Popular instant messaging services are supported, including AOL and Yahoo, as well as text and multimedia messaging.

When you're off the clock, hit the "My Stuff" icon and you can fire up the built-in music player that supports MP3 and AAC formats, an application for viewing MPEG-4 and 3GP video files and an image viewer for showing off photos (JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF).

This is a quad-band phone running in the 850-, 900-, 1800- and 1900-MHz bands, meaning it is usable not only in the U.S. but also in Europe. The only significant disappointments -- for some -- will be that the E62 isn't a camera phone, it has no Wi-Fi support and it only supports Cingular's old-generation EDGE cellular data network, not newer, faster 3G data networks. Still, the EDGE network is more than fast enough for basic communications tasks such as e-mail and instant messaging. The European version of the device, the E61, supports 3G networks and Wi-Fi.

Putting it to work

Like the Motorola Q and BlackBerry's 8700 series, the Nokia E62 sports a slim, if slightly blocky, profile at 4.6 by 2.7 by .63 in. and a weight of 5 oz. Given its size, using the phone feels a little like talking into a brick, a problem it shares with those other smart phones.