Nokia E65 (Unlocked)
Manufacturer: Nokia Corp. Part number: 002D107
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- With the exception of a couple of design flaws, the sexy slider Nokia E65 is a good voice-centric Symbian smart phone that also offers various wireless options and productivity tools.
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CNET editors' review
Nokia E65 (Unlocked) price range: $394.99
- Reviewed by: Bonnie Cha
- Reviewed on: 03/22/2007
The good: The Nokia E65 smart phone boasts a beautiful and compact slider design, and features a 2-megapixel camera, e-mail, and productivity apps. It also offers good call quality and solid talk time battery life, and has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The bad: The E65 doesn't support document editing out of the box, and the lack of a full QWERTY keyboard makes it less than ideal for e-mail. It's occasionally slow, and there's no flash for the camera. The front and side navigation controls are also small and hard to use. There's no support for U.S. 3G networks.
The bottom line: With the exception of a couple of design flaws, the sexy slider Nokia E65 is a good voice-centric Symbian smart phone that also offers various wireless options and productivity tools.
We've seen slider smart phones before, but really only in the form of larger, full QWERTY devices (i.e., Cingular 8525, UTStarcom XV6700) rather than the compact cell phone variety, such as the LG Chocolate. Like flip phones, this is one design area where smart phone manufacturers have yet to really dive in, but Nokia's willing to take the plunge.
First introduced at the 3GSM World Congress, the Nokia E65 is a slim slider phone for mobile professionals who value voice capabilities over messaging. (E-mail fanatics and power users should take a look at the Nokia E62 and Nokia E70 instead.) It offers a range of phone features, such as one-touch conference calling and VoIP support, and has good call quality and solid battery talk time. Despite its sleek and sexy profile, there are some downsides to the phone's small size, as the navigation controls are cramped and frustrating to use. However, in the end, we think it's worth the extra effort. The quadband GSM Nokia E65 has not been picked up by a U.S. carrier, so you will have to purchase an unlocked version for a pricey $490.
Design
What can we say about the Nokia E65 except that it's absolutely gorgeous. From its silver-and-mocha casing to its slim-and-trim profile, the E65 is a stunning and elegant smart phone--two words that aren't usually associated with these business-centric devices. The slider phone is compact and lightweight (4.1x1.9x0.6 inches; 4.0 ounces), making it comfortable to hold in the hand and cradle against your ear during a call. Plus, it features a soft casing that feels like leather, and it not only makes the phone easy to grip but adds a touch of luxury to the handset.
There's a 2.2-inch diagonal TFT screen that displays 16.7 million colors at a 320x240 pixel resolution. It has a slightly lower resolution than its sibling, the E70, so we noticed colors weren't as bright and text and images weren't as sharp. Still, it's a nice display and we could still read it in direct sunlight. You can adjust the intensity of the backlight and customize the screen with different themes.
The Nokia E65 doesn't have a touch screen, so you can navigate the phone's menus and launch applications with the controls beneath the display and the shortcut buttons on the right side. There are four keys on the right: a voice recorder launcher, an edit key that lets you choose the text input type, and volume up/down buttons. The volume controls have raised bumps so they're easier to press by feel, especially while on a call, but the other two buttons do not, so you'll have to pay closer attention when trying to access them. Actually, all four buttons are pretty small and close to each other, so it's going to be difficult regardless.
Unfortunately, the same affliction plagues the navigation array on the front of the device. This is the one pitfall of the E65's compact design. First, there's an outer ring of controls that consist of two soft keys, the Talk and End buttons, a Main Menu shortcut, and a clear key. Inside that circle (err, rectangle), you'll find shortcuts for conference calling, Web access, your Contacts list, muting and unmuting a call, and a four-way navigation toggle with a center select key. This is all well and good, but the first set of mentioned keys are squeezed onto sliver-like bars (see image below), which made it entirely too easy to accidentally press the inner controls with your thumb. We had a similar experience with the toggle. It required a concentrated effort to touch just the edge of the directional keypad to scroll up and down or left and right, while trying to avoid the much larger center select key.
