MWC 2009
Nokia debuted the latest additions to its E series in Barcelona. Both sport E71-inspired designs and nearly every messaging feature known to man. Let's take a closer look.
E75
The E75 is, according to Nokia, the next evolutionary step in the Communicator series. It offers a full QWERTY keyboard (as the Communicators always did), but in a much smaller - and dare I say, sexier - package. The E75 may not be the thinnest phone on earth, but for a sideways slider, it's pretty darned thin. Quality of workmanship and materials abound. It is forged from metals and high-grade plastics that simply feel excellent in the hand. The rounded back edges fit well against the palm of your hand. Because so much of the body is metal, it is a fairly heavy phone, but not egregiously so.
The controls on the front of the phone resemble those of the E71 and E51. They provide quick access to the phone's messaging features, including the inbox, contacts and calendar. The 12-key number pad on the front is roomy enough and the buttons had good travel and feedback.
The slide mechanism felt solid and strong. It opened and closed easily, with just the right amount of spring action. In my opinion, the screen was a little slow to re-orient between landscape and portrait modes when the phone is opened and closed.
The QWERTY keyboard is nearly completely flat. The keys have very little - if any - shape to them. I thought typing on the E75 was acceptable, but others might not. I thought there could have been a bit more travel and feedback from the keys. Even so, the keyboard isn't so wide as to make it unusable.
It comes with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, and every type of messaging and email service that Nokia offers. It surely is intended to be a messaging powerhouse. It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, a full 3.5mm headset jack, and an easy-to-use external hatch for the mircoSD card.
The E75 will be available in March.
E55
The E55 is what you'd get if you mushed the E51 and E71 into one phone. It is wider than the E51, but thinner than the E71. How did Nokia do this? It is providing a 20-key SureType style keyboard for compising messages. That means there's two letters per key (as on a BlackBerry Pearl). Given the attention that Nokia paid to the keypad, I was sorely disappointed with it. There was hardly any travel and feedback to the keys, which felt like cardboard. One thing Nokia got right with the keypad is the size. It is so much more usable than the Pearl's SureType keypad. The buttons are large enough and well space. Since the E55 isn't due until June, let's hope that Nokia refines the keypad over time.
Otherwise, the hardware is excellent. Nokia claims that the E55 is the world's thinnest smartphone. I don't know about that, but it is no doubt one skinny phone. The materials feel like they are milled aluminum (inspired by the new MackBook Pro?). It has a tiny footprint and rests very comforatbly in your hand. It is easily grasped, and holding it for two-handed typing was comfortable and the phone felt balanced.
The bottons on the right side of the phone for controlling the volume were nearly identical to those on the E71. They were a little stiff.
The E55 also runs S60 3.2, and includes a full bevy of messaging software. It is a gorgeous phone to behold, and a good phone to use.
5630 XpressMusic
The 5630 was announced before the MWC show started, but this was the first chance we had to play around with it. It is the most recent addition to the XpressMusic line and brings with it some of the innovative new features seen on S60 5th Edition.
It carries with it the current red and black design language from other XpressMusic phones. It is a little on the long side, in order to accomodate a sizable display. Despite the length, the dialpad felt squished. I didn't care for it at all. The materials felt cheap and the travel and feedback on the keys was poor. Same goes for the navigational buttons. They felt very stiff.
The 5630 is a very light phone, and hardly had any weight to it at all. Because it is so narrow, it will easily fit into a pocket. It also rests well in the hand, though the exterior plastics felt a bit on the cheap side to me.
The 5630 runs Sybmian S60 3rd Edition, but uses some of the innovations seen on S60 5th Edition. In particular, these are the "favorite contacts" idea at the top. You can store up to 20 distinct contacts that you can scroll through. You'll see their photo ID, and can access all the test messages, emails, phone calls and other correspondence with that person by clicking on them. The user interface was snappy and quick. The shortcut bar normally found at the top of an S60 phone's screen has been shifted to the bottom of the screen. It is just as usable, though.
The one problem is, that by including all this information on the home screen, you lose some space for showing your calendar appointments andf so on. Of course, given the customizability of S60, I am sure there is a way around this.
Overall, the 5630 will certainly satisfy its intended market, which is music fanatics that want just a bit more power in their device compared to a normal feature phone.
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