The Nokia E51 Camera-free version is the same as the regular E51 minus the Camera. One might wonder, why buy a mobile without a camera? Well, some of the IT/Corporate guys have to work for security sensitive companies that do not allow camera phones, hence such a compromise. Well, my purpose to buy this phone was to get all the regular business/productivity features of Symbian phone without the camera. The only issue was that Nokia never introduced this phone for Indian markets(no clue about the reason).
In my quest to search this mysterious and cool phone, I exhausted all avenues, lanes, gallis and sites that I could think of. Finally, one day I found the phone on eBay Global(not eBay India). The source was a trusted seller on eBay Singapore and the payment method was easy(PayPal). Within 15 days of ordering, I received a genuine box-packed Nokia E51 Camera-free. However, the catch was that I’d to pay Rs. 16800(wow! That is too much, isn’t it!) for the otherwise not so expensive E51(with camera) that is available in India – but the entire amount was worth it.
The first impression of the phone was that it felt rich, cute, robust and sturdy at the same time. Since the phone is based on Symbian S60 v9.2 operating system(I’m a great fan of Symbian), I started playing with the phone and installed many application to extend phone’s functionalities and features. I installed a file browser by LCG, a photo viewer by Resco, a media player by LCG, an answering machine by WebGate, an e-mail client by LCG, a browser by Opera and a game of pool. Everything worked very smoothly. I also added some themes and some ringtones and soon I was addicted to the phone.
This Nokia phone, was easy to use, sounded good, inspired confidence at the outset, but was average regarding battery life(a small minus compared to loads of pluses).