Nokia E55 review: Five by five

Introduction

Sometimes, a phone is nearly perfect, except for that one small thing you want to change. If you felt that way about Nokia E52, the E55 claims to have the answer. Don't get us wrong - the E52 has killer looks and specs. And the E55… well, like we told you, it's the same phone save for that one little thing.

Nokia E55 official photos

If QWERTY keyboards are for heavy texters where does half-QWERTY fit? Some would say it's the same target but different goal. You know, like heavy texting is a bad habit and half-QWERTY is the therapy. Now, now, no need to be too smart. But does it really make typing faster or slower, and how hard it is to learn the new layout? We ran a test to find out.

But more on that later. Thanks to the excellent connectivity options and Office editing out of the box, the E55 keeps your office at arm's length - whether you're out to lunch or out of town. Emails, presentations, spreadsheets, memos - you can bring all that everywhere you go. But hey, we're not saying you should. Thanks to Modes, switching between Business and Personal homescreens makes sure you don't have to bring work home.

Texting and email go without saying, but the Nokia E55 is one of the best-equipped Symbian devices around. Here's the rundown:

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)

Nokia E55 live shots

The Nokia E55 has something of a split personality. The business features are complete but wait till you see what it offers for recreation. N-Gage support gives you access to a host of games, the audio quality is up there with dedicated music players and the huge battery won't run out of juice until after hours of games and music.

The weekend getaway is also covered - just punch in your destination into Nokia Maps, and the E55 will take you there. It'll even suggest a list of local attractions.

Head to the next page where we open the box and share our experience with the Nokia E55 and its keyboard.