Nokia E50 Smartphone Review

Performance:

The E50 does not stand out with speed performance and we experienced some annoying waiting when some of the menus were loaded, which should not be the case with a business phone, especially when it is a smartphone with Symbian OS.

Overall, music played with the phone sounds good but the volume is not high enough and there's a great possibility that you do not hear it if you're in a noisy environment. The phone's definitely not good enough to act as a portable music system – but that's not what it's supposed to do, unlike the Walkman phones by SonyEricsson for example. The vibrating alert is quite powerful and makes up for the low sound volume but you could still miss a call if you carry the phone in you bag.

The outgoing sounds quality is good, but high frequency sound reproduction is a bit poor. The sound from the earpiece is a bit quiet and unreal, as the voice sounds a bit dim but what's said could still be understood. The E50 comes with a powerful battery with a capacity of 1150 mAh which, as claimed by the manufacturer, provides up to 8 hours of talk-time and up to 10 days in stand-by mode which is quite good for a smartphone with such a small size. In fact, even a few days with one charge is a good accomplishment. RF performance is typical for a Nokia – strong signal and no problems during the testing.

Conclusion:

Nokia E50 combines high functionality and stylish design with a very good size for a smartphone, but a uncomfortable to use keypad and slow navigation through the menus, which affects the usage of the phone as a whole. In order to make the phone suitable for business users, Nokia has decided to use a powerful battery, a large and bright display and metal parts, but the sound quality and the speed performance are something to complain about – and these are things very important to the business user.