25 Reasons Why You Will Love Your Nokia E51

I love the Apple iPhone. No. Actually, that's not what I meant to write. I love the fact that it exists. For someone who likes technology as much as I do, the fact that Apple was able to put something so advanced on the market makes my heart beat faster. Alas, I don't own one. (I do own one Apple iPod Touch (1st. gen) and I'm very happy with it, but that's just my iPod.) My business phone is a slim black Nokia E51.

I knew it was going to be an instant hit the minute I saw the specs. I was right. When it showed up in Europe in the Autumn of 2007, it was selling on the grey market for 200%-300% of the list price. I had to wait for six months to get one, but I knew it was well worth it. After using it for the last eight months, I can safely say that E51 is one of the best business mobile phones ever made.

Here's a list of 25 reasons why you will love it, if you choose it to be your business phone:

1. Excellent battery life. I rarely have to charge my E51 every day. It usually needs to be charged every other day, during normal day to day work. Total talk time listed by Nokia is 4.4 hours, which seems to be pretty close to reality, as long as you turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off. Standby time is 13 days. That's plenty enough for a phone-free week off. It recharges in less than 2 hours.
2. Slim metal case. E51 will fit into any pocket and survive far more bumps and knocks than those cheap plastic cases. Available in black, silver, and deep red, it looks good with any type of clothing and will appeal to both men and women. It is heavy enough for a man and light enough for a woman. Feels solid (and is).
3. No touch screen! While a touch screen is a nice gimmick, it is a nightmare to use on a daily basis for real work. If you are sending a lot of SMS or MMS messages, you will find E51 a much better choice.
4. Quick access keys. for the home screen, calendar, address book, and messaging. Plus a one-button delete key. Wonderful.
5. One-button Bluetooth switch. No menus to navigate. Just hold the Bluetooth button (the * key in bottom left corner on the keypad) to turn Bluetooth on and off. This is a great thing when you need to quickly pair your E51 with a Bluetooth headset, GPS or your own computer. Also a plus when you are printing to a printer that has a Bluetooth interface. This is a very much needed improvement over the old ways of pairing devices on N70, for example.
6. One-button Silent/General profile switch. Located in the bottom right corner of the keypad, the # key switches between the Silent and the General profile. A profile is a list of settings that control the behavior of the phone when it receives an incoming call, message, etc. You can customize those profiles and switch between them by holding the # key for a while.
7. One-button web access. Press and hold the 0 key on the keypad and you'll launch the built-in web browser.
8. Wi-Fi. It's not a gimmick. It actually works! I regularly download podcasts with the built-in web browser. I can then listen to them on my way to and from the meetings with my clients.
9. Home screen. All important information on the home screen. It looks like the Microsoft Windows Mobile Today screen, but is much less cluttered.
10. Built-in photo and video camera. It's only 2 megapixels, but very good quality. A great feature for taking casual pictures and videos. A happy dad's favorite feature. Because it only takes 2 megapixel pictures, it will not drain the battery as fast.
11. Google apps. GMail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube. They are free, work as advertised, and you will quickly fall in love with them.
12. 3G. It works and it makes all the difference when available. Downloading podcasts or browsing the web is a pleasure.
13. Easy integration with your PC. Via the free Nokia PC Suite.
14. An even easier integration with your Mac. Nokia offers an iSync plug-in. Download it and you'll be set. 
15. Bluetooth printing to HP printers. Works as advertised.
16. World clock. I really need it when I'm doing my seminars or traveling.
17. Converter. OK, so you need to find out how it works, but it does work. Very handy for multiple currency cost-estimates.
18. PDF support. You can read PDF books on your phone. The best experiences are to be had with documents pre-formatted for small screens, but in an emergency you will be albe to browse those 1040 forms just as well.
19. Lanscape video playback mode. Open the video clip, press Pause, select Options -> Fullscreen mode.
20. A built-in MP3 player. I listen to a lot of podcasts while driving. I just place my E51 in the hands-free cradle and suddenly that one hour of fighting through the traffic doesn't look that bad when you are listening to a good podcast.
21. Excellent software stability. So far, the phone hung and rebooted itself only 3 times in the last 8 months. This is a huge improvement over my old N70, which used to hang and reboot itself in the middle of a conversation or just out of the blue, at least twice a day.
22. QuickOffice. It is not a match for a full MS Office, but you get it pre-loaded on the device. You can use it to edit drafts or build fairly complex spreadsheets. It will not be a pleasurable experience, but at least you have that option.
23. Fast. Very fast processor and plenty of memory. You will not wait for the phone. 
24. A standard USB cable for syncing. I love this. No more Nokia-specific cables to move the content to and from the phone.
25. High capacity memory cards. Essential for storing MP3s and video files. Get a 4GB memory card. Make sure it is compatible with Nokia E51. I use Sandisk and Transcend cards. 

Some hints. If you want to take movies with you on the road, you can use the mighty Handbrake to transcode them into something that plays astonishingly well on your Nokia. Remember the landscape playback mode.

I know that some of you are held hostage to the Exchange mail and want an Exchange client on your mobile phone. Nokia ships one on the phone, but I haven't used it. The built-in email client is good enough for me, and I also used the free GMail mobile client. Both work with multiple email accounts.

You owe it yourself to get an unlocked version. It will have a good resale value and will meet and exceed your business needs.

OK, what's not so rosy about it? No full QWERTY keypad. But you get one with E71 or E63, so you do have an actual choice. The screen is tiny compared to the iPhone, but that's to be expected in the E51's form factor.

I don't like are the Nokia headphones. They are crap.

Final thoughts? This is my third Nokia phone. While I was happy to see my N70 go, E51 is a keeper and I will be looking long and hard before I replace it with a different model.