Nokia E51 - Redesigned Keys & Functionality
Those of you tracking the availability of Nokia E51 have probably already seen the reports that the device now is available on eBay. Buy.com and other various outlets.
I received my own device, imported from Europe, yesterday. Rather to post one full review I will post about the device as I use it and discover what I like/dislike.
First up, the main keys.
It might seem trivial but I think the the redesign icons for the main one touch keys is huge! Replacing the application key with a "home" key makes the end user experience much better. Especially for new users. The new icons are also much cleaner and crisper than the previous icons but there is more to the new icons than meets the eye.
Behind the new icons is a new level of functionality - a distinction between short and long press of all of the four main keys.
Short Press:Takes you to Home Screen or Main Menu
Long Press: Displays list of open applications
Short Press: Takes you to the Contacts application
Long Press: Creates a new contact
Short Press: Opens the Calendar application
Long Press: Creates a new meeting entry
Short Press: Opens the default email inbox
Long Press: Creates a new email
OK, ok, ok, before some of you fire off a comment about it, let me say it myself.
Technically speaking these some of these "long press / short press" features are available in other Eseries devices. For an example a "long press" on the email key will create a new email. However, the cool thing with the Nokia E51 is that all four keys now have this dual functionality.
But what is even better is that it is a user definable function. You can set it up any way you want.
More posts about the cool new features of the Nokia E51 to come…
Stefan, per your question in the comment section - especially for you. Messaging key set up with the short cut to Gmail.
November 11th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Ed, please tell me if Nokia E51 supports BB.
Thank you.
November 11th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
You mean all keys are configurable so if I was crazy enough to map the email key to gmail then it would work?
November 11th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Awesome!!! How much did you get it for?
November 11th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Hi Stefan,
Yes you could. I’ll update the post to show you.
@Horia,
It’s not in the DL folders.
November 11th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Nice and good function.
I hope Nokia include keys one touch personalisations “a la e51″ in the e61i future firm update.
Greetings
November 11th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
This feature alone makes me want to buy the phone. It was the most annoying feature of all Nokia phones - they lock you to their apps. I gave up on two commercial apps only because it was not possible to assign a hot-key to launch them (one is address book replacement, another is calendar replacement - both great, but if I have to go through menu to access them…)
November 12th, 2007 at 12:16 am
I still find it baffling that Nokia tweaks each phone with new, incremental features and doesn’t make these (clearly software-only) features available to people who just shelled out $300-1000 for a phone only a few months ago. They seem to consider the software intimiately tied to the hardware, often bugs and all.
To @Horia, you should keep an eye on http://www.businesssoftware.nokia.com/blackberry_downloads.php
I keep watching there for E51 to appear.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:34 am
Hi everyone!
I am a fan of this blog since long time.
Just a question… I actually use a Nokia e61 a lot for email, meeting planning, Fring and GPS navigation but I miss both the camera and the “small dimensions” of other devices…
Do you think that I could replace e61 with e51 or I’ll miss its qwerty keyboard or other things? Thanks in advance for suggestions!
November 12th, 2007 at 3:12 am
Yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing which should immediately be made available to other Nokia phones, such as the E61i. There’s no excuse for not providing this functionality.
While they’re at it, maybe Nokia could do something about the crappy, large fonts and stupid standby screen, the design of which wastes loads of space on the E61i.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:12 am
Yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing which should immediately be made available for other Nokia phones, such as the E61i. There’s no excuse for not providing this functionality.
While they’re at it, maybe Nokia could do something about the crappy, large fonts and stupid standby screen, the design of which wastes loads of space on the E61i.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:56 am
funcion already available
right now if you press shortly the yinh/yang button you open the menu, if you press it longyou get a scrollable list of the running applications.
I use it to swith from phone function to gps when I use them at same time
November 12th, 2007 at 6:01 am
I understand that the phone does not have LED light for minimum night photography? So is it a no no for taking photos in low light area?
November 12th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Gr8 device.. Would be great to have it on a QWERTY fone… Waiting for a worthy E61 upgrade, and hope that the new one would have an option without camera also(Like the e50 had).
