NOKIA E51, AUSTRALIAN STOCK, BLUE TICK NEXT G OK

 When making a business phone, the approach that phone makers have taken has always tended towards the serious. Make a business phone too flashy, the theory goes, and you'll put off potential customers, either because they don't want to look as though they're not serious business types, or simply because those in charge of the purse strings won't release funds for a "fun" looking phone.

It's a trend that's slowly been eroded away by a subset of business phones that also double as decent looking personal models, and Nokia's latest enterprise model, the E51, fits neatly into this category. It's a candy-bar form factor phone, measuring 114mm by 46mm by 12mm and weighing a neat 100 grams. That's perhaps a touch on the long side for some business shirt pockets, but nowhere near as bulky as, say, an old school Blackberry.

Features
The E51 is a 3G, HSDPA capable phone -- our test sample came configured for Telstra's Next G network. It also boasts Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities, as you'd expect from a business-class phone. The E51 runs on the Symbian 60 platform, with support for push mail via Mail for Exchange, Visto Mobile, and Seven Always-on platforms. On the office side, QuickOffice provides access to Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, although critically this is in a viewing capacity only. We can't imagine seriously editing a business document on the E51's two-inch display, so perhaps Nokia has a point in not including a full editor; still, some business users may find this a distinct drawback.

It is somewhat weaker on the "fun" side of the equation. While it does sport a 2-megapixel camera, there's only the one camera, which rather limits the appeal of video calling. Likewise, it'll handle music and video playback, and comes with 130MB of on-board memory to accommodate these (upgradeable via microSD), but they're pretty clearly a bit of an afterthought compared to the more entertainment-focused mobiles on the market currently.

Performance
The candy-bar form factor is so well established, and so well understood by phone manufacturers that it's pretty hard to get it wrong, and for the most part the E51 treads a familiar and safe path. We were somewhat irked by some of the function keys in practical use terms. The rubberised side keys are somewhat unresponsive unless you've got tough thumbs, and the rather small option keys that circle the main control pad are on the thin and small side. That's a personal observation, however -- a couple of minutes fiddling around with the display sample in any phone shop should tell you whether the E51 will annoy you personally in this regard.

As noted, the business functionality of the E51 is somewhat hampered by the fact that the supplied version of QuickOffice is only capable of document viewing and not editing. Likewise, the browser uses Nokia's virtual map set-up to zip around Web pages. Given the dual limitations of a two-inch display and a standard phone keypad, it's a reasonable enough compromise. In effect, this is a phone for checking details in the back of a cab or on the train, but not really one that you'd want to compose lengthy documents on during a trip.

Nokia rates the E51 as being capable of up to 4.4 hours of talktime and up to 13 days standby. With the integration of Wi-Fi, we reckon that's pretty optimistic for most business users, and we found ourselves recharging the E51 around every three to four days during our tests.