I Finally Review My Nokia E71

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My apologies for being tardy with the follow up post on my Nokia E71 experiences. Its amazing how work tends to take over your life at points and keep you from the things you truly love – spending time with your family or writing blog posts. Thanks for the reminder emails some sent me that I promised to pen this.

Before I get started, there has been some other follow-on Nokia news. First Nokia is rumored to be working on the E75, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard version of the E71. It offers a 2.4” screen and numeric keypad on the front. Second, AT&T is rumored to be releasing the E71x on its network in the near future. No one is sure what the “x” moniker refers to, but it appears to be a new matte black version. Finally, Nokia announced the E63, a more consumer-friendly version of the E71 with a $150 price point.

And now that the rumor mill has been exhausted, my thoughts on the E71.

The phone has been a pleasant surprise to use from day one. The one thing I cannot get over is how good the phone feels in your hand. It is *solid* without feeling overly heavy. It feels thinner than the iPhone (whether it is or not - I don’t care - it *feels* thinner dammit) and ergonomically is very sound from my use. I realize like most things phone related this is very subjective. Your mileage may vary. The screen is the perfect size for the phone – any bigger would impact the overall phone size and any smaller would be to small. This may sound common sense, but it fits the phone functions just right. I can see about 6 emails at once with preview turned on, or 12 without. Browsing the internet on this device is great as well. The built-in magnification makes getting around a page a snap.

The QWERTY keyboard is very supple and the keys are just the right size for my sausage-sized digits. The iPhone took about a week’s training before I got to consistently nail the on-screen keys at just the right angle. With this keypad I was dead-on in no time. Turning on the predictive typing made things even quicker. Even typing in my 7-digit PIN lock code required by my Exchange server is easy on this keypad. Again, with my iPhone I always have to type it at least twice. The space bar is generous and it is easy to access the numbers and special characters via the control keys. I also love the D-pad and how easy it makes it to navigate around the screen. The ‘breathe’ indicator light is also a nice little touch to let you know when you get emails and calls in silent mode.

The battery is huge (1500 amhz) but does not take anything away from the device. I am able to get three days out of it on the 3G network with medium usage and talk time. I am in the habit of charging my phone each night when I get home so I am not too fussed, but on the long trips it comes in handy. This is also the easiest battery cover I have ever removed. It has two simple depression latches at the bottom on the right and left sides. Depress them and it simply slides off. The cover is metal and paper thin. It is also coated in a cool looking and better feeling ‘grippy’ pattern etched in to the metal. The whole phone is a fingerprint magnet, but every phone these days is so I have just gotten used to it. At least I don't have to worry about getting makeup on it! :)

So far there is no support for making video calls in the US so I haven't been able to test out the cool front mounted video camera. Opposite it is the light sensor.

Nokia promotes its “personality” changing ability on this phone or the ability to switch themes\skins\views\profiles for work and home so that essentially the phone has two different personalities that can be toggled. While this is a good idea, I have never had the need to use it. I guess I am a sucker that is always working!

Included is the Nokia mail add-in EfE (email for Exchange) for all of us corporate drones running an Exchange server with ActiveSync. The app runs well and is a no-frills email client. It is missing some things, but over all functions very well and is full featured, especially compared to the iPhone. You have full calendar functionality as well as Task synchronization. However, it does tend to run out of memory often (twice this week) with no other applications running. A hint for anyone who enforces password policies via their Exchange server. The default Nokia password is 12345, which you must first enter before you can set your own password upon initial mailbox sync and policy push. This took me a good day to sort out.

I use Twibble to get my tweets each day and the mapping application works quite well with the built-in GPS. I used this on my last visit to Los Angeles to make sure the Taxi driver wasn't taking me on the “long way” to the L.A. Convention Center for the Microsoft PDC. There a ton of other apps available from the Nokia App and Business App portal. It comes with the previous version of QuickOffice which does not open Microsoft Office 2007 files. You will need to upgrade in order to get that. A PDF reader is included.

Bluetooth paring with my Jawbone 2 was effortless and the quality of the connection is great, even at the outer limits of thirty feet. I was disappointed that the USB cable included is for data transfer only and will not charge the phone. You need to purchase a separate USB charging cable. Also, there is no case from Nokia available yet. After much searching I was able to find a great fit at Best Buy in the Eddie Bauer leather hip case.

Really, the only two complaints I have about the phone (and they are trivial at best) are that the power button is very hard to depress (which may not be a bad thing – but you use it to quickly change profiles) and you cannot have the phone vibrate for incoming calls without also vibrating for incoming emails. In a perfect world my profile would be vibrate for calls, silent for email for most of my working day in the office. I don't need to be reminded about emails when I am already sitting in front of my laptop.

This phone beats the iPhone, IMO, in almost every category. The learning curve is steeper, the OS isn't skinned (although many themes are available) but the flexibility and performance all trump the iPhone.

If I didn’t answer something you are interested in knowing, please drop a line in the comments.