November 12th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
GiaMa: I ditched by E61 for the E51 and love it. I like having real keys to dial when I am making calls. And I read my emails quite easily on the device since the screen is flawless! The next release of Symbian which this uses is nicer in subtle ways. I do respond to email on my device (both work using MFE and personal using the built in email) and find it’s just fine for banging out some quick mails. It’s all goodness in one hot case! (Best radio around too. Places where by E61 dropped are fine with the E51!)
November 12th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Hi there !!
I’m currently using a E50 and loving it but I wish it had more memory and better processor…so I’m currently asking myself if I really should upgrade to E51.
I may be one of the rare E50 users that actually come to like the font size very much, and I would like to know if the E51 screen can provide such small and fine font size or does it have bigger font even when set to small ?
I really don’t like large fonts, they tend to waste space more than bringing any improvement IMHO
November 12th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Hi there !!
I’m currently using a E50 and loving it but I wish it had more memory and better processor…so I’m currently asking myself if I really should upgrade to E51.
I may be one of the rare E50 users that actually come to like the font size very much, and I would like to know if the E51 screen can provide such small and fine font size or does it have bigger font even when set to small ?
I really don’t like large fonts, they tend to waste space more than bringing any improvement IMHO…
November 12th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
very nice and desired feature indeed, Ed!
Expecting um see that customizations on other devices as well
Ps: time to update sue blog slogan and add e51
November 12th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Do you know if you can configure the Messaging Key to a create a new SMS instead of e-mail?
Thanks!
November 13th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Dear Ice, the long press to switch between open applications is not exactly a hidden feature! It’s documented in the user manual. The author of the blog mentioned that *some* of the functionality was already available on other Eseries devices.
November 13th, 2007 at 6:10 am
Never could understand why Nokia hard-wired so many buttons, like on the E65,the mute,conference and on so many phones push-to-talk which is not widely available. Great to see this configurability of of direct access buttons
November 13th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Hi Ed…
Dont you think its time Nokia releases a better QWERTY phone… With such a small device having so many features.. I wonder how the successor for E61i will be?!! Hmmm I seriously dont want the CAM!!!
Hmmm and I envy the E51
Such a gr8 fone…but damn it has a cam which I cant take to my work place…
November 14th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Nokia’s Listening, Proves It On E51…
Ed over at E-series.org has received his Nokia E51, imported from Europe, and decided to do a little testing with the shortcut keys surrounding the d-pad. The S60 menu key has been redesigned as a more obvious Home key, and performs the same functions….
November 14th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
well … the lack of bb connect seems odd to me. it’s available for all other e-series devices, but is not listed either in the e51 specs or on the business software download site.
has anybody tried to load bb connect 4.0 on an e51, based on one of the builds for another device?
November 21st, 2007 at 9:37 am
thanks for the GREAT post! Very useful…
November 21st, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Is E51 support Push IMAP protocol?
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
SAR for E51 is 1,40W/Kg. Tooooo much!!
November 25th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Just got the steel black version of E51. By far the best business phone for me. I was using the E50, E61i, N73, N95. The best features on the E51 is :-
1. Memory Paging - Never runs out of memory on Web Browsing
2. Self programmable Shortcuts keys
3. 369mhz fastest processor now!!
4. Keypad have very good soft feel.
5. Solid construction
6. Good Battery life
7. Very thin indeed at 12mm
8. very bright LCD display.
9. Price is cheap too at USD350 (Zitron set. RM1250 in Malaysia)
November 26th, 2007 at 12:47 am
I just trade in my N73 for E51 for USD$220.50.
Cool. I still can’t part with my E61 eventhough is a bit wacky at times for my SMS software.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
when will this be available in the UK anyone?
November 28th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
I got my E51 a week ago and love it! It beats my E61 in usability, speed, battery life, and style in every way. This is a great phone. The best of the e-series range.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Hi,
I’ve just read from a local magazine here that reviewed this phone. And frankly, I’m extremely interested with this phone.
However, can anyone out there who have bought this phone, tell me whether this phone supports flight mode or not ? Because in the magazine I bought, it was shown that this phone doesn’t have an off line mode available.
Can anyone who have bought this phone confirm if this is true or not ? Because I found it to be quite a shame, if a phone with this kind of class doesn’t support flight/off line mode.