Features
The beauty of the Nokia E series is that there is a model to suit the particular needs of most mobile professionals. The QWERTY keyboard-equipped Nokia E62 and the Nokia E70 clearly focus on messaging, and while the Nokia E65 offers similar e-mail functionality, it concentrates more on the voice features, hence the cell phone-like design and voice-specific controls. The E65 is a quadband world phone, allowing for use overseas, and has a speakerphone, conference calling, voice dialing, speed dial, and VoIP support. Of course, some of the more cool phone features, such as video calls, are not available here in the United States, as we're a bit behind our European and Asian counterparts. The address book is only limited by the available memory (about 50MB internal memory; the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts) and each entry allows for multiple phone numbers, e-mail, Web, and physical addresses, birthday, notes and more. For caller ID purposes, you can attach a photo, or assign a group ID or one of 41 ringtones.
The Nokia E65 is stacked with wireless options: Bluetooth 1.2, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), and infrared. You can use the Bluetooth to connect to wireless headsets, hands-free kits, and keyboards, to transfer contacts and files, and for dial-up networking. In addition, you can pair the smart phone with a Bluetooth GPS receiver (additional purchase) and take advantage of the pre-installed navigation app on the E65 to get maps and directions right on your device. The only items on our wish list are support for the A2DP profile for use with stereo Bluetooth headsets and support for the U.S. 3G networks. Connecting to the Web was a snap. The phone has a Wi-Fi finder and it had no problem finding and connecting to our test access point. On a related note, the E65's has a full HTML Web browser.
Like all of the E series, the Nokia E65 runs the third edition of the S60 platform on the Symbian operating system. The interface is user-friendly, and all applications and utilities are organized by appropriate category. An app called QuickOffice lets you view Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents. It optimizes the pages for the phone's screen, so you don't have to scroll all over the place to read text. There are also some nice shortcuts to jump to the top or bottom of the page to reduce the up-and-down scrolling, and a search function. Unfortunately, unlike the Nokia E70, you have to upgrade the preloaded copy of QuickOffice to get any editing capabilities, which was a bummer. We loaded all three file types and a PDF on a microSD card, and had no problems opening them on the E65. Also, for professionals who often give presentations on the road, there's a Screen Export function that allows you to display the E65's screen via a compatible projector.
There is also a new business utility on the E65 that we haven't seen on previous models called the Nokia Team Suite. Here you can create "teams" and define members, conference call numbers, conference call PINs, and Web pages, so you can find all the information in one place--very convenient if you're got regular team conference calls. The smart phone also has Adobe Reader and Zip Manager. Other productivity apps and PIM tools include a calculator, a notepad, a measurement converter, a clock, a printer utility, a download agent, and the aforementioned navigation app.
As we've already mentioned, without a full QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia E65 isn't the best smart phone for messaging, but that doesn't mean it's devoid of such capabilities. The phone works with POP3, IMAP, and SMTP accounts, and comes with a full attachment viewer. You can get real-time message delivery through a number of push e-mail solutions, including Intellisync Wireless E-mail, BlackBerry Connect, GoodLink, Visto, and Seven Always-On Mail. There's also a mobile VPN client so that you can securely tap into your corporate server. The E65 also supports instant, text, and multimedia messaging.
The smart phone has a built-in music player with support for MP3, RealAudio, and AAC music files. You can sort songs by artist, album, genre, or composer. In addition, you have the ability to create playlists right on the device, set songs on Random or Repeat mode, and tweak the sound settings via the built-in equalizer. For videos, RealPlayer is onboard and is compatible with MPEG-4 and 3GPP formats. There's also an image viewer for JPEG, BMP, BNG, and GIF files.
Performance
We tested the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE/UMTS) Nokia E65 in San Francisco using T-Mobile and Cingular service, and call quality was great. We had no problems carrying on conversations, and our callers reported clear audio and said they couldn't tell we were using a cell phone. We even caught one of our friends while she was at a hockey game, and she said she could hear us perfectly, even over the action and the crowd--very impressive. The speakerphone was also good, though quality diminished slightly on our end and voices sounded a bit far away. We had no problems pairing the E65 with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset.
