The 'Half Qwerty' Nokia E55 - 'first look' review

...can you please publish a shot of the E71 keyboard next to the E55 Rafe?

tim - have a look at this image in the photo gallery (just added link to gallery to the new story).

Large version: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3468/3811080405_9fc058ca73_o.jpg

Rafe wrote:tim - have a look at

Many thanks!

thanks for nice first look.
i want to know how does the half qwerty works without T9 or predictive text? for typing in the other languages with english alphabet.
and what has steve said about the E75 battery life ?! :tongue:

How much memory is free on C: drive to install apps ?
is the preinstalled stuff like psilic world traveller un-installable?

Nice first impression.
Btw that first shot looks almost like two cutout press photos in your hand.
I think this is cause by the soft look and the screen....the screen looks like printed out and sticked on sticker. Very nice.

I've been waiting a good few months for the E55. A few years ago I had a SE M600 with a half qwerty keypad and got on well with it.

Light and pocketable is the main thing I look for in a mobile. I am not a business user but I use most of the Symbiam features now and again. I use the calendar, contacts and notes all the time and occasionally I take a few photo's and video clips, download the odd music track and sent an occasional email. I now have the 6220 classic, it's good but feels cheap. The E55 looks more solid.

But .......... I am being swayed in the direction of the 5530. It is also light and pocketable and seems to meet the avarage Symbian users requirements as well.

I wonder if the touch screen is the way to go or does the qwerty / half qwerty still have a long term future.

paker - in brief (more detail from Steve in review I imagine). You can use the keyboard in multi tap mode (e.g. hit '1' twice for 'r'😉. One of the nice things is you can set a secondary language and have that work in predictive mode (note: did not try this myself).. so in theory you could write in both English and French say in the same piece of text. The text settings can be easily change using the settings (which you can access from anywhere using the SHIFT+SYMBOL key shortcut.

Battery - at 1500 mAh it is about as good as you could hope for on a device this size.

Rakat - there's about 45 MB free on the C: drive (and that was after installing a few things). The smaller internal memory is about the only negative chnage from the E51. There's around 51 MB of RAM after a boot up. I didn't try and uninstall the extra software - I'm sure Steve will look at this.

moonshot - interesting either or there. I'm a former M600 user too (which may be why I didn't run away when I saw the keyboard). I think I'd get on better with the E55, but that's me. The calendar and contacts software are better on the E55 (see E71 review for description of calendar changes). 5530 does have a bigger screen... Should have a 5530 review shortly. I think we'll settle down into three bits if market 12 key / QWERTY / and touch (with hybrids in between). The QWERTY device will be around for a long time to come in my opinion.

Rafe,

how about this edof camera then? E71-ish or 5800-ish, or may we hope, E75-ish.

for the price this looks really nice. I'm uncertain between this and an e75. given I think I can adapt to the keyboard the camera might settle it. unless I wait for the e72...

cheers,
dj

What i like most about touch screen phones is that they usually have big screens
And big screens are good to read on and I NEED that on a phone.
I dont remember many non touch screen phones with big screens...

frederico wrote:i dont remember many non touch screen phones with big screens...

e90?

Very nice first impressions, the Eseries phones have become quite impresive (not that they weren't before :P ).
Any idea when the E72 will be launching, though? That's the one I'm waiting for. I imagine either later on in august or (more likely) sometime in september - october.

E55 is the ultimate replacement for my old faithful Blackberry 7105t. It has the half qwerty just like E55 that I'm used to. Finally a Nokia phone designed for me.

Thanks for the first impressions

I have 2 questions if you dont mind:

1. I read that version 7.1 of the web browser is faster. How can you compare it to Opera Mini? I dont like the Java based applications.

2. Does Eseries now have the Photos application? Use the virtual Albums or Folders in managing the images (i dont mean folders in file manager)...do i have the option to add the image to specific album immediatly (in the Camera setting).

In my personal opinion the best approach for qwerty keyboard in a phone was made by Sony Ericsson with the models M600 and P1i. It was compact enough while giving access to the basic phone functions and the dual touch keys allowed quick typing. The solution used by Nokia and Blackberry is very annoying if you type in non english languages where T9 is useless.