I do travel a lot with plane, so if this device doesn’t support in-flight availability to it’s feature, I might as well go for other device.
Please kindly confirm for anyone who have bought this device. I’m desperate to get my hands on one of this great phone.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
what about Voice Record? does somebody knows how many Minutes I can Record with E51, is it 1 min. or 3 min. or more because that is most important think for me.
does somebody can help in these case.
best from BESI
December 5th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
The E51 does have “offline” (flight) mode. Voice recording is dependent on memory card size.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
i know that depend on M.Card but some times, example in E50 i have put 1GB M.Card and still i can record just 1 minute, because doesn’t mater on M.Card but in Phone System like in Nokia 6230 you can record 3 min.
thanks
December 10th, 2007 at 12:22 am
i ordered my phone from buy.com and seriously those dushbags showed product availability “In stock” at time of purchase and currently are out of stock! i have placed my order for over 1 week, they don’t have the phone! please don’t purchase from buy.com! extremely bad experience! Plus customer service is in India!! CS is useless!
cant wait for my phone especially voip feature and os system. thanks for there view!
cheers!
December 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am
I received my E51 from shopblt.com … they have a very cool inventory tracking system so you can see how many are back ordered, in stock, or coming … I emailed (didn’t call) and they replied within a day. Only odd thing with my E51 is that it appears to use UK English rather than US English… but that’s OK for me.
Also, the offline mode doesn’t explicitly state that there is no wireless signal, but I guess we can presume it as there is an “X” where the signal bars are usually located.
Does anybody know if a case is available for this phone?
Thanks.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:33 am
max. voice recording time is 1hr. it is a feature of s60 3rd edition fp1. btw wlan works like a charm
December 11th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Dear Lajmerim, ref. your query 4th dec. I would like to tell you that E-51 recording time is Unlimited(It depends on the memory card). Go to- Voice Recorder- settings- select memory- either phone or mem. card. If you select phone memory,the recording time will be 1hr , if you select memory card then it will depend on the free memory of the mem. card. Enjoy E 51 it is an excellently PERFECT phone !
December 12th, 2007 at 1:44 am
I got mine a week and satisfied so far.However the speaker is not too great and works only well when ur in a closed room.I could do with some other theme options (quite ltd.). Also knowing how the long press on message key can trigger a new sms would be really cool!!
December 12th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
just got my e51 on tmobile in the UK (first network to stock it on contract) its simply a great phone not full of gimicks and looks smart too with the steel rim… all i need now is a decent VOIP client, anyone?
December 12th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I love everything about Nokia and their products. I have numerous Nokia phones and devices. Sadly, none of them ever worked 100%. Even so, I still buy Nokia phones for my family and recommend them to my friends.
I really loved my E51 for the few days it worked. It replaced my N75. This phone is small, sleek, fast and beautiful. I love the tactile feel of the keys. I think the E51 has the best keys I’ve ever used. WiFi works great and is awesome! The price wasn’t too bad either. Physically this phone is flawless.
But alas, it was all too good to be true. Everything was working fine until I tried to reply a text message today. I hit “reply”, the phone opens up a new text message and 1 second later it closed and went back to the Inbox. I did this a few times and it the same thing. Thinking I may have too many text messages (about 50 I think, which is NOT many!) I deleted all my “sent” text messages and tried to reply the message again. Same thing. So I figure I’ll reboot it and everything will be fine. WRONG! The Nokia logo came on and then nothing but white screen!
This is not my first white screen of death experience. A couple of months ago, my Nokia 770 internet table did the same thing after a week of use. I called up Nokia and they told me to send it in for repair. 30 days later, they told me they couldn’t fix it and will refund me the money. I said fine, I’ll just use the refund to buy the then newer model Nokia N800. 3 days later, they called and told me they are NOT going to refund me but send me a refurbished unit. I still want to like Nokia. So I said fine. I received a refurbished unit a week later and haven’t had a problem with it since. But that was such an ORDEAL! Over 50 days of wait time, numerous calls to tech support and status check to get my Nokia 770 replaced.
