Plemix

Sometimes, it’s hard to find a perfect phone, except for that one small thing you want to change. If you felt that way about the E52 or E71, the Nokia E55 is claims to have the answer. Actually, E55 is the combination of E52 with the improved keyboard design and E71 with the upgraded software and functionality plus a new half-QWERTY. Nokia is calling this the “world's thinnest smartphone” that got what it takes to be a good business oriented device. Will the new E-series member really bring the sound to the market?

Let’s first take a look at what is in the box: The Black Aluminum E55 phone, a battery, a charger, a data cable, a handsfree set and a user’s guide.

The E55 looks elegant and austere as it made of high quality material. It is very slim which measures 116 x 49 x 9.9 mm. The overall size and weight are perfectly balanced which is comfortable to carry around. So happy that Nokia chose to continue this trend with yet another Eseries handset.

It’s the manufacturer’s first attempt at a “compact QWERTY keyboard” that consists of 20 buttons. It uses a SureType-esque predictive text mechanism with two letters per key. To input the first letter you tap once, and to input the second you tap twice. They are large enough, and feel clearly discernible when pressed.

The 3.5mm standard audio jack and the power button are at the top of E55.

The shutter key and the Eseries trademark three key combo are on the right side.

The microUSB port with no protection is on the left side.

The steel back cover is one of the best parts of the phone and perfectly immune to fingerprints. It’s a real treat! The 3MP full focus camera with flash is also at the back.

Remove the battery cover, you may find the SIM card slot and the microSD card slot is just next to it (support for up to 16 GB).

The only different between Nokia E52 is the half-QWERTY keyboard. Let’s turn to the software. Nokia E55 runs on Symbian 9.3 OS with the Series60 3rd Edition user interface. It has Feature Pack 2 like the E52. It upgraded against E71 (Symbian 9.2 OS).The interface here can freely rotate to landscape mode thanks to the accelerometer, which also offers silencing calls and snoozing the alarm by flipping your phone over.

It includes a decent line-up of apps: the QuickOffice software, PDF viewer and Windows Live Messenger, GPS, etc. You can add more to it as well. We like the Mode Switcher in E55 which allows you to E55 can set up and easily switch between work and personal profiles via a simple icon on the home screen.

Actually, you don’t get too much groundbreaking stuff on E55. It’s just keeping something that you basically want from a business phone nowadays: Good keyboard, wonderful browser, extremely capable email client. It’s similar to E52 but different keypad, and lighter and smaller than E71 with upgraded OS. The E55 is closing the gap between Eseries device. As E71, E72, etc for heavy texters and E51, E52 for heavy talkers. E55 is just trying to bridge both worlds.