[luap_42]

Just received the grey/silver version of the E52. Took it out and compared it side by side to my black E51.

There is no comparison really. The black E51 is far superior in build quality, as it has mostly metal and some very solid plastic casing. The grey/silver E52 has a weaker construction and would not stand up to the rigours that my E51 has survived unscathed for more than 18 months. The E52 is made of mostly light plastic and possibly some light aluminium, but a real step backwards there Nokia. Designed to break, as usual. The E51 must have been a mistake, huh? Too strong by half.

As for the colour of the grey/silver fascia/keypad with white font on light grey buttons on the E52. All I can say is that Nokia obviously threw out their ergonomics design book when making that decision. Virtually impossible to see ANY font at quite a few angles in broad daylight. The black E51's button fonts are perfectly visible under the same conditions at the same time. To compound the flaw in the E52's keypad legibility/contrast design, this flawed fascia/keypad colour scheme is the ONLY fascia colour available in some regions currently, e.g. Ireland via O2. The gold aluminium version is listed on Nokia Ireland, but not being sold anywhere (not that I'd want it anyway).

And why are the very dark grey all over and black/silver fascia/keypad versions NOT available in all regions? What games are you playing Nokia? Notably Finland has the best fascia/keypad colour scheme for usability and style (the very dark grey all over fascia/keypad with white font).

Needless to say I didn't even switch it on. Straight back in the box and returned. Pointless having a phone when you can't see the buttons at least half of the time.

When I checked these forums and others, I realised that I narrowly escaped from buying a lemon. The firmware AND hardware problems are too numerous to mention. That combined with the flagrant experimenting that Nokia does with it's most dedicated customers who are early adopters alongside holding back more usable/stylish fascia/keypad schemes in certain regions is inexcusable.

I'll not be buying any more Nokia products unless they get their act together and produce a solid product (ala E51), available in ALL colour schemes in ALL areas, which does not have firmware AND hardware errors three months after launch.

[ryanismo]

Who takes a look at the button before pressing on it at this day and age, anyway?

[mihaivr]

Good one, ryanismo My point exactly..

[luap_42]

Ah well! That depends on how addicted you are to your mobile life. I'm quite capable of texting and entering numbers without looking, but that actually is NOT the point. Would you buy a phone with no symbols on the buttons? They look terrible (see any pre-prodcution model photos).You would also have to get used to the newly arranged shortcut keys.

MY point is that Nokia is selling an ergonomically and stylisticly defunct model of what could be their best phone yet if they get all the hardware and software problems sorted.

I found out yesterday that the dark grey graphite model is to be released by O2 any time soon, but asking how long is that's like asking: how long is a piece of string?

[mihaivr]

I had the black E55 in my hands the other days and the black E52 will most likely be made of the same materials. I wasn't so impressed of the black materials, and I am sure that when the black E52 will be released, there will be other complains. The only thing I liked at the black E55 (design wise) was the "E Series"  writing  on the back plate, which looked better than on the silver E52.

[vitorpt]

I was also very anxious about these 2 models, E52 and E55, due to the announced features. But when they came out I was very disappointed. It looks like Nokia went back to the E50 quality. No way I would change my E66 by one of these.

I am not a fan of slide models, but I do require a quality, thin with GPS model. It seems I will have to wait for the E53.

[luap_42]

Regarding the various colour versions of the E52:

- you can buy the black with silver rim version at Nokia Italy

- you can buy the dark grey graphite all over version at Nokia Finland

Not sure if they deliver to anywhere outside of those countries though

Everywhere else, including Italy and Finland, has the light grey with silver rim version, and there is a gold version in certain regions also.

[mounteb]

i was waiting for phone like this for over a year. but the poor build quality and cheap materials has put me off. how does such a large company put out such a poor quality product. it seems nokia is going to get left behind. too bad!

[ulaganath]

I am writing for all of you complaining about the poor quality of the material .

See they made the point in delivering the phone with lightest weight.

the reason behind is that the battery capacity was increased and size increased and they dont want the phone to weigh higher than before as e51

i agree that e51 is rigid . iam rough user of e51 . its resist any fall.

but when you buy you should not think of how many times this phone will resist fall.