Anyways, this is a great phone when it worked…
Nokia devices I have owned 3360, 8265, 6620, 770, 6682, 6102, N75, E51.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Blackberry emails are unbeatable. Tried E51, and went back to BB 8800
December 14th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Hi there!
Does it comes with 3.5mm to 2.5mm stereo plug adapter?
Thanks!
December 15th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Hi
just got my e51. i like it. i installed fring voip application and was able to talk with skype,msn,gtalk and any sip like gizmo. i was using skype and gizmo. both worked fine. The browsing expereince is great with the inbuilt browser. The qulity of talking on skype is simply superb when working on wlan. little lagging when used on 3g and doubtful on gprs. Over all it is fully loaded phone with FM radio,2mp camera,unlimited voice recording…….
best phone to buy for people who look for utilities. Best thing is we can use bluetooth stereo headsets for hearing music or taking calls and the audio quality is good. only thing i found bad is we cannot use speaker phone comfortably on streets as the voice from speaker phone is somewhat less. overall we can manage.
I recomend this phone to people who are looking for wlan phones with small size and all the major feauteres.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
HI,
I HAD BEEN USING E50, I AM NOT SATISFIED WITH ITS SMALL FONT SIZE, ALSO THERE IS NO FONT SIZE OPTIONS AS 6233, IT IS DIFFICULT TO READ ON E50, CAN ANYONE TELLME , DOES E51 HAS BIGGER FONT SIZE OPTION
December 17th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Hi Harsha,
You should consider this amazing application:
http://www.e-series.org/archives/356
Cheers
Ed
December 21st, 2007 at 5:07 am
Waited ages for an E-series phonethat could be trendy yet functional
Previous phone was 6233
still a very good phone, yet wanted something more
E51 is very good, loving it at the moment
yet one again when you upgrade (ie to a higher level than the one below)
why do nokia always miss the most important apects of the phone , its userablity
6233 had avery good sms interface
E51 doesnt let u copy and paste in some of its folder within the messaging section
its anoyin…..
Nika i know u read the bolgs on this site, hope oyur listening
and do a software upgrade soon
thanks
jak
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:42 am
grrr battery life isnt great getting like 1.5-2 days with 2 hours calls and a bit of sms/wifi - anyone else?
December 24th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Hi Sriram,
I was trying to run skype over fring on the E51. It will not work. What version of software (symbian/Fring) are you using. THank you very much
December 28th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
hi i am willing to purchase a mobile which has business solutions & for entertainment also i thopught e51 would be good for that, i wanted to know how is the phone doing in normal usage is it hanging or how is it? is it good?
if u reply to my id
go2moorthy@rediffmail.com it will be good
moorthy
January 7th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Can anyone who has got their Nokia E51 from T-Mobile tell me if the T-Mobile E51 has any E51 features turned off of unavailable?
I’ve always purchased unlocked phones before and always been PAYG but with T-Mobile offering the excellent Web ‘n’ Walk package in the UK with a £29.99 E51 (or free on the higher tarifs) it sounds like a good deal. I’d hate to buy into an 18-month contract only to find some of the good E51 bits have been removed by T-Mobile!
Thanks
Sprogz
January 18th, 2008 at 3:52 am
i have bought new nokia e51. when i try to connect my phone to the computer in the usb mode, it gives message “data card is in use”. can some body help me sort this out.
Regards
January 18th, 2008 at 4:33 am
My international messages are not getting sent. I wonder if that has anything to do with the setttings og E51?
February 4th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Sprogz, just spotted your comment and although you may already have it answered. I’ve had the tmobile version since late december and none of the features appear to be disabled. Quickoffice is only a reading version and you need to upgrade if you want to be able to edit. GPS version on this needs upgrading if you want to use voice guidance and you need a GPS reciever. Hope this helps. Other than these small issues, for size, price, and looks the E51 is the best phone i’ve found!!
February 5th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Well, typing this on my brand new e51. I can answer some of the questions above.
Yes it has a flight mode, it’s the ‘offline’ profile and disables the network. It looks like it also disables wifi though.
You can change the font size. Screen real estate isn’t missive obviously, so i select a pretty small font to use. Still deciding if i like browsing in landscape mode. Also note that different fonts may be used in different markets, so if you’re in a non western country but not using the local language then it may be worth getting a standard English firmware installed.
