Nokia E55

• Nokia E55
• Charger (AC-10)
• Nokia Charger Adapter CA-146C
• 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery (BP-4L)
• Nokia Stereo headset HS-48
• USB data cable (CA-101)
• 2 GB microSD memory card
• User Guide
• Nokia PC Suite (v7.2) (on microSD memory card)

Services enabled in the phone:

• Files on Ovi, 60-day subscription with 1GB of disk space at your disposal
• Maps, 10 one-day licenses, valid for 3 months from the day of purchase
• Nokia Messaging, life-time subscription

Positioning

Frankly speaking, as it stands today, the Nokia E55’s future appears to be extremely vague at best. And the reason for that is not tough competition on the outside; in fact the E55 will be eaten up by Nokia’s very own Eseries models that are either on their way to the market or already available. The idea behind the Nokia E55 is pretty simple – a pocketable phone with a focus on calling features, long battery life and a semiQWERTY-keyboard. All in all, it’s more of a link connecting the Nokia E51 and Nokia E63. But that’s not all, the E55 also complements the Nokia E63 in the way of thumbboard type, making Nokia’s business-savvy line-up complete in this respect. At the same time, the very existence of this phone opens a Pandora box for Nokia, since with the arrival of the Nokia 6700 there’ll be more than one option to choose from as far as their phones with emphasis on calling features go.

However, the Nokia E55 will appeal to avid texters who, for some reason, can’t handle conventional QWERTY keypads. Needless to say, this niche is so narrow that it’s not even worth considering. Plus, the E55’s localization will be quite problematic for many regions because of its keypad setup. That’s why it won’t be available in Russia, along with all phones of this type. By and large, Nokia needs to equip their semiQWERTY solutions with touch-sensitive displays, but that’s not something we should expect in 2009.

Further complicating things for the Nokia E55 is the soon-to-be-announced replacement for the E51 that will retail at the 265-275 Euro price point, allowing the original E51 to stay in the market with its current price tag, yet ruining the E55’s last chance for success. So at the end of the day Nokia has got another carrier-tailored solution on their hands that will be distributed in select regions. In essence, that’s the only way it’ll survive, although had it not had such an array of alternatives in Nokia’s own portfolio, it would’ve been quite a success.

Design, Size, Controls

As of today, the Nokia E55 comes in a choice of two colors – black and silver. Both look appealing, plus some carriers will get extra color schemes, such as red, blue and titan. While they’ve got a whole bunch of other colors in stock, the question is whether all of them will see release, and I have some serious doubts about that.

The phone is housed in a no-frills candybar design, measuring 116.5x49x9.9 mm – this combination of width and slimness makes the E55 quite a palm-friendly device. Interestingly, Nokia’s engineers had to trim the phone’s back cover in order to reach the required thickness, so when you actually examine it at first it appears to be made of strengthened plastic, but as it turns out, it’s fully metal, although considerably thinner than the battery cover of, say, the Nokia E71.

At the say time, they managed to keep the E55’s weight below 100 grams – it tipped our scales at just 95 grams.

Nokia E55 vs Nokia E51:

Nokia E55 vs Nokia E75:

Housed on the right-hand spine are the phone’s volume controls, separated by the dedicated voice button, further down is the camera shutter key. On the left there is a naked microUSB socket. The top end of the E55 features the power button along with 3.5 mm audio jack, while at the bottom there are the charger slot and lanyard eyelet.

Build quality was never an issue with the E55, however you’ll be better off not dropping it on hard surfaces – the battery cover latch leaves much to be desired.

Topping the display are the forward-facing video camera and ambient light sensor.

Display

The handset comes equipped with a 2.4-inch QVGA (240x320 pixels) display, capable of showing up to 16M colors, presenting you with quite a bright picture that remains visible in various environments (although it’s still inferior to some of Nokia’s very own latest-gen phones). All in all, the E55 packs in a likable screen that can accommodate up to 8 text and up to 3 service lines. In some modes, though, you may get up to 14 text lines. All fonts are sharp and easy to read.

Keypad

The E55’s keyboard sports quite sizable easy-to-handle buttons. While it’s called “semiQWERTY” all this really means is that these are regular keys with two rows of symbols engraved on them. Unlike the Sony Ericsson M600, the E55 doesn’t utilize the rocker-style setup, instead it requires you to push the same button twice to get to the other symbol. All keys are evenly lit in white.

Source : http://www.mobile-review.com