The Nokia E65 was announced alongside its fellow Eseries devices the E90 and E61i. The Nokia E65 is a slider phone, with dimensions of 105×49x15.5 mm and a volume of just 74cc. The Nokia E65 is an attractive smartphone and shows a lot more style that the first generation of Eseries devices. The styling and design, rounded edges and soft materials, the Nokia E65 feels small in the hand.

The front is a mixture of a rubbery-feeling plastic (on the sides) and a plastic housing (on the front) for the screen and control keys. The back features leather-like material (battery cover) and the same rubbery plastic from the front (camera housing). These materials add up to a phone that is easy to grip and which feels comfortable to hold.

The slider mechanism is very solid, it is a definite improvement over other Nokia smartphone sliders such as the N80 or N95.

On the right hand side of the device are four keys; the record key, the pencil key, and volume up-down keys. These have been well positioned and should suit both left and right-handers. The E65 uses a Pop-port, at the bottom of the device. The keypad surround and slider runners are metallic, with the keys themselves made from a hard plastic.

The control keys are clustered beneath the QVGA screen. The usual navigator key and control keys are present, joined by four ‘one touch’ keys (Conference, Contacts, My Own and Mute) for accessing common functions. The navigator key is excellent for general use. A central button provides selection, while the surrounding ring provides directions. The function, calling, cancel and S60 menu keys are a little small, but a raised outer edge prevents most mis-keys.

The one touch Conference key allows you to easily initiate conference calls. This is done either by using a default (configurable) number such as a regular conference calling number and includes support for sending additional key tones (e.g. sending the ID of a call to the conference calling service), or by selecting the members of a conference call from the contacts database.

The Contacts one touch key will open the Contacts application, and on a second press will act like a ‘back’ key, returning the user to the previous application or location in the phone UI. The My Own key can be set to start the application of your choice, while the Mute key will mute the phone’s microphone during any call. This facility is particularly relevant to conference calls. When the mute key is used, a large mute icon is displayed on the screen.

The Nokia E65 has good connectivity options, with quad-band EGSM, WCDMA (3G), WiFi, USB 2.0, IrDA and Bluetooth 1.2 all supported. And it runs S60 3rd Edition, with the usual array of applications. Multimedia is covered by Real Player, Music Player, the Camera application and Gallery. Images quality from the 2 megapixel camera is quite acceptable, but nothing special. There is no Flash LED, macro mode or auto focus, which limits the conditions in which the camera can be used. However, it should still be good enough for quick snapshots, and the start up and capture time is good.

Messaging is a key selling point of the Eseries range of devices and the Nokia E65 is no exception. The phone supports push email services from Nokia (Intellisync), Microsoft (Exchange), Blackberry (Blackberry Connect), Good (Mobile Messaging) Visto, and more.

Outside of Multimedia and Messaging, there is an impressive suite of accompanying software, ranging from the standard PIM applications to viewers for Word, Excel, PowerPoint (Quickoffice) and PDF (Adobe) documents, as well as a Zip Manager (Epocware) and the Search, Teams and WiFi (wizard) utilities which are now standard on Eseries devices. Also the Message reader application (reads text messages aloud), Voice Control (which can be accessed by holding down the record button on the side of the device and includes speaker independent voice recognition for all stored contacts) and the Welcome applications (Settings Wizard, Transfer and Tutorial).

The Nokia E65 may not have the glamour of the E90 or the popularity of the E61i, but it should not be underestimated and I think it is the dark horse of the Eseries range. It is a reasonably well specified, but competitively priced enterprise focused device, which is ideal for office workers looking for strong voice features and a read only mobile email solution. It makes a compelling addition to the overall Eseries portfolio, slotting in between the E60 and the E50. Outside of the enterprise focus, the multimedia features are mediocre in comparison to Nseries phones, but they’re still better than much of the competition. Thus the Nokia E65 may also appeal to general consumers as its size and design will attract those looking for a little extra from their day to day phone.

[Review and Video by Rafe Blandford from All About Symbian]

Store & Price Comparison

Store	Offer Details	Price
	NOKIA E65 Pink Unlocked CellPhone In Stock	Price: $278.99
	Nokia Unlocked Brown E65 Quad-band Business Slider Smartphone In Stock	Price: $387.55
	Nokia E65 QuadBand Unlocked GSM Cell Phone — Pink In Stock	Price: $283.99
	E65 BUSINESS SMARTPHONE SLIDE BUSINESS GSM QUADBAND WLAN VOIP In Stock	Price: $289.99