Nokia have, in the past, managed to successfully improve both popular and unpopular products with slight product revisions. The N-Gage to the N-Gage QD, and the Nokia 9300 to the Nokia 9300i both spring to mind. Have they successfully pulled off this trick with the E61i? As with previous iterative devices, there are some slight changes to the physical device, a few changes inside, and a general polishing of everything with an eye on the extensive user feedback that has been gathered.

Browsing is a lot quicker too. surfing through secure sites is not a problem by the way. i know the latest version of the E61 is capable of doing this but personally i think the E61i’s browser response is much better. i also haven’t experienced a single crash so far, when browsing and editing with Quickoffice at the same time. to test the phone’s stability, i even tried launching 4 to 5 apps (web, quickword, quicksheet, adobe pdf and mobireader) simultaneously while running screenshot on the background, and i can say, the E61i didn’t even flinch. very stable!

The QWERTY keyboard, other than having more room between each key, remains largely similar to the earlier E61. What we don’t quite fancy about the new buttons are the less pronounced. The rubbery surface also makes a squeaky sound when we run our fingers on it. However, it’s a minor gripe and we soon got over it as we breeze though typing a full text message on the E61i.

Key features:

• Rich connectivity options – UMTS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, Infrared
• Outstanding battery life
• 2 megapixel camera
• Messenger form factor with a full QWERTY keyboard
• Really large 2.8” TFT display
• Solid, metallic body
• Symbian OS 9.1 S60 3rd Edition UI
• microSD memory card slot

The Nokia 6151 is a 3G phone that looks very similar to the Nokia 6233. It’s a classic straight design with a functional keypad and 5-way navigation key.

Despite being a 3G phone, the 6151 has a rather lacklustre specification. Although the phone has a video camera, it’s rear mounted, making video calling impossible – a major design faux pas for a 3G phone. The camera itself is really nothing special, at just 1.3 megapixels, no flash, and dodgy quality. The 6151 does have a good MP3 player and FM radio, but with no memory card included in the sales package, you’ll have to fork out some more money if you want enough memory to store more than a few songs.

In typical Nokia style, they’ve managed to combine the most basic phone functions, but have also crammed in 3G connectivity, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, expandable memory and a generous amount of battery life to keep you on the go between power point hops.

At only 1.3 megapixels the camera seems a bit dated compared to the Nokia 6300′s 2-megapixel offering, although it’s still ample for happy snaps at family events. Don’t expect digital SLR quality photos, with images up to a maximum resolution of 1,280 x 960, but they are enough for a desktop wallpaper or the odd print out.

The 6151 features Nokia’s S40 interface, a little different from your traditional single page menu system. The icons scroll vertically rather than horizontally, and while it’s not a bad system, we did find ourselves doing laps of the menu to check all the options because you can’t see all the sub menus in one go. Our other big gripe is with the navigation button, sitting perilously close to the number two key and on more than one occasion was accidentally bumped when attempting to scroll down lists. Users with fat fingers have been warned.

The 6151 is well equipped for a handset in this price range. It has Bluetooth 2.0, support for SMS and MMS messaging with T9 predictive text input, Java games, a hands-free speakerphone, FM radio, MP3 player, push-to-talk, a voice recorder and voice dialling as well as MP3 ring tones. The FM radio works quite well, although you have to use the included headset as this acts as the antenna. The 6151 media player was notable for a phone in this price range. It is capable of playing MP3, AAC and M4A file formats and has preset and manual five-band equalisation options. It can also play videos in either 3GPP or MPEG4 formats.

Nokia E50 is another Series 60 Symbian 9.1 smartphone from the famous Finnish manufacturer. It’s the small sizes and ergonomic shape that attract most of the attention. The new quad-band handset has connectivity features like Infrared, Bluetooth, USB, GPRS and EDGE. As it comes at a low price, it will be a phone with many fans. Packed with features in small dimensions, coming at the right price, E50 is surely a bright addition on the GSM phones’ market shelves.

The E50 is intended as a lightweight SmartPhone for the business user who’s not interested in having a camera, MP3 player, etc on their phone. There is a camera, but it’s not up to much, and is in fact optional. On the other hand, the E50 has a good set of business functions: a good speakerphone, voice dialling and commands, email support, web browsing and an attachment viewer for Microsoft documents. It supports Bluetooth 2.0 wireless connectivity in addition to USB and infrared. Memory is ample, with 70 Mbytes built-in and support for hot-swappable memory cards. The E50 is quadband, but not 3G. However, fast downloads via EDGE are possible, so this isn’t too much of a hindrance. On top of this, the Symbian Series 60 functionality makes this a powerful business device. The E50 also has superb battery life.

