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Nokia has introduced the most 'petite' member of its business line of Eseries smartphone yet. The quad-band GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900) handset is candybar-shaped, measures a compact 4.5 x 1.7 x 0.6 inches (113 x 43.5 x 15.5 millimeters) and weighs only 3.7 ounces (104 grams).

Built on the Symbian OS and S60 3rd edition interface, the Nokia E50 (aimed squarely at the midrange) supports popular corporate mobile e-mail solutions, including Intellisync Wireless e-mail, BlackBerry Connect, Visto Mobile, Altexia, and Microsoft ActiveSync. It is said to deliver up to six hours of talk time.

An add-on voice solution enables integration with existing corporate PBX voice infrastructures. So, for example, it can route mobile phone calls through the PBX, thereby removing cost barriers associated with business mobility, according to Nokia. Due to a bundled client, companies with Avaya Communication Manager can already connect the Nokia E50 directly to their company phone networks, enabling the smartphone to work like a traditional office phone.

The Nokia Team Suite helps to facilitate conference calls and to initiate push-to-talk sessions with selected team members through a built-in speakerphone. The Nokia E50 also includes a search function enabling queries into data, such as contacts, e-mails and messages. Business attachments received via e-mail (documents, presentations, and spreadsheets) can be accessed via the Quickoffice viewer.

You can also use two numbers on the same E50 phone and it is Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA DM) enabled. Meaning, it can be remotely managed without additional software loaded.

The E50 has a 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 player, 70 MB of internal memory, a microSD slot, and a 240 x 320 pixel (QVGA)/262k display. There's no 3G or Wi-Fi as part of Nokia's keep-costs-down mantra for the E50.

Nokia plans to ship the E50, the company's 18th new phone model this year, in June with volume sales starting in the third quarter for between $380 and $450, unsubsidized; which means it'll likely go for a lot less when it hits stores with service plans.

Due to arrive in March, Nokia delayed releasing its first Eseries smartphones because of unspecified software issues. It finally started shipping the most eagerly-anticipated model - the BlackBerry-like E61 (with a thumb-keyboard) -to carrier customers earlier this month.