Nokia E62 (AT&T)

CNET editors' review

After nearly a year of waiting, Nokia officially announced today its plans to bring the E series to the United States--well, sort of. The company did not release information on a specific carrier, pricing, or an exact release date, but only confirmed that the smart phones will be hitting U.S. shores soon, starting with the Nokia E62. We had the opportunity to check out the E62, which is similar to its global/European variant, the Nokia E61 that we reviewed earlier this month. The E62 is a powerful smart phone, equipped with productivity apps, a plethora of wireless options, and good call quality. Though it has its similarities to the the Motorola Q and BlackBerrys (slim design, full QWERTY keyboard), the E62 is definitely best suited for the corporate user who needs a fully loaded device for working on the road. We will continue to update this review as we get more details about the carrier, pricing, and final software.

Design of Nokia E62 (AT&T)

With its slim profile and full QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia E62 bears more than a striking resemblance to the Motorola Q and the RIM BlackBerry 8700 series, but that's not to say the smart phone doesn't have its own personality--with both good points and bad.

It's an attractive device overall, with an all-silver casing that makes it appropriate for the business set. At 4.6 by 2.7 by 0.5 inches and 5 ounces, the E62 is slightly bigger than the Moto Q, and will take some acclimation to use as a phone because it has a wider, blockier body. There are three buttons on the left spine--Volume Up, Volume Down, and Voice Record--but nothing on the right side, where we looked instinctively for a jog dial and a Back button like those found on the Q and BlackBerrys. We missed these controls, and their absence made it harder to use the E62 one-handed. Also, a Hold button would have been nice, since it was fairly easy to trigger the voice record function, and we ended up with a handful of useless recordings.

The E62's 2.8-inch screen certainly demands attention. It's large and bright with a 320x240 pixel resolution and 16-million-color output. Text and images looked excellent, and even better, it was still readable in sunlight; you can also adjust the backlighting and contrast. Just be aware that it's not a touch screen, so keep this in mind as you're shopping around for your new smart phone. You can enter all of the E62's commands via the navigation array below the screen and the full QWERTY keyboard. The array consist of left and right selection keys, Talk and End buttons for phone calls, a Menu shortcut, an e-mail launch key, and a four-way navigation joystick that acts as an OK button when you press it. We found all controls well spaced and easy to use, and they're large enough that even users with larger digits shouldn't have too many mishaps.

For the most part, we had the same praises for the keyboard as well. The buttons are fairly large, although the layout isn't quite as roomy as on the Q, particularly the bottom row. Still, we didn't have any problems firing off quick notes and messages, and the keys are adequately backlit for typing in darker environments. Our only complaint would be that the keys felt a bit stiff to press.

As a business-centric device, the Nokia E62 doesn't come equipped with a camera, although some may still want to have this option. It does have a miniSD expansion slot, but it's inconveniently located behind the battery cover on the left side; the one upside is you don't actually have to remove the whole battery. The accessories included with the E62 will vary depending on the market; ours came with a USB cable, an AC adapter, a miniSD card, a software CD, and reference material.

Features of Nokia E62 (AT&T)

Packed with powerful productivity apps and wireless options, the Nokia E62 is sure to be a corporate crowd pleaser. The E62 runs Symbian OS 9.1, Series 60 third edition, and comes with full support for viewing and editing Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents--an advantage it holds over the Moto Q. We used the included USB cable to transfer all three types of files to the E62 and had no problems opening them; we were pleased that little, if any, formatting was lost. In particular we were pleased to find we could edit the documents, including the PowerPoint presentations, which is a feature you won't find on too many devices. If that's not enough, there's a Screen Export function that allows you to display the E62's screen via a compatible projector. The smart phone also works with Adobe Reader and Zip Manager, and comes with your basic PIM apps and organization tools, such as a calendar, notes, a calculator, a clock, a voice recorder, and a currency converter. There's 75MB of built-in memory, which is a bit on the lower side, but it's helped by the miniSD slot.

The E62 has robust e-mail capabilities with support for Microsoft Exchange Server, POP3, IMAP, and SMTP accounts, and 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. A small LED above the screen, as well as a pop-up box, alert you to new messages. There's also a mobile VPN client so that you can securely tap into your corporate server. The E62 also works with popular instant-messaging clients, such as Yahoo and AOL, and is text and multimedia message capable.

Wireless connectivity comes in many flavors, including Bluetooth, quadband GSM/GPRS, 3G technology (UMTS), and infrared. We like that Bluetooth isn't limited to just hands-free headsets; you can use it for file transfers and dial-up networking, so you can use the phone as a modem to get your Bluetooth-enabled PDA or laptop connected to the Internet. Yet there's no support for the A2DP stereo profile. When surfing the Web with the device, you can configure the E62 to connect via GPRS in the Settings menu. The Web browser is worth a mention. Like the one found on the Nokia N80, the E62's browser will present you with a thumbnail of the full Web page so that you can easily navigate to a certain point on the site, rather than having to scroll all over the place. You can also download RSS feeds and blogs, bookmark sites, block pop-up ads, and more. Finally, the E62 has support for UMTS (or WCDMA) 3G technology, which brings data (text, video, and so on) transmission speeds of up to 2Mbps. Though not available nationwide in the United States yet, Cingular is rolling out its UMTS network slowly.

As a phone, the Nokia E62 offers a speakerphone, speed dial, and voice commands, plus it supports VoIP calls. The E62's address book is limited only by the available memory, and each entry has room for multiple numbers, an e-mail address, home and work addresses, a Web URL, and so forth. For caller ID purposes, you can pair a contact with a photo (although you'll have to transfer images onto the phone, since the E62 doesn't have a camera) or a ring tone.

Though the E62 is a business device, it can have fun, too. The smart phone is equipped with a decent music player. It plays back MP3, RealAudio, and AAC files and can sort songs by artist, album, genre, or composer. You can also 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. Though the E62 lacks a camera, you can view JPEG, BMP, BNG, and GIF files with the included image viewer.

Performance of Nokia E62 (AT&T)

We tested the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) Nokia E61 in San Francisco using Cingular's service, and its call quality was excellent. Our callers said we sounded loud and clear, and we had no problems hearing them as well. Activating the speakerphone diminished the quality just slightly; voices sounded tinny to us, and our friends said there was a bit of feedback on their end. We had no problems pairing the E61 with the Logitech Mobile Traveler Bluetooth headset.

Though its performance as a phone was great, the Nokia E61 occasionally slowed to a crawl when opening and switching apps. MP3 playback wasn't bad. Volume was adequate through the phone's speakers, but we didn't have a chance to test the quality through a pair of headphones. Video performance was also satisfactory.

The Nokia E61 is rated for seven hours of talk time, and we had no problem reaching that claim; in fact, we squeezed another hour out of the phone in our tests. Standby time is rated for as much as 11 days.