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While Nokia is arguably better known for it's multimedia lifestyle phones, it also offers numerous models geared more toward the more staid requirements of business users. One of the newest such models recently released here in the U.S. is the E65, a phone that goes easy on the razzle-dazzle in favor of some more corporate-friendly features.

The $450 (when purchased direct from Nokia - no carrier offers it as of this writing) E65is a quad-band GSM slider-style phone which measures a compact 4.1 x 1.9 x .6 inches and tips the scales at a tick over 4 ounces.

Perhaps acknowledging that business users aren't entirely unconcerned with style, the E65 comes in an attractive hue resembling chocolate (with apologies to LG), and the battery door—which comprises most of the E65's underside#151;is made from a soft-touch material that looks and feels a lot like a car dashboard (and we mean that in a good way).

You get 80MB of memory on the E65, of which about 59MB is available to the user. You can up the storage capacity via a microSD slot; and while that slot's behind the battery cover, at least it's not under the battery, so it is relatively easy to get to. (Nokia includes a 256MB card with the E65, along with a full-size SD adapter.)

The E65's battery is rated for up to 6 hours of talk time or 11 days on standby.

It E65 includes EDGE support for data connections (sorry, no 3G_, but it also has 802.11g/b Wi-Fi built in, which gives you the option of a speedier connection from hotspots or other wireless LANs. Bluetooth 1.2 support is also present.

Front and center on the E65 is a 2.2-inch 240 x 320 display located just above the main cluster of function keys, the ergonomics of which frankly could of been better. The send, end, and pair of soft keys around the periphery are small, but even worse is that they're virtually flush with the adjacent buttons, which makes it extremely easy to accidentally press a wrong button or two at the same time.

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The four keys on the E65's right edge, including a volume control and voice recording button, suffer from a similar malady, as does the standard numeric keypad that's revealed when opening the E65's slider—although the buttons are slightly raised, they're too flat and close together and can't be easily identified simply by touch. Given that the E65 lacks a full keyboard, text must be entered through the keypad using T9 predictive input, a chore for all but the swift-fingered.

The E65's controls aren't all bad, however.

Surrounding the five-way D-pad are four large keys for frequently-used functions. Two of these "business keys" call up the contact manager and let you set up a conference call (provided your network supports this, of course), and another one lets you easily mute the phone without having to remember a special hotkey or hunt for the option in a menu. Finally, you can customize an "Own" key to provide quick access to the phone function or application of your choice.

We tried the E65 on both the AT&T and T-Mobile networks in Southwest Florida and while the call quality was good, the E65's speakerphone (the speaker is located on the upper right side edge) isn't very loud; we found it difficult to hear even with the volume cranked up maximum and in a fairly quiet room.

The E65 includes a number of voice-enabled features in addition to the customary voice recorder. For example, you can hold down the voice button on the side of the E65 and then speak the name of a contact entry to view or call or an application to launch.