Nokia has just announced the E50, the latest addition to its Eseries line of business devices. Features include:

* S60 3rd edition
* Symbian OS
* quadband GSM
* speakerphone
* enhanced voice commands
* up to 70MB internal memory
* microSD memory card support
* EDGE (EGPRS)
* 1.3 megapixel camera
* MP3 player
* pre-installed business applications

News release:

Nokia today announced the latest addition to the Nokia Eseries family of business devices, the Nokia E50. With excellent voice, email and data capabilities, the Nokia E50 offers enterprises a cost-efficient way to extend mobility to a broader range of employees, enabling them to access company telephony and business applications whenever required. Just as importantly the globally-viable Nokia E50 device is easily and securely managed by a company’s IT department through Intellisync Device Management solution.

With classic Nokia design, the small, sleek, and stylish Nokia E50 is also designed for people who want a single phone for both business and leisure use. For example, the device comes equipped with pre-installed business applications, exceptional voice and calling functionality, and the ability to have two phone numbers in one phone, while lifestyle features include an MP3 player and optionally a 1.3 mega pixel camera all packaged in a discreet glossy metallic case with a touch of color.

Built on S60 3rd edition smartphone platform and Symbian OS for enhanced security features and device control, the Nokia E50 supports popular corporate mobile email solutions, including Intellisync Wireless Email by Nokia, BlackBerry Connect, Visto Mobile, Altexia, and Microsoft ActiveSync. The thinnest Nokia Eseries quad-band phone (EGSM 850/900/1800/1900), the Nokia E50 supports GSM networks worldwide, offering clear phone calls and rich voice and calling functionalities. With up to six hours of talk time, the Nokia E50 offers significantly high battery performance for such a small phone.

Enhancing mobile employees’ productivity and tangibly reducing costs

With the addition of the Nokia E50 to its portfolio of business class devices, Nokia is continuing to expand workforce mobility by offering advanced call features. The add-on business voice solution enables easy integration with an existing business voice infrastructure (PBX). For example, mobile least cost routing helps companies save on long distance and international calls by routing mobile phone calls through the corporate PBX, thereby removing cost barriers associated with business mobility. Companies with Avaya Communication Manager can already connect the Nokia E50 directly to their company phone networks, using the Avaya one-X Mobile Edition client preloaded on their phones. With Avaya client, the Nokia E50 works like a traditional office phone enabling services such as short number usage, call forwarding, one-touch voice mail and extension dialing. In addition, the phone will include a CD featuring a demonstration of the Avaya one-X Mobile Edition, as well as a client installer.

The Nokia E50 comes with a set of pre-installed business applications that help increase the productivity of mobile professionals. The Nokia Team Suite, part of the Nokia Office Tools offering, helps to facilitate conference calls and to initiate push-to-talk sessions with selected team members easily and fast, through a built-in speakerphone. The Nokia E50 also includes a search function enabling fast queries into critical data such as, contacts, emails and messages. Important business attachments received via email, such as documents, presentations, and spreadsheets, can be swiftly accessed via the Quickoffice viewer.

Nokia E50 Reviews

Infosync has a review up of the Nokia E50 and writes, “The Nokia E50 is primarily an excellent calling and light-messaging phone, and should be considered by those who fancy compact form factor and great battery life over advanced e-mail and productivity capabilities. That said, the E50 also shines with an excellent high-resolution screen and a powerful Internet browser capable of loading full-version Web sites.” Link.

ComputerActive reviews the Nokia E50 and concludes, “Overall we were left disappointed with the Nokia E50. We liked the simple nature of the phone, and both call clarity and the speakerphone were excellent, but it shouldn’t be so heavy. And if Nokia is promoting it as an mp3 player, it should surely have a 3.5mm headphone socket to take advantage of the 70MB internal memory, or at least a set of stereo headphones included instead of the single earpiece hands-free kit.” Link.

Pocket-lint has a review of the Nokia E50 and writes, “Ideal for users who want slightly more from their mobile and the ability to check messages on the go, the handset falls down only when you want to start replying or doing anything productive beyond making calls. Good, but the lack of a keyboard, touchscreen or 3G will mean that you’ll still have to carry about a laptop if you’re planning on working out of the office.” Link.

CNET UK has a review of the Nokia E50 and writes, “While the E50 plays MP3 and AAC music files and turns out good volume and acceptable sound quality from its internal speaker, it ships with a mono earbud. The handset may not be aimed primarily at music lovers, but even the most hardened workaholic might want to listen to music at some time or another, and we can’t see why Nokia has cut a corner here. … The E50 performed well. Because we didn’t want to use its mono earbud to listen to music, we tended to stick to making voice calls and doing a little Web browsing, and so its battery lasted quite well. Nokia quotes 6 hours 48 minutes of talk time, and we certainly reckon you could go a few days between battery charges. Call quality was loud and clear and calls played through the loudspeaker were especially positive.” Link.