Overall performance was satisfactory, although as we've noticed with other Nokia E series phones, there is a bit of a dip in response time when opening Office documents and switching between apps. We're just talking about a few seconds, so it's nothing that'll prevent you from working. Multimedia performance was OK. Again, the phone's speakers did a weak job with music playback; songs sounded hollow and lacked richness. Watching video was actually decent. Picture and audio were mostly synchronized, and though there was some slight pixilation, it was better than other smart phones we've seen.
The Nokia E65 is rated for 6 hours of talk time and up to 11 days of standby time. In our battery tests, we were able to get 7 hours of talk time on a single charge. According to FCC radiation tests, the E65 has a digital SAR rating of 0.74 watts per kilogram.
User reviews
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VoIP tested using Zingotel number (+1.604.xxx.xxxx
by andy_taipei on April 3, 2007
Pros: VoIP - leveraging the versatility of wi-fi broadband networking, you are able to bypass the costly local phone line infrastructure and realize significant savings
Cons: Wi-Fi could have a better antenna for reception.
Summary: I have just recently purchased my E65 in Asia. I know it does not support the US standard for 3G. I don't have a need for 3G so the ...
Summary: I have just recently purchased my E65 in Asia. I know it does not support the US standard for 3G. I don't have a need for 3G so the phone suits me fine.
If you needed 3G then the N95 is the phone to go for.
The reason I chose this phone was for the ability to roam with my North America number.
I no longer need to carry my Analog voice adapter with me when I travel. As I long as I have wi-fi access.
I use www.zingotel.com for my VoIP number in North America. It's cheaper then Vonage and there is no extra charge to use it as a softphone.
Have a look on their website as all the information is there.
There is nothing like being in a coffee shop in Asia and receiving all your phone calls like you where back home. With no extra charges.
I am very happy to have bought this phone and highly recommend it. It's going for around $500 US.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good phone for Price
by Jason_Winter on October 16, 2007
Pros: Easy to Use
Cons: Switches off randomly
Summary: We have had three on these phones were i work. The first one i had was a dud, didn't work the best and made stange noises when i spoke ...
Summary: We have had three on these phones were i work. The first one i had was a dud, didn't work the best and made stange noises when i spoke to people on the phone. The second switches off unexpectantly.. The third has worked great.
Apart from the first two that i think were just plain duds its a great phone..
Many good features and i would buy another one
Expressphoto
www.expressphoto.cm.au1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Worst phone i have had in 8 years
by nachos609 on August 4, 2007
Pros: Looks elegant, lots of software
Cons: battery life, incredibly slow to open messages/menus, freezes very often, sometimes will refuses to call out until reset... etc
Summary: First off, do not discount this review because its a one off, i have had this phone replaced and both times it has had the same and differnet problems. More ...
Summary: First off, do not discount this review because its a one off, i have had this phone replaced and both times it has had the same and differnet problems. More importantly though, i would say it is quite likely that every other person to write a review on this phone works for nokia.
There are so many hundreds of complaints on the nokia forums about this phone.
My first E65 had one of the stiffest keypads i have ever seen in any phone, it did not feel as though i was pressing anything (and not in a good way). The buttons on the side of teh phone are so small that only a skinny 4 year old could press the button and find it an appropriate size.
Once you get passed these two initial problems you have to deal with significant software problems.
1. On a regular basis (happened on both phones) the phone will not let you call out. It will let you select the contact, but then when you press call, or go to menu and 'call', it does absolutely nothing.
2. If you are lucky enough to get the phone to call out, it freezes on hanging up about 50% of the time (happened on both phones)
3. Terrible terrible battery life, maybe the price you pay for having extra features...but the pros definently do not outweight the cons.
4. Loss of soo many features from previous nokias such as no automic keypad lock after a certain amount of time.
5. Made pretty much every every aspect of using the phone more complicated than previous nokia's...most operations that used to take one click/selection usually take at least two or three on the E65.
6. The menu and clear button on the front are incredibly small, and the phone for some stupid reason will not let change teh middle selection button to open menu (like EVERY other smart phone ever made) and the clear button to the top right like it used to be in previous Nokias.
Overall... do not even consider getting this phone until nokia gives a release date on a software upgrade. considering how many issues it needs to fix, it could be a LONG LONG LONG time1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Fully Loaded
by axa4ever on April 10, 2007
Pros: wifi and VOIP
Cons: not enough themes
Summary: This pretty much replaces a blackberry pearl. I was an owner of a pearl for 3 days, till i returned it back to the store. The features are unlimited. It ...
