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 12:26 am
enjoy your blog. Keep on the good work, I will subscribe. What do you think of the new Nokia N97?
December 9th, 2009 at 5:29 am
I have no idea.
Give me one and I’ll review it 🙂 see http://www.it-slav.net/blogs/reviews/
December 10th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Today our Sysadmin got google calender sync working after 2 hours fiddeling. So now all my demands are fullfiled 🙂
December 19th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Good post!Thanks for the good reading!
January 26th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
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 5:59 pm
Any idea how he got the sync up and running? having some trouble as I’m running linux too
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:58 pm
I’m sorry. I do not know. That is why I let the sysadmin do it.
August 4th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Do you know weather E52 can transfer GPS data (coordinates) via USB or Bluetooth?
August 4th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
I tried to get GPS data from my e52, but I never get it working. So my guess is NO!
August 5th, 2010 at 10:47 am
On another forum, I just heard of symarctic extgps which is in Beta. As far as I heard it allows to use the phone as a Bluetooth GPS.
http://www.symarctic.com/beta/static.php?page=disclaimer
http://www.symarctic.com/beta/static.php?page=extgps_download
I will not be able to test for some period due to a TFT error in my shiny new phone — it goes for repair on warranty…
August 5th, 2010 at 11:10 am
The GPS in the e52 is so bad so I used an external Bluetooth GPS instead of the builtin. I think you should buy a USB GPS instead if you want to use it with a map software at a computer.
My e52s speaker break down and my collegues buttons feel off. Now I have an Android, HTC Desire, and I do not regret the switch.
September 18th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Hi Peter, How did you get your external GPS receiver to work with E52? I have a wayfinder device capable of bluetooth. How can I get Ovi Maps to ‘talk’ to the external GPS? Pls advise.
Sabari
September 18th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Well it was half a year ago so I do not remember that well but I think that I could attach the bluetooth GPS in the bluetooth menu and then in the GPS software I could pick ‘use bluetooth GPS’