Review Nokia e52
My old cell phone had stopped working so I needed a new.
The demands I have on the new phone is nothing strange.
Must:
- Be able to use as a phone
- Be able to use as a modem in Linux
- Be able to sync with Google Calendar
- Fit into the phone policy my employer have so I do not need to pay anything by myself
- A battery that does not require charging everyday
Nice to have:
- GPS
- Google maps
- 3,5mm headset connection
- mp3, ogg vorbis
- SIP so I can use it as a VOIP phone
After discussions with collegues, friends, surfing the web I found a good candidate that would fullfill the "must have"requirements and some of the "nice to have". Now I have used the phone for approximatly 3 weeks and this is the conclusions.
Must:
| Feature |
Works |
| Use as a phone | Yes |
| Use as a modem in Linux | Yes, just attach the USB cable and configure the operator |
| Sync with Google Calendar | No, after reading many different guides and howtos I have not managed to get it to work |
| Acceptable price | Yes, my employer payed for the phone |
| Acceptable Standby | Yes, I recharge the phone every second day and I’m a rather heavy user so that is good. |
I am very disappointed that it seams very hard to get the Nokia e52 to do calender sync with Google calendar. It seems like it needs to use Microsoft Exchange in between. Every guide I found use the mysterious "Mail for Exchange" to do that, why?
Nice:
| Feature |
Works |
| GPS | Yes, the phone has a GPS reciever and it works very well |
| Google Maps | Yes, I managed to download Google Maps application into the phone |
| 3,5 mm headset connection | Yes, I can use my BOSE QuitComfort 3 headphones with my phone. It is very nice when I travel. |
| mp3, ogg vorbis | Yes and No, mp3 is supported but not ogg vorbis. I cannot understand why it is so hard to find products that support free and open formats. |
| SIP | Well I found a SIP config menu but it is totally undocumented and my asterisk server do not log any attempt to connect. According to many websites the phone is delivered without SIP but in my phone there is a SIP config menu. |
Conclusion
As always when I use a device from the telecom industry I fascinates by the old way of trying to vendor lock-in and the closed way of adding value to the customers. By telling that the phone has support for Google Calendar and SIP support and making it so complex to use that it is useless does not make me as a customer happy. The service providers do not recommend a SIP enabled phone because they want to cell phonecalls instead of datatraffic and Nokia do not dare to take this fight and put the customer and openness in the first place, instead they try to do business the old way. This way of thinking is the reason why open solutions like Asterisk and other VOIP based solutions are getting more and more market share. I can build a powerful PBX at home that would cost a fortune with a traditional solution.
I hope I will get my hands on a Android and I think that is the future, an open and free platform.
However the Nokia e52 does the job as a phone well with some nice features.
December 9th, 2009 at 00:26
enjoy your blog. Keep on the good work, I will subscribe. What do you think of the new Nokia N97?
December 9th, 2009 at 05:29
I have no idea.
see http://www.it-slav.net/blogs/reviews/
Give me one and I’ll review it
December 10th, 2009 at 21:07
Today our Sysadmin got google calender sync working after 2 hours fiddeling. So now all my demands are fullfiled
December 19th, 2009 at 18:35
Good post!Thanks for the good reading!
January 26th, 2010 at 19:22
Good review. I’m sick of all the apple fanboys shoving their iphones in my face. Maybe this will shut them up
February 2nd, 2010 at 17:59
Any idea how he got the sync up and running? having some trouble as I’m running linux too
February 2nd, 2010 at 19:58
I’m sorry. I do not know. That is why I let the sysadmin do it.