The sharp key is now used instead of a pencil key to copy and paste. I guess that would work best for left handed people as the thing is on the right side of the phone where you’d normally have your thumb on the D pad, but it’s okay.
Oh yes, the speed improvement from the new cpu is very welcome too! Funny how with computers everyone is focussed on cpu but never for phones..
Multimedia: music quality is good for me, though the specs say that a music phone like n82 should sound better. With standard mp3’s though i doubt you’d hear the difference. It does not come with a 2.5 to 3.5 jack adapter, but that doesn’t sound like something Radio Shack can’t solve quickly and cheaply..
Will post more observations soon.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Ok, more observations:
Wow.
Things that I expect to be hassle just keep working just like that.. Like:
- It new Gmail’s pop & smtp settings which I always forget (esp. the type of encryption they use.
- “Printers”.. .hmm wonder what that does.. O-kay.. define printer, our office main HP laserjet.. ok.. IP, I know that.. ‘Done’…. Print… It PRINTS, wirelessly to our office printer!! I’ve had more trouble doing that in Windows or Linux..!
- My wireless bluetooth keyboard……..that I bought a couple years ago… just works!! It’s supported by the phone without needing to install software. It talks you through pairing it, and it works!
Now the only thing that persists in being nasty is the Mail for Exchange stuff, with which in theory I should be able to connect to my company’s Exchange server and sync . . . This is just a bit weird, I made sure I downloaded the latest version (2.3) but it doesn’t seem very polished. Like it removed the existing Gmail account I set up, and when changing your password it then also losed a bunch of its settings which you then have to set up again. So the jury is still out on that one.
It’s not a make or break feature though, it syncs with Outlook just fine through the usual Sync after all.
February 12th, 2008 at 2:39 am
when I’m connect my NokiaE51 to wireless it’s success for founding SSID access point in my office, but when I’m go to web browsing for web internet page, that display message about “no gateway reply“ what wrong with my setting and how to solve that problem thanks before.
February 13th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Does it support the Gtalk And Yahoo messe in E51
March 13th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Hey Buddy….
I want to install themes in my E51, but when I go to File Manager and to the Memory card section and press Install, then it gives error asking me to contact the supplier…could I help me in this?
March 26th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Ok I am on my 3 rd one of these phones in 2 days as so far the first two have died with a white screen of death.
On my 3 rd one I have fanally installed Internet Radio from nokia using the the N95 1.02 version which works with all mp3 radio stations but will not work with any aac + stations which is wierd ?.
The lan connection kept cutting off until we had a nokia crash and now seems to hold its net connection, the blue tooth works in full quality prob as this one uses version 2 bluetooth so I can listen to mp3 stations with my bluetooth car radio.
Bugs…
poss white screen of death unless you get a good one lol
no normal headphone socket ?? why
pain up the butt to install as all you get is certificate error ???
“better than N95″ NO ?? the batt lasts longer but thats all.
Good cheap base entry for symbian phone but Nokia fix the bugs first please as this could be a good phone of you sort the Operating SYS out first.
Ok we got quick bluetooth button but most people are not worried about that thay are nore interested in the thing working properly ???
Cpu speed? quicker than what if it dont install and work properly ?? so the N95 says what it does on the box apart from the batt but it works almost 100 % stable E51 60% stable and the worst Nokia symbian that I have had so far.
Regards
April 6th, 2008 at 3:52 am
hi,
how do i install a theme on my nokia E51?
PLEASE REPLY
April 14th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Hey Buddy….
I want to install themes in my E51, but when I go to File Manager and to the Memory card section and press Install, then it gives certification error asking me to contact the supplier…could I help me in this?
April 17th, 2008 at 11:19 am
how to install themes and apps in e51 i want to but i cant? I also changed my date.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:24 am
and please help. Thanx!
May 24th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I use my E51 with emoze (free push email) + gmail account for my email. To chat I use eBuddy (supports gTalk, Yahoo etc). The settings are easy.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Can anyone help? Will the E51 record both voices in phone conversation by simply pressing the voice record button on the handset or is more complicated than this?
June 28th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
i use nokia e51 but i don’t know to change font on icon
best regard :bopheak