One of Nokia’s most successful handsets of the years gone by is the 6610i, which offered a very modest set of features in a very understated design, making it the choice of entry-level executives in the city. As time passed and cameras leaped megapixel counts, the 6610i lost it’s charm, but there was nothing in Nokia’s portfolio that could have been considered a worthy successor. While Motorola and Samsung went on the Atkins diet, Nokia just went in the opposite direction with fat and sluggish phones that just turned me off.

I haven’t liked a Nokia phone for it’s design and speed in years. After the 7650, I burnt my fingers with the 6600 and have never used a Nokia since, always preferring Samsung and, lately, Motorola. But when I got the E50, it looked at me in a way that no phone has ever looked at me before. I was in love all over again.

Design
The E50 has evolved from the 6610 and it retains the top-heavy and narrow-bottom design. The phone is very slim. This is in fact the slimmest Series 60 smartphone that Nokia has in its catalog, and will remain the slimmest till the N76 rolls out.

I love the way it fit in my hand. The positioning of the keys and the screen and all that was just right. I’m not a huge fan of joy sticks, thanks to the uncomfortable designs of most phones such as the 3250, but I really think they got it right with the E50’s joystick. With sufficient room around it, the usage was simply.

The keys are well sized, but they do feel a little flimsy, and I expect them to lose their coating very soon. Even then, the tactile feedback is good and overall I was quite satisfied. However, I can’t say the same about the Menu and 'C' keys which are small and set inside the 'yes', 'no' and the two soft keys. I had to nail-type these keys, which is not good because it makes it difficult to use the phone without looking at it.

At first, I thought the E50 removed the 'pencil' or 'ABC' key that’s used to cut/copy/paste text in S60, but I found it on the side. This seems really strange, but after using it, I figured it makes sense because it’s used as a modifier key to select text, and this arrangement is more convenient.

Mostly the phone is made of steel. Be careful with the rear battery cover, you may just end up cutting yourself with it! The side trims are rubbery. It comes in a silver/gray combo and also a fully black one, that’s very Nseries Music Edition-like. I prefer the more business-class silver/gray combo, though.

If I could just choose one thing that I singularly lust in this phone, it’s the display. The phone isn’t too big, so the display is also not unusually large, but it still is proper QVGA (240x320), so it looks so, so crisp and fine, I was sold right there. The new Series 60 3rd Edition UI really shines on this display, allowing the most use of features like font-smoothing and scaling. There were times when I’d just stare at the beauty of each element on the screen — be it text, an icon or the background art!

It comes with an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the display brightness based on the surrounding light. Even in bright sunlight, the display wasn’t entirely unreadable. A little turning is required to get the glare away, but that’s it.