Does it come with a lifetime pedestrian navigation licence like the N86, or is it just a trial?

"(and bear in mind the E55 has a 0.2 inch bigger screen)"...actually the E51 has a 2" screen,so the difference between the E55/E52 is actually 0.4"...

Nice review, as always, Rafe. My sole concern with the E55 is whether apps will recognize the keys in the half-qwerty format. I remember that when the eE71 came out, some apps didn't (and some still don't) work well with the full keyboard, as opposed to the standard T9 12-key. Have you been able to detect any issues with the key mapping?

Rafe,

Looking forward to the full review.

I know this is not a music phone but the addition of the 3.5mm jack makes it a viable music player during the down times or commute. If you can, test the "Music Remote AD-54" that comes with the Nseries and XpressMusic devices. If the forward/reverse/play/pause button works on it.

Thanks

EDOF means no need to do AF? Faster shooting then? 😃

dj ... wrote:Rafe,

how about this edof camera then? E71-ish or 5800-ish, or may we hope, E75-ish.

for the price this looks really nice. I'm uncertain between this and an e75. given I think I can adapt to the keyboard the camera might settle it. unless I wait for the e72...

cheers,
dj

It really depends on what you want. I would point out the E75 is a bit behind in the hardware department (and software to an extent). Not as much as the E71 though.

We will be doing some more camera tests, so maybe wait for those?

adi_pie wrote:Very nice first impressions, the Eseries phones have become quite impresive (not that they weren't before :P ).
Any idea when the E72 will be launching, though? That's the one I'm waiting for. I imagine either later on in august or (more likely) sometime in september - october.

E72 is probably October.

Frederico wrote:What i like most about touch screen phones is that they usually have big screens
And big screens are good to read on and I NEED that on a phone.
I dont remember many non touch screen phones with big screens...

Different choice, different compromises. One handed versus two handed, physical keys versus on screen keys... size etc etc.

Ammar_Dento wrote:Thanks for the first impressions

I have 2 questions if you dont mind:

1. I read that version 7.1 of the web browser is faster. How can you compare it to Opera Mini? I dont like the Java based applications.

2. Does Eseries now have the Photos application? Use the virtual Albums or Folders in managing the images (i dont mean folders in file manager)...do i have the option to add the image to specific album immediatly (in the Camera setting).

1 Opera Mini is faster, but the 7.1 browser is a big step up. See ou browser speed test from July.

2. The Photos application appears in the Gallery app (i.e. there is not Photo application icon), but if you click Images in Gallery you get the Photo's like view etc. And yes you have the option to add to an album immediately, as well as in the Photo apps.

Hello Rafe!

I have 3 questions.
1. Is the time (missed call and message icons) displayed in standby mode?
2. Is WiPresenter made with Bluetooth HID standard, so that no special software need to be installed on the computer except bluetooth adapter drivers?
3. Are there any dedicated internet and bluetooth shortcout keys like 0 and * in E52?

Thanks

Rafe: You keep saying that processor speed is irrelevant(or at least trivial). And from my own experiences with symbian I agree with you. It just doesn't seem to make any real difference. I personally own a i8910 which has a 600mhz next gen arm processor which should be twice as fast if not even faster than the n97's processor. But after comparing my phone with the speed of n97s I've seen reviewed it actually seems slower, certainly not any faster. However, I'm sitting here writing this on an iphone 3gs, and compared to my friends 3g it's absolutely blazing. Web pages load at least twice as fast, sometimes even faster than that. Applications load in half tje time if even that.
So why is it that symbian doesn't seem to be affected by cpu speed? Is it an inherent weakness of the os that renders it incapable of harnessing the power of faster cpus? Or is it just samsung messing it up with crappy firmware? But if so, why aren't the new nokias with 600mhz processors showing significant improvement(this is sort of your words, I haven't tested it). Surely. Nokia must have got this down by now.

