Sep 05, 2012 04:23 PM
3735 Views
I text a lot and have had several qwerty phones like the Nokia E71, E72, Blackberry Curve 8520 and now the Nokia E5. Out of all of the phones I have tried, Nokia E5 is the most value for money phone for the feature set and the price. I have been using the phone for the past 4 months. Here are my reasons for recommending it.
Solid design quality. Its the standard qwerty design, but beautifully executed with metal accents on the edges with a metal battery cover - like all Nokia E series phones. The device is built really well, no squeaks of cheap plastic phones. Feels solid to hold, its slightly heavier than the all plastic blackberry curve(not to say that the bb build quality is bad). All keys are within easy reach and feel solidly reassuring. No wobble or cheap plasticky feel. It looks dignified as a business cell phone should.
Its really fast. The processor and memory package on the E5 is really super. I read somewhere on the web that it holds the record of supporting maximum no. of open applications. I don't know about that but all operations are really fast, no lag at all. Believe me, compared to the earlier Nokias or the BB curve, the performance is super quick.
Battery life is great. It lasts at least 2-3 days of usage. My BB with similar usage, ran only for barely a day and a half.
Amazing price. I bought it for 9, 150 frm a Nokia Priority dealer with a 4 GB card. Bang for the buck is super. You get 3G, wifi, bluetooth, GPS and all the other bells and whistles you'd expect frm a cell phone. Comparable BB phones are a whole lot expensive.
User experience is really smooth and easy. Most of the interface is very intuitive and relatively easy. Organizing contacts, messages, mails, calendar is really easy on the phone itself and also easy to transfer and backup on the pc through the PC suite. Its easier than the famed BB interface. For example, BB doesn't let you select multiple entries in contacts or messages. On Nokia its a breeze. Connecting to other devices and transferring data over bluetooth or wifi is much easier than on BB.
GPS and Nokia maps are free for life and very usable. Apparently, Nokia has developed an expertise in Map integration and navigation. It is much better than Google maps or any other mapping service on phones. Major plus is that maps can be downloaded and used offline or with minimal data usage. Specially useful when you are on a roaming connection or outside of a cell network. Even the mighty Apple, Android and BB are no match for maps.
Now, let me give you a few misses also.
The screen size is small and the screen is also low res. So the icons and text appears jagged, readable but no so fine. Screen colors and brightness is adequate.
Keyboard has small elevated keys which are comfortable for most users but BB keyboards are definitely a notch above. There is no two views on this, for heavy texters, BB keyboards are better.
The whole phone along with the Symbian software appears dated if you compare the overall experience(software+hardware) with the iphone or android but that experience is not available at this price point. Surely, there is a shift towards touch enabled bigger screens in the smart phone space. So our qwerty design appears historical now a days.
Ultimately, if you are in the market for qwerty hand set whatever your budget, I'll recommend this phone and you'll be happy with this. BBs are good but much more expensive to buy and run. BBs have little else to offer except the BBM, which has better alternatives like Whatsapp now.
If you are a smartphone buyer on a budget, again this is a recommend because very few handsets can match the value for money and quality offer.
If you can spend double or more than this, then this phone pales in comparison to the user experience and wow factor of an iphone or the top of the line Androids.
