Nokia E55 review: Five by five
Gsmarena have posted their review of the Nokia E55. Here are the phone's key features, main disadvantages and final impression.
Key features:
- Compact metallic body and extra slim girth (9.9mm)
- Quad-band GSM support
- 3G with HSDPA 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps
- half-QWERTY keyboard
- 2.4" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution
- Symbian OS, S60 UI with FP2
- 600 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB RAM
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology, DLNA support
- Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS support, digital compass
- Accelerometer for screen auto-rotation and turn-to-mute
- One-touch shortcut keys mean "business"
- 3 megapixel enhanced fixed focus camera with LED flash
- Secondary videocall camera
- 60 MB of internal memory, microSD expansion, ships with a 2GB card
- microUSB v2.0
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
- FM radio with RDS
- Class-leading audio output quality
- N-Gage gaming support
- Ovi Maps preinstalled with trial turn-by-turn navigation license (10 x 1 days, to be used within 3 months) and lifetime City Explorer license
- User-friendly Mode Switch for swapping two homescreen setups
- Office document editor (with free MS Office 2007 update)
- Remote lock/wipe over-the-air
- Comfortable keypad
- Smart dialing
- Great battery life
Main disadvantages:
- Disappointing camera features and performance
- Video recording maxes out at VGA@15fps
- No DivX or XviD support (can be installed, possibly requiring a purchase)
- No TV-out functionality
- Keyboard takes some time getting used to (not too long though)
The Nokia E55 is a limited edition E52. The good thing is the half-QWERTY handset is not limited in any way compared to its mainstream sibling. OK, save perhaps in terms of demand. But Nokia must be aware of that and know their market well enough. We guess it makes sense to duplicate a great package that’s likely to sell very well just to test a concept, which the company is trying for the first time. Who knows, they may’ve struck gold with the half QWERTY keyboard. And if they didn’t, it’s no big deal. The extra R&D costs are perhaps close to zero and they still have two great phones, at least one of which will sell.
Not the least, the Eseries fleet is growing stronger. The E55 is closing the gap between Eseries candybars and devices like E71, E72 and E75, so there is a smartphone for each and every user. Eseries have always aspired to be the ultimate in business phones and now they’re also trying to be the most flexible. There are handsets for heavy texters (E71, E72, E75, etc.) and heavy talkers (E51, E52). The E55 is headed to the stores and trying to bridge both worlds.
So, the E55 has a very special place in the Eseries lineup and in a way its fate is less in the hands of the competition, and more in the hands of its own kind. We don’t think a half-QWERTY keyboard is a liability in a phone of great build quality, excellent features and outstanding exterior. But some users may be asking themselves why they should choose the E55 over an E71 or an E72.
As to competition, the E55 seems to outclass the likely rivals, especially when it comes to looks. The Eseries pedigree guarantees top class business performance too, but there are still a number of handsets that can hope to steal some of the E55 market. Those who don’t like Symbian will perhaps want to check out the WinMo based Samsung B7320 OmniaPRO and the newly announced B7330 OmniaPRO, which we just previewed. RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8520 is another viable option and recent enough to get the attention of users. Neither of those messengers has the Eseries charisma but decent spec sheets, alternative OS and – not the least – full QWERTY keyboards give them a bit of a weight.
To wrap it up, the Nokia E55 and E52 are the same handset, so E for excellence goes both ways. E for massive earnings we’re not so sure about. But that doesn’t mean a half-QWERTY keyboard has let down an excellent device. The E55 is as capable, user friendly, solidly built and absolutely gorgeous as the E52. Which one is yours?
Key features:
- Compact metallic body and extra slim girth (9.9mm)
- Quad-band GSM support
- 3G with HSDPA 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps
- half-QWERTY keyboard
- 2.4" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution
- Symbian OS, S60 UI with FP2
- 600 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB RAM
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology, DLNA support
- Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS support, digital compass
- Accelerometer for screen auto-rotation and turn-to-mute
- One-touch shortcut keys mean "business"
- 3 megapixel enhanced fixed focus camera with LED flash
- Secondary videocall camera
- 60 MB of internal memory, microSD expansion, ships with a 2GB card
- microUSB v2.0
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
- FM radio with RDS
- Class-leading audio output quality
- N-Gage gaming support
- Ovi Maps preinstalled with trial turn-by-turn navigation license (10 x 1 days, to be used within 3 months) and lifetime City Explorer license
- User-friendly Mode Switch for swapping two homescreen setups
- Office document editor (with free MS Office 2007 update)
- Remote lock/wipe over-the-air
- Comfortable keypad
- Smart dialing
- Great battery life
Main disadvantages:
- Disappointing camera features and performance
- Video recording maxes out at VGA@15fps
- No DivX or XviD support (can be installed, possibly requiring a purchase)
- No TV-out functionality
- Keyboard takes some time getting used to (not too long though)
The Nokia E55 is a limited edition E52. The good thing is the half-QWERTY handset is not limited in any way compared to its mainstream sibling. OK, save perhaps in terms of demand. But Nokia must be aware of that and know their market well enough. We guess it makes sense to duplicate a great package that’s likely to sell very well just to test a concept, which the company is trying for the first time. Who knows, they may’ve struck gold with the half QWERTY keyboard. And if they didn’t, it’s no big deal. The extra R&D costs are perhaps close to zero and they still have two great phones, at least one of which will sell.
Not the least, the Eseries fleet is growing stronger. The E55 is closing the gap between Eseries candybars and devices like E71, E72 and E75, so there is a smartphone for each and every user. Eseries have always aspired to be the ultimate in business phones and now they’re also trying to be the most flexible. There are handsets for heavy texters (E71, E72, E75, etc.) and heavy talkers (E51, E52). The E55 is headed to the stores and trying to bridge both worlds.
So, the E55 has a very special place in the Eseries lineup and in a way its fate is less in the hands of the competition, and more in the hands of its own kind. We don’t think a half-QWERTY keyboard is a liability in a phone of great build quality, excellent features and outstanding exterior. But some users may be asking themselves why they should choose the E55 over an E71 or an E72.
As to competition, the E55 seems to outclass the likely rivals, especially when it comes to looks. The Eseries pedigree guarantees top class business performance too, but there are still a number of handsets that can hope to steal some of the E55 market. Those who don’t like Symbian will perhaps want to check out the WinMo based Samsung B7320 OmniaPRO and the newly announced B7330 OmniaPRO, which we just previewed. RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8520 is another viable option and recent enough to get the attention of users. Neither of those messengers has the Eseries charisma but decent spec sheets, alternative OS and – not the least – full QWERTY keyboards give them a bit of a weight.
To wrap it up, the Nokia E55 and E52 are the same handset, so E for excellence goes both ways. E for massive earnings we’re not so sure about. But that doesn’t mean a half-QWERTY keyboard has let down an excellent device. The E55 is as capable, user friendly, solidly built and absolutely gorgeous as the E52. Which one is yours?
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