Summary: This pretty much replaces a blackberry pearl. I was an owner of a pearl for 3 days, till i returned it back to the store. The features are unlimited. It browses the internet just like your on a computer. Document printing via infrared bluetooth or any printer on your network. You can use powerpoint from the phone then view it from a projector. This phone is for someone that needs a smart-phone but at the same time don't want a bulk phone carrying around. Small on the outside HUGE on the inside! By the way, the VOIP is perfect, every call i made the end user never knew I was on a cell using SKYPE. i also made calls to my msn users via messenger.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Nokia E65 is a beautiful design business product but lack of full business function. eg. front cam.
by segaben on March 16, 2007
Pros: Performance is fast. Camera (both image and video) is good though lack of flash light.
Cons: Edit key on side suit woman finger, not man. Lack of software eg. alarm clock feature in 6280. Incompatible to most S60 3rd ed software on market.
Summary: The product push out fast but its firmware, support & software need to catch up. Eg. occasionally open the sms and it read instead (a bug). I have encountered about ...
Summary: The product push out fast but its firmware, support & software need to catch up. Eg. occasionally open the sms and it read instead (a bug). I have encountered about 3 times auto reboot while reading sms or opening mp3 file. Unhappy cusotmer feedback will flood in if the software incomatibility does not solve asap.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Worst phone i've ever tried
by ZLabib on January 6, 2009
Pros: Phone looks nice
Cons: Very slow phone, it takes a long time just to browse the minus, and it hangs every few days and you have to restart it
Summary: Don't buy it
Summary: Don't buy it
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dont buy this phone.. the worst mobile worlwide
by pablo_limon on October 7, 2008
Pros: nice view slider phone (view only)
Cons: very slow GUI, take hours to open a single sms, battery runs out fast, I upgraded with newest firmware but phone still the same thing... DONT BUY IT !!!!
Summary: Dissapointing device from Nokia, hopefully they wont make a mistake like this again...
Summary: Dissapointing device from Nokia, hopefully they wont make a mistake like this again...
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love it, nice shape
by niavirgo on June 23, 2008
Pros: beautiful design
Cons: navigation keys is to small, no front camera
Summary: i used it for 2 month and i haven't found any problem with it. luv it. but when i using 3g . i prefer my Nokia 6680 because i dont ...
Summary: i used it for 2 month and i haven't found any problem with it. luv it. but when i using 3g . i prefer my Nokia 6680 because i dont have to turn my phone back..
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Good business phone
by jslee4845 on March 24, 2008
Pros: Wifi, Bluetooth, IR, 3G all easy to configure.
Cons: Buttons too small, Frequent lock ups / screen freezes, no touch screen.
Summary: Generally a good compact phone with good battery life which lasts about a day when using everything i.e. Wifi, Bluetooth etc...
Screen frequently locks up requiring the battery to ...Summary: Generally a good compact phone with good battery life which lasts about a day when using everything i.e. Wifi, Bluetooth etc...
Screen frequently locks up requiring the battery to be removed to reset.
Camera has an annoying delay when taking a photo which isn't shown on screen e.g. once photo taken it is shown on screen and make sound but actual photo is not taken for another 2 seconds resulting in many pictures of my feet!!!
When changing between screen there are sometimes long delays. -
VOIP makes it worth it
by morfy50 on January 7, 2008
Pros: VOIP capabillity
Cons: access to features can be slow
Summary: If you are deciding about this phone, hopefully I can make it easier for you. The ONLY reason I bought it was for it's VOIP capabilities.
Combined with Truphone ...Summary: If you are deciding about this phone, hopefully I can make it easier for you. The ONLY reason I bought it was for it's VOIP capabilities.
Combined with Truphone I've made a ton of free calls all over the US, Canada, South America and Europe this year. It's even replaced my home phone!
IMO, this is the only reason to buy this phone. There are slicker looking, faster running, more feature rich phones out there. But I'd never trade them for my E65... it's saved me a small fortune on long distance calling
Updated
Bottom line.. only reason to buy this phone is VOIP. I use it with Truphone and call worldwide for free when at home or in the office.
