains quite. The E50 series smartphones are more attractive and business-centric than others. Now, the company has launched its flagship smartphone – Nokia E55 that has both multimedia and productive features. Its productive feature set includes PC-sync, 3G support, Wi-Fi, Nokia Ovi Maps with GPS and all email capabilities. Moreover, the multimedia features are 3.5mm headset jack, music player and 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording. Nokia E55 was debuted in Mobile World Congress at Barcelona. The company has announced that the E55 is the thinnest smartphone in the world till now. Its unlocked version has a price tag of $339. Its hybrid keyboard and especially superslim profile is the biggest appeal. It also offers great call quality. The only one drawback is that its keyboard has a bit squishier keys. If you need the thinnest smartphone with good feature set, 3.2-megapixel camera and excellent call quality, then you can buy the new – Nokia E55.
Design
The display is located on the front of Nokia E55. Navigation array and then keyboard are located beneath the display. Charger jack sits on the left side, whereas the camera key, user-defined shortcut key and volume rocker are on right side. Camera lens with LED flash sits on the back. You will find power switch and 3.5mm headset jack on the top. Micro-SD expansion slot sits behind battery cover.
Display
2.4 inches LCD display of Nokia E55 is not a touch-screen and supports 16 million colors. The display is vibrant and shows rich colors. It features light sensing technology to adjust the brightness as per surroundings. You can customize the menu layout, backlight time, font size, theme and background image. Moreover, it allows changing the call image that displays up at an incoming call.
User-interface
Nokia E55 allows changing between Business and Personal mode. In Business mode, you can access work tools such as calendar and email, whereas Personal mode gives access to multimedia applications. It is important to note that you can use any application in any mode because there are no restrictions. Both of the modes are included for your easy usage and understanding.
Navigation Array and Keyboard
Navigation array sits beneath the display and consists of square toggle with center select button, two soft keys, Talk key, End button, Back key and shortcut keys for Email, Calendar and Home. The keyboard is located below the navigation array. On this hybrid QWERTY keyboard, two letters shares the same key like SureType keyboard of RIM. Still, it does not matter because the smartphone has good predictive text input to guess words while typing. All the keys are well spaced and a bit slanted for better typing experience.
Operating System and Applications
Nokia E55 runs on Symbian S60 3rd Edition and its features are similar to that of E63 and E71. The messaging features include numerous push email accounts, multimedia and text messaging, instant messaging, text-to-speech message reader, and support for POP3, IMA4, SMTP and Microsoft Exchange accounts. It also has inbuilt Nokia QuickOffice Suite for viewing/editing Microsoft Office files. The E55 smartphone also has pre-installed Adobe Reader and Windows Live Messenger. You can also download other messengers as well.
Phonebook and PIM features
Nokia E55 can store contacts limited up to available memory. The SIM card can store additional 250 entries. Each contact can save multiple phone numbers, one email address, important dates, Web URL, street address and more. You can pair them with one ring-tone and photo for the caller ID. You can press right arrow button at any contact to get pop-up menu.
The basic feature set of Nokia E55 consists of voice recorder, voice commands, speed dial, speakerphone, conference calling, VoIP support, currency converter, calculator, notes and calendar. The additional features are 3G support, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and A-GPS.
Nokia E55 supports 3G network of AT&T, but not of T-Mobile. Its Bluetooth supports dial-up networking, file transfer and stereo A2DP streaming. The E55 has inbuilt Nokia Ovi Maps application that offers real-time traffic and weather information, turn-by-turn directions and pedestrian friendly maps.
Camera
Nokia E55 has 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash. It offers several options such as color effects, white-balance presets, scene modes, digital zoom, exposure settings and auto-focus. These same options will be available in video mode with three quality settings. You can transfer pictures to OVI and Flickr. The overall photo quality is good. We captured some pictures for testing. The images were sharp and the colors were vibrant and bright.
Music Player
Nokia E55 has inbuilt music player that supports WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, W4A, WMA and MP3 formats. The player organizes the songs by composers, artists, genres and albums. It features creation/editing of play-lists, inbuilt equalizer, FM radio and pod-casts. You have to connect the headset for using FM radio. Video player supports MPEG4 and 3GPP formats.
Call Quality
We made few calls through based Nokia E55 using AT&T service. The overall call quality was very good. We received clear and crispy sound at our end with little distortion or static. The callers received natural and smooth sound with good volume at their end. The call quality was identical to that of landline. The speakerphone call quality was overall clear and acceptable. We received tad volume at our end, whereas the callers received good volume with some echo.
3G Speed Test
We loaded few Web sites at the browser of Nokia E55 while testing. The Microsoft.com loaded in 30 seconds and a Google search took 7 seconds to complete. In addition, the YouTube videos buffered quickly before playback and then played without any more buffering.
Battery Life
Nokia E55 has a battery life of 8 hours of talk time and 23 days of idle standby time in GSM. In 3G, the battery life is 6 hours talk time and 29 days of idle standby time. The digital SAR rating is 1.19 watts per kg as per FCC radiation tests.
Verdict:
The superslim smartphone – Nokia E55 – will attract both business and multimedia users. If you need an affordable smartphone with excellent features and great call quality and do not mind the hybrid keyboard and non-touch screen, then you can buy new Nokia E55.