Tenkom wrote:Rafe: You keep saying that processor speed is irrelevant(or at least trivial). And from my own experiences with symbian I agree with you. It just doesn't seem to make any real difference. I personally own a i8910 which has a 600mhz next gen arm processor which should be twice as fast if not even faster than the n97's processor. But after comparing my phone with the speed of n97s I've seen reviewed it actually seems slower, certainly not any faster. However, I'm sitting here writing this on an iphone 3gs, and compared to my friends 3g it's absolutely blazing. Web pages load at least twice as fast, sometimes even faster than that. Applications load in half tje time if even that.
So why is it that symbian doesn't seem to be affected by cpu speed? Is it an inherent weakness of the os that renders it incapable of harnessing the power of faster cpus? Or is it just samsung messing it up with crappy firmware? But if so, why aren't the new nokias with 600mhz processors showing significant improvement(this is sort of your words, I haven't tested it). Surely. Nokia must have got this down by now.

Partly because Samsung are no where near as good as what Nokia can do with software optimisation to improve general speed and "feel". My-symbian ran a benchmark against the N97 and it took the OmniaHD half the time to complete. There is no comparison in terms of hardware but Nokia are much better than Samsung on the software side. Do something that really stretches the CPU and it will show... Like benchmarks, 3D games, really complex mathematical equations etc...

Nokia are still using ARM11 processor but now with a few handsets clocked at 600Mhz which is only about 25-30% boost in CPU speed compared to the N97. This doesn't mean you're going get those kind of improvements. Far from it, like your desktop PC that is only one component. Your internal storage, ram, graphics, external storage etc all effects the overall speed. Lets not forget about firmware updates which can improve overall speed and reliability. The new 600mhz phones hasn't gone through many updates compared to the older batch.

Rafe, what's the 3rd band in addition to the assumed 900 and 2100 bands? 1900 perhaps? If so, then why all of sudden are manufacturers including this radio (like Samsung on the i8910 and i8000) and not also the 850?(much to my American chagrin, though 1900 coverage is far more pervasive in the US than I realized having traveled some with the i8910)

is there a quick way to insert emoticons? on my old N70 emoticons were quicly inserted clicking 3 times on 1 key. with e55 you have to insert one punctuation character after the other

Sockatume wrote:Does it come with a lifetime pedestrian navigation licence like the N86, or is it just a trial?

Yes

hargs48 wrote:"(and bear in mind the E55 has a 0.2 inch bigger screen)"...actually the E51 has a 2" screen,so the difference between the E55/E52 is actually 0.4"...

Opps - thanks. The extra screen size might not sound like that much, but it does make a big difference.

wocius wrote:Nice review, as always, Rafe. My sole concern with the E55 is whether apps will recognize the keys in the half-qwerty format. I remember that when the eE71 came out, some apps didn't (and some still don't) work well with the full keyboard, as opposed to the standard T9 12-key. Have you been able to detect any issues with the key mapping?

I haven't specifically tested this, but I've not noticed this yet either. Apps should get input through the FEP in which case they should work fine.

Neero wrote:
I know this is not a music phone but the addition of the 3.5mm jack makes it a viable music player during the down times or commute. If you can, test the "Music Remote AD-54" that comes with the Nseries and XpressMusic devices. If the forward/reverse/play/pause button works on it.

Yes it works.

I have 3 questions.
1. Is the time (missed call and message icons) displayed in standby mode?
2. Is WiPresenter made with Bluetooth HID standard, so that no special software need to be installed on the computer except bluetooth adapter drivers?
3. Are there any dedicated internet and bluetooth shortcout keys like 0 and * in E52?

1. Yes (I think what you mean is the icons along the top of the screen in the status areaa.

2. Not sure. Its PsiLoc's WiPresenter so you might want to check their site.

3. Yes. * = Bluetooth toggle, 0 - internet # = silence profile toggle

Tenkom wrote:Rafe: You keep saying that processor speed is irrelevant(or at least trivial). And from my own experiences with symbian I agree with you. It just doesn't seem to make any real difference. I personally own a i8910 which has a 600mhz next gen arm processor which should be twice as fast if not even faster than the n97's processor. But after comparing my phone with the speed of n97s I've seen reviewed it actually seems slower, certainly not any faster. However, I'm sitting here writing this on an iphone 3gs, and compared to my friends 3g it's absolutely blazing. Web pages load at least twice as fast, sometimes even faster than that. Applications load in half tje time if even that.