If you live somewhere with lots of free wifi hotspots then even better!
If you don't need a VOIP cell phone then there are so many other options I wouldn't even consider the E65.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Nokia Corp.
- Part number: 002D107
- Description: Nokia E65 boasts a range of voice features, One Touch keys, a built-in email client, and multiple connectivity options - all packed into a slim, stylish slide design.
General
- Product Type Smartphone With digital camera / digital player
- Service Provider Unlocked
- Width 1.9 in
- Depth 0.6 in
- Height 4.1 in
- Weight 4.1 oz
- Body Color Mocha, Silver
Cellular
- Technology WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
- Band WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
- Phone Design Slider
- Antenna Internal
- Vibrating Alert Yes
- Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Voice Dialing Yes
- Call Timer Yes
- Conference Call Capability Yes
- Voice Recorder Yes
- Caller ID Yes
- Speakerphone Yes
- Wireless Interface Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Infrared (IrDA)
- Speech Codec FR, HR, AMR, EFR
- Additional Features Push-to-talk mode, Intelligent typing (T9)
Communicator Features
- Operating System Symbian OS 9.1 / Series 60 3rd Edition
- Synchronization With PC Yes
- Synchronization With SyncML
- User Memory 50 MB
Messaging & Data Services
- Short Messaging Service (SMS) Yes
- Mobile Email Yes
- Supported Email Protocols POP3, SMTP, IMAP4
- Data/Fax Capability Yes
- GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Yes
- EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution) Yes - Class 32
- High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) Yes
- Internet Browser Yes
- Platforms Supported Java MIDP 2.0
- JAVA applications Yes
- Messaging / Data Features PDF support, VoIP client, XHTML Browser, Zip Manager support, Microsoft Word support, Microsoft Excel support, Macromedia Flash support, Microsoft PowerPoint support
Ring Tones
- Ring Tone Formats AAC, MP3, MIDI
Multimedia Features
- Playback Digital Video Formats 3gp, MPEG-4, H.263 video and AMR audio, RealVideo and RealAudio (RealMedia)
- Downloadable Content Themes, Ring tones, Business cards, Operator logos
Digital Camera
- Camera highlights With a resolution of 2 megapixels, this model will give you better pictures than other phones.
- Sensor Resolution 2 megapixels
- Still Image Resolutions 1600 x 1200
- Still Image Formats JPEG
- Digital Zoom 4
- Video Recorder Resolutions 352 x 288 (CIF)
- Digital Video Formats MPEG-4, H.263 video and AMR audio
- Features Self timer
Organizer
- Alarm Clock Yes
- Calendar Yes
- Reminder Yes
- Calculator Basic
- Conversion Metric, Currency
Display
- Type LCD display
- Technology TFT
- Display Resolution 240 x 320 pixels
- Color Support Color
- Color Depth 24-bit (16.7 million colors)
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Supported Digital Audio Standards AAC, AMR, MP3, Real Audio
Memory
- Internal Shared Memory Yes
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x Data port - Pop-Port, 1 x DC power input
Security Features
- Phone Lock Yes
- SIM Card Lock Yes
Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Hands-free headset
- Cables Included USB cable
Power
- Type Power adapter
Battery
- Technology - Lithium ion
- Capacity 1000 mAh
- Talk Time Up to 360 min
Product series
-
Manufacturer: Nokia Corp.
Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 900/1800/1900, Up to 384 min, 4.1 oz
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Manufacturer: Nokia Corp.
Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 420 min, 5.1 oz
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Manufacturer: Nokia Corp.
Specs: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband), Up to 360 min, With digital player, 5.1 oz
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Manufacturer: Nokia Corp.
Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 360 min, With digital camera / digital player, 4.1 oz
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Manufacturer: Nokia Corp.
Specs: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Up to 300 min, With digital camera / digital player, 7.4 oz
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Manufacturer: Nokia Corp.
Specs: GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-Band), Up to 420 min, 4.5 oz
Manufacturer info
- Nokia Corp.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Nokia Corp. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.nokiausa.com/
- Address:
6000 Connection Drive, Irving, TX 75039 - Phone: 1-972-894-5000
- Fax: 972-894-5050
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