Nokia E50

Discontinued
18th May 2006

The Nokia E50 is the latest addition to Nokia's E-series of high-end business phones, and effectively it is the entry level handset for that range.

You can tell at a glance that the Nokia E50 looks narrower than most current phones. It measures 113 x 43.5 x 15.5 mm, around the same width as the popular Nokia 6230i but 10mm taller and 4.5mm thinner. It weighs 104 grams which is 5 grams heavier than the 6230i.

Unlike other E-series phones, this isn't a 3G device, nor does it have WiFi. Instead, this is a quad band GSM phone with GPRS and EDGE. However, it is a Symbian S60 smartphone and it comes with expandable memory on microSD cards.

On the back of the E50 is a 1.3 megapixel camera, and the phone also comes with Bluetooth. There a 240x320 pixel display in 262,000 colours. Talktime is in impressive 6.8 hours (or 8 hours with the optional BL-6C battery) and 9 days standby.

In addition, the Nokia E50 has a MP3/AAC player, email client and an XHTML web browser. In addition to standard POP3/SMTP/IMAP email, the E50 can support BlackBerry Connect, Visto and other push email protocols. It can also be used with the Avaya Communication Manager system, so the E50 can be integrated into corporate PABX installations.

It's not the most whizzy phone in the world, although the specifications are clearly aimed at business users. Nokia have aimed to make the E50 a versatile business phone that's not too showy, and they seem to have succeeded, although the many businesses will not like the inclusion of a digital camera.

Every time we see a business phone like this, we ask - is it the successor to the Nokia 6310i? (We like the 6310i at Mobile Gazette). Well.. no. Although the Nokia E50 has the battery life and the practical features of the 6310i, the camera and expandable memory are not really necessary for most business users.

Nokia say that the E50 will be available during Q2/early Q3 2006 at an estimate cost of €400 / $550 / £300 before tax and subsidy.

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