So why is it that symbian doesn't seem to be affected by cpu speed? Is it an inherent weakness of the os that renders it incapable of harnessing the power of faster cpus? Or is it just samsung messing it up with crappy firmware? But if so, why aren't the new nokias with 600mhz processors showing significant improvement(this is sort of your words, I haven't tested it). Surely. Nokia must have got this down by now.

I would not say it is irrelevant , but there's a tendency to assume a higher Mhz speed is proportionally better (i.e. a 600 Mhz device is twice as fast as 300 Mhz one). This is definitely not the case. The impact of processor speed is also very heavily dependent on the task you are carrying out. Processor intensive tasks will be effected, but outside of video there's relatively few of these (e.g. web browsing is far more software dependent that most people assume). What this means is that some tasks will be almost completely unaffected by processor speed changes.

Incidentally this is why multiple core processors are important. Faster processor = more energy (in general) = lower battery life. Multiple cores enables a properly written system to switch off cores when they not needed and thus save power. In normal operation only one core will be used. When doing something processor intensive (encoding a video) multiple cores will be used. Thus multi-core architecture offers a better performance-power balance than the current architecture (all single core processors).

So in summary? Processor speed is over-emphasised in mobile device in general (not just Symbian).

Samsung probably have not optimized their hardware as heavily as Nokia does. However I would not necessarily read too much into this. The Samsung phone has capabilities in video and graphics that no Nokia currently has Open GL 2 graphics, HD video) - and these are because of the processor.

The OS/ application layer may carry some responsibility here (good example is the browser - see our recent article on this)... but in terms of core operations the OS is already extremely fast and efficient. For application loading (especially if you include multitasking abilities) you'll find recent Symbian phones much the same as the iPhone 3GS (e.g. Google Maps opening time)... Thus a faster processor will only make a small difference - the bottleneck, in performance terms will be elsewhere (memory speed, coding of an application, graphics capability etc etc.).

So no its not an inherent weakness of the OS - rather it is a sign of its strength and maturity. Basically it the OS that means a 5800 (with a generation n processor at 400 Mhz) is relatively close in performance to the iPhone 3GS (with a generation n+1 processor running at 600 Mhz) for most basic operations. Basically Symbian OS is able to run on fewer resources (processor / memory etc.)... which is one of the reasons it dominates the mid tier.

Of course once you start looking at the more processor intensive stuff - notably games and graphics - this does change... However remember that the iPhone has a graphics co-processor - the Nokia phones do not... so game performance is not so much about the central processor speed.

With regards to the iPhone - the processor is significantly faster (depends who you ask, but a four times performance boost is a good figure). The performance improvement is roughly 2x. The processor has an impact (because it a big leap), but a lot will have come from software too. A good example of this is how, if you load iPhone 3 OS onto an iPhone 3G you'll get a significant performance improvement over an iPhone 3G with iPhone OS 2. It may well be that iPhone OS, as a young platform, has more room for improvement.

mobiquizoid wrote:Rafe, what's the 3rd band in addition to the assumed 900 and 2100 bands? 1900 perhaps? If so, then why all of sudden are manufacturers including this radio (like Samsung on the i8910 and i8000) and not also the 850?(much to my American chagrin, though 1900 coverage is far more pervasive in the US than I realized having traveled some with the i8910)

The three bands are WCDMA 2100, WCDMA 850 and WCDMA 900. 850 is used in North America, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and The Philippines (maybe elsewhere too). Where as I think 1900 is US only.

I imagine there may also be licensing issues and IP involved (not an expert here).

Rafe wrote:

The three bands are WCDMA 2100, WCDMA 850 and WCDMA 900. 850 is used in North America, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and The Philippines (maybe elsewhere too). Where as I think 1900 is US only.

I imagine there may also be licensing issues and IP involved (not an expert here).

So, the device you currently have is capable on all 3 bands? From what I've researched since asking, it seems the original Nokia plan was to do the typical "-1" and "-2" models where E55-1 would have 900 and 2100, and E55-2 would have 850 and 2100?