A feature-filled and stylish phone that's great online

The E65 is yet another stylish phone from Nokia and that's not a sentence we'd have written a couple of years back. We would usually describe this slider phone as slim or thin, or even slender.

However, the E65 is almost exactly the same size as the HTC S710 and is slightly thicker, despite the fact that HTC crams in a full Qwerty keyboard.

The build quality of this phone is simply superb, and the feeling when opening and shutting the slider is the best we've ever felt. At first glance the front of the E65 looks almost devoid of buttons, but in fact there's an Enter button, a navigation pad and eight more buttons, so the only functions that have been removed from the front are the 1-9 digits, * and #.

You can use most of the Nokia's features with the slider closed, which is handy as the combination of 3G and 802.11g Wi-Fi make it incredibly fast and easy to establish an internet connection when you're on the move.

Although Nokia has chosen a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, the browser works really well and makes this handset one of the best for using online. Having said that, the design seems to have room for a larger screen and that would be welcome.

Nokia, as well as Sony Ericsson, use the Symbian OS, which is Microsoft's main rival. While it acts in a similar way to Windows Mobile, it's not to everyone's liking, so it's worth checking out before you invest in such a device.

There's another sort of connection that is rather less satisfactory. Nokia has used its Pop-Port connector for the USB cable, which seems unnecessary when you consider how many types of mini USB already exist. It's also opted for its own proprietary headphone jack. Why?

Nokia's PC Suite has been around for ages and performs every task you could wish with one notable exception - you cannot synchronise email between your PC and Nokia handset.

Score

• 4 / 5

For

• Great for getting online
• Build quality

Against

• No USB connection
• Cannot synchronise email between phone and PC

Verdict

Specification