There are, however, numerous problems with the E50. First of all, like many Symbian SmartPhones, its user interface is slow and the software is prone to crashing. Also, like many of our users have commented, the font size is tiny, so it’s hard to make use of the advanced features. Given that the target user is likely to be older than average, this is an inexcusable design fault. The Nokia E60 is a much better option.

Specifications:

The N91 sees Nokia take two steps forward with functionality and one step back in its design efforts, making the phone suitable for feature-mongers but not so attractive to budding fashionistas.

The first thing to note about the N91 is that it’s far from the most attractive phone on the market. It uses a “candybar” format but, with dimensions of 113.1mm by 55.2mm by 22mm and a weight of 156g, it’s far bulkier than other candybar phones out there.

Suffice it to say, you’ll struggle to fit this monster into a tight jeans pocket, but one advantage of its size is enhanced ruggedness. The body is constructed from stainless steel, so it’ll certainly keep up with your active lifestyle. Don’t be too reckless, however, as the screen is just as prone to scratching as any other phone.

The N91 8GB also includes video playback of 3GPP, H.263 and MPEG-4 files at resolutions up to 208 x 176 and comes pre-installed with RealPlayer and Flash player and an FM radio.

Go get music… the new music player supports plenty of file formats including M4A, MP3, AAC, eAAC and WMA. The N91 8GB also includes album art, playlists, preset equaliser settings as standard functions -definitely an excellent music player. Packed with multiple connectivity options, such as WCDMA, WLAN and Bluetooth wireless technology, the Nokia N91 makes it easy for you to find and enjoy music when and where you want.

Key features:

• Steel body parts
• External music controls on the sliding keypad cover
• 2 megapixel camera
• 4 GB hard disk
• Standard 3.5 mm jack
• Wi-Fi
• 3G networks support
• Symbian 9.1 OS
• Active stand-by mode
• Built-in FM radio
• USB support
• Extremely fast Java
• Manual keypad lock
• A number of extras that come in the original package

The Nokia 5500 Sport is a gadget-laden smartphone designed for outdoor and sports use. It could have been a great phone, but design faults have made the 5500 into a big disappointment.

Nokia 5500’s design resembles the design of Nokia 3220. The phone has a resistant body covered with rubber elements (in the style of Nokia 5140i), an operational system of a modern smartphone, a number of unique functions, and a bit of sport spirit – all this wrapped up in a single handset – Nokia 5500 Sport. The phone looks rather common at first sight, but its software equipment beats a great part of the competition.

All parts of the phone stick together perfectly; not a single wrong move. Well, nearly not a single: the cap of the connectors has not been elaborated well and as a result it gets loose quite frequently. On the other hand Nokia designers deserve an excellent mark for their work on the protection cover of the battery, which is often one of the weakest constructional spots of most mobile devices. Do not follow my example of trying to manage the tiny screw holding the battery cover with nails as you will break them. You will do fine with a screwdriver or a coin.

Just like the older 5000 series handsets, the screen is square. Surrounding the screen is a rubber protection strip with the hang-up and dial buttons hidden at the tip of both ends. The rubber keypad is completely smooth, but the indentation along each row makes it easier for differentiation between keys. However, the buttons are quite hard to press, and using the phone non-stop for five minutes is likely to start to hurt your thumb. The bottom line of the alphanumeric keypad is the worst at this. In the dark the phone looks quite cool when the whole yellow frame gets lit up with the numbers glowing in white. Notice that the d-pad color changes with respect to the function mode: white for normal, red for sports, and yellow for music.

The battery cover is one of worst I have ever seen. It incorporates a flap that protects the Pop-Port and headphones connectors on the bottom edge of the screen. This is fair enough as these are holes through which dust and water could get in, but it locks in place via one of those horrid slotted screws that you need a coin to get at. Several sized coins will do the job, but I couldn’t twist the thing with a fingernail.

The Nokia 5500 Sport is tri-band and features Bluetooth and infrared built in. It is small and light – 103g and 107 x 45 x 18mm. The standard version, which I had, comes with a rather measly 64MB microSD card which, in the interests of dust and water resistance lives under the battery. Inserting it is a must as it has some good extra software on board. There is a Music version of this handset which ships with a 512MB card.