Nokia E51

The E51 is a slender and thin Smartphone from Nokia the sports many of the features found in some of their larger PDA models (but without the full QWERTY keyboard). The E51 therefore looks more like a standard candy bar cell phone, but it processes many of the features expected from higher-end models.


Provided is Nokia’s excellent 320 x 240 TFT color display. It has vibrant colors and it is surprisingly easy to see in direct sunlight. It doesn’t provide the amazingly-reflective background found on the Nokia 5200, but it does something that very few TFT display can: it actually reflects sunlight internally. This is important because the brighter the sun gets, the better you can see the display. Sure, the colors aren’t so great in direct sunshine, but you can at least READ the display and easily see important information. This makes the E51 display one of the best compromises between indoor and outdoor performance that I’ve seen. Hopefully this means that future Nokia models will be endowed with the same great display.


The E51 suffers from a real estate crunch that is common to many modern candy bar designs. Screens have become physically large and this inevitably crowds out the keypad. To its credit the E51 had good key feel and the spacing of the 12 number keys is fine. The problem with the design (as is the case with many Nokia candy bar and slider designs) is the softkeys and the 4-way cursor pad. These keys are either way too skinny (the softkeys) or way too difficult to discern from one other (the 4-way pad). I won’t say that this is the worst keypad I’ve tested on a Nokia phone, because it’s far from it. However, it is also far from being a great keypad design. I guess the fairest assessment is to call it an adequate keypad design.


The E51 has the potential to be really great phone, but as it stands the sympathetic vibrations in the earpiece and the inadequate earpiece volume steal any chance of this phone has of ever getting on my must-have list. If the earpiece issue is consistent, then all E51s will be like the one I tested. However, if the earpiece issue is inconsistent, then it is possible that you can get a good-sounding example. Just make sure you try it before you buy, which means think carefully about buying one online.