Nokia E51 Announced
The picture got leaked a while back, but I didn’t report on it because honestly, I called shenanigans. I’m still a bit confused with the new button layout, but let’s cover the details, first. The E51 was announced today and is a followup to…you guessed it…..the E50. 2MP camera, FM radio, WiFi, and S60v3 Feature Pack 1 are all the details I could glean from the Press Release, maybe we’ll have more soon.
**Update** Stefan found the spec sheet, revealing quad-band GSM (I’m glad that’s finally standard for Nokia), HSDPA on the 850/2100 bands (pointing towards an Australian focus), BT 2.0, and a Mini-USB connector port. The battery is the same as the N81, at 1070mAh.
Availability is said to be global during Q4 2007. I was informed by BlueBlazerRegular that orders went out last week for all three colors, so expect to see this one readily available in short order. I think Darla Mack might like the Rose color, though you never know with that girl.
Now, let’s take a gander at these new buttons. The menu button has been replaced with a "home" key (picture of a house), and there are dedicated buttons to email, contacts, and calendar. The "c" key has changed to a picture of "delete" from old-school typewriters, which is interesting. Why change these buttons? That’s easy.
This is an E-series, aimed at business users. What OS have these guys probably been using? Windows Mobile. What icons does Windows Mobile use? The same. Thus, they’re (brilliantly) tailoring the E-series to target the correct people. It’s a little odd, but a great move by Nokia, in my opinion.
What do you think of this phone? Pricing is 350 EURO, which is roughly $485USD, which is completely ridiculous, in my opinion.
honestly the phones looks.. ugly.well thats my opinion.. it looks like the nokia 2610.. ehehe..and also, the delete button looks a bit ugly for me.. ehe
You know, I was thinking about that menu key thing the other day. The Nokian blog had an interesting post about the little sister trying the N76 and one of her first questions was “how do I get to the menu?”. And that’s not surprising at all. What the heck is that Symbian swirl?
So for someone picking up a S60 for the first time, the home key makes absolute sense, and would probably be a good move to introduce to all S60 phones.
Why do you think the price is ridiculous? For the specs, size, and probably ultra-solid feel (if its like the E50) and long battery life, I think the price is not that bad as a starting price, and will likely drop a bit fairly quickly.
Ricky I totally agree with your comments. Nice device, kinda outdated, good overall…but very high price tag for these features.
Hey there,
I am new to this page. Why is the price ridiculous? Ridiculous good or ridiculous bad?
Well i disagree with Viip… I like the symbian logo key and hate this new kiddy house. But Ricky points are very valid and mademe look at this change in a different way. It’s a great marketing move to match the buttons to the other competitors.
But keep the N series far from it