Nokia serves up workhorse email handset

IN AN attempt to create a genuine workhorse handset - which also just happens to support email - Nokia has introduced the E50.

This handset is the logical successor to the likes of the 6210 which was extremely popular with business users. Consequently the E50 retains the familiar 'candybar' style shape as opposed to being an overgrown calculator like the E61.

The list of email clients which the E50 supposedly supports straight out of the box is impressive indeed. It includes the new 'Activesync Mail for Exchange' client. That's the result of Nokia's recent decision to licence Activesync technology from the Beast of Redmond, naturally.

Mail for Exchange is in addition to the Intellisync Wireless email client it supports - now that Nokia own Intellisync. On top of that you have Blackberry Connect; Visto Mobile and something called MagicMobile from Altexia which the INQ has never heard of before.

Other possibilities should include Goodlink; Seven Mobile Mail; Seven Always-on Mail; plus the regulars such as IMAP4; POP3; and SMTP.

For good measure the device boasts up to 70 MB of 'free' memory built-in and the ability to support microSD cards of up to 2 GB.

It'll be interesting to see if Nokia has once and for all cured the memory bug - afflicting the likes of the 6630 - which ran out of available RAM space if you tried to download too many messages.

Nokia has also made a curious decision. It plans to offer two versions - both known as the E50 - one of which will support a 1.3 megapixel camera and the other will be totally cameraless. The difference is that the camera model will be marked RM170 while the camera-free model will be the RM171. You've been warned.

The E50 is actually a plain 2.5G phone (so no 3G), although it will support EDGE. Plus it's a quad band phone that works on 850 MHz for the States as well as the other usual three GSM frequencies.

There's also another rather strange first with the E50 - it comes with an application called the Team Suite. The idea is that you put together all the relevant details for people in your 'workgroup'.

Then - when you want to text all the members of you team - you can do so with a single action rather than having to look up everybody's mobile numbers separately. The same 'Team' facility should also make it much easier for members to set up a conference call.

The E50 ticks all the right boxes. It's a Series 60 3rd edition machine supporting the very latest Symbian 9.1 OS. The major difference is its screen size which is 240 by 320 pixels. In other words it has a very boring and small screen.

This very definitely makes it the kind of handset which you'd like to slip easily into a shirt pocket - rather than some kind of wireless PDA like the other models in the E series.

If it delivers on all its promises, the E50 looks set to become a business classic. ?

Web: Nokia

Price: circa £188 (£220 inc VAT) SIM free (use on any network)

Availability: now