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Will it be business or pleasure, sir? Traditionally, you have to decide between the two when buying a phone, but Nokia’s new feature-rich E66 or E71 handsets have the talents to let you indulge in both.
Both Series 60 smarties are additions to a series that is renowned for being more stuffy than a financial advisor, and have largely the same spec sheet. But while the E66 sports a traditional keypad, the E71 is going straight for the Blackberry’s e-mailing heart thanks to its full QWERTY powers.
Sexy back
For starters, it makes its predecessor, the E61i, look like a giant desktop calculator. It’s deliciously slimline at 10mm thick, and Nokia’s decision to plate the rear battery cover and outer trim with stainless steel makes it one of the most covetable smartphones around.
But does the narrower frame compromise the QWERTY keyboard? Not one jot. In fact, it makes one handed typing a breeze, particularly as the E61i’s notoriously spongy buttons have been replaced with sturdy domed keys for improved purchase. The fat fingered may struggle a little but overall it’s a delight to thumb.
Faster and fitter
With double the RAM and a faster processor, the E71’s performance has been finely tuned and its reaction times are far sharper. Little tricks like grabbing a contact from your phonebook without leaving the home-screen – you just type the person’s name – and a split-screen calendar also adds to its new time saving talents.
Not all of the additions are a success though – the new ‘business to personal home screen’ switch is a bit too gimmicky for our tastes.
It’s a minor niggle, though, and the E71 regains its cool with its range of connectivity: Wi-Fi, HSDPA, A2DP, Bluetooth and even Infrared for the old schoolers are all on board. Personal email accounts are also ridiculously easy to set up – just give up your address, username and password – although getting it sparring with your work set-up (including support for Microsoft Exchange) might require a call to the IT manager.
Multimedia moves
The E71 may have a business heart, but a 3.2megapixel snapper with autofocus, built-in GPS and an accomplished music player gives it a vibrant fun side too.
The camera is surprisingly well equipped and takes decent enough snaps, while the built-in GPS receiver is quick to sniff out a satellite fix and join up with Nokia Maps 2.0 to give directions. Music fans will also dig the ability to download tracks from Nokia’s Music Store.
So should the BlackBerries be nervous? On this evidence, most certainly. The forthcoming Bold handset certainly looks promising, but it will have to pull out all the stops to oust the E71 as our favourite portable e-mailer. And now we’re not even ashamed to use it down our local.
Tech Specs
- Bluetooth
- Yes
- Dedicated MP3 player software
- Yes
- Dimensions
- 114 x 457 x 10mm
- FM radio
- Yes
- Main camera resolution
- 3.2 megapixels
- Memory card slots
- Yes
- Memory card type
- Micro SD
- Operating system
- Symbian S60
- Quad band
- Yes
- Screen resolution
- 240x320px
- Standby time
- 410 hours
- Storage
- 110MB internal
- Supported music formats
- MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA (DRM)
- Talktime
- 10.5 hours
- Video resolution
- 640x480 at 22fps
- Weight
- 127g
- Wi-Fi
- Yes
- Xenon flash
- No
Comments
House_Fly
47 weeks ago
I have had my e71 for about 12 months now and although at first it seemed like a great phone, but then it would not update and the nokia pc software seemed slow and cumbersome. In the end it had to be sent back to the repair shop to be updated.
After re-installing my apps it ran even slower than before due to the phone memory being clogged up with 29MB of text messages (even though the folders were completely empty!)
So... a good phone in principle but not all its cracked up to be I'm afraid!
Going for the Desire HD when my contract is up
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2 years ago
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desaputra
2 years ago
Great smartphones... and don't buy it with vodafone, their firwmware seems eat alot of battery, wifi problem and exchange mail on and off it self.
Got it with vodafone for 3mths... then reflash with after market software with original nokia firmware (not recommended either coz it void warranty)... but after that all my problem with battery, wifi and mail exc solved.
So it shown there's nothing wrong with the hardware, something wrong with vodafone-nokia firwmware (add on maybe)...
FerDeLance
2 years ago
Can't believe all the hype about this phone. I tried it after owning a string of phones including HTC S730, TyTn II, Samsung i700 & Samsung i600, and Sony Xperia X1.
I prefer non-touchscreen handsets beause they are faster to use, and the Samsung i600 takes some beating. Just its sluggish WM6 performance, battery and low spec HSDPA let it down so I thought I'd get an E71 which improves in all these areas and more such as GPS.
However the S60 platform is the double edged sword here, yes it's fast. However anyone who has used WM6 or WM6.1 will rue the lack of customisation. Yes there are 3rd party applications but that homescreen is very poor and limited in what you can do to change it.
I am currently swapping between the E71 and Sony X1, and so far the Sony has it well beat. I am running several customised UIs on the X1 such as HTC touchflo3d and PointUI2 on the amazing WVGA screen and they make it a far more rewarding experience that the E71 can ever muster.
Great form factor on the E71, great spec (apart from 2.5mm jack and low res screen) but that Symbiam OS is very limiting once you've seen what can be done with WM6.1 and a few tweaks.
btw - TobesEtc Exchange Server forces the passcode, not the hansdet; this is a feature of MS Push. Otherwise if you lose a handset your corporate email becomes public. There is a way to switch it off though if really want your security compromised.
TobesEtc
2 years ago
Having previously had Blackberry Curve's I bought 7 Nokia E71's for my small office. We put up with them for 4 months. In that period four had to be returned for replacement. We found the battery life very short (24hrs max). The internet connection was unreliable (probably same for all 3G phones). Typing in a passcode everytime you pick up the phone is a pain (we have Exchange Servers and unbelievably the handset FORCES you to have passcode set). The keyboard is not easy to use. Mine would not allow you to create a new email from the Home Screen "New Email" icon, nor could I forward any emails if I "looked up" the forwarding address either from phone contacts or Exchange contacts. In the end we complained to Vodafone and they allowed us to send them all back and get Blackberry Bolds. Sorry - The E71 had a more than fair chance with us, but after four months we decided to give up. For work use I do not recommend this handset.
jamafoley
3 years ago
THE BEST SMARTPHONE EVER CREATED. GET THIS PHONE IT IS AMAZING!!!!!!
KingAsh
3 years ago
This was my first experience of "smartphones" and i must say this Phone is excellent at EVERYTHING!, my wife has now just swapped her HTC touch for one and we will not look back...e.mail is brilliant, web browsing is brilliant and the feel of the nokia is exceptional...well done NOKIA! If you want to listen to music/videos etc get an Ipod nano...for everthing else this is far superior!
Kingash...
Gstrowes
3 years ago
I've been using my E71 for a week now.
Brilliant.
Very easy to use with intuitive menus. the responsive keypad combined with the predictive text makes composing messages/emails a joy.
I had the phone connected and downloading my email within a couple of minutes of switching the phone on for the first time.
the stylish looks and solid build quality have my iPhone owning mates seething with jealousy.
markmitzman
3 years ago
I cannot rate this phone highly enough! I am an ex Crackberry addict who saw the light when the sexy N95 8gb came on the market. But having seen one of these E71's in Stuff I simply had to try it. A day later and the N95 is back in it's box never to see the light of day. The set up is easy even the exchange for microsoft is a dream to set up and use. Frankly this phone puts Blackberry to shame.
It feels superb the build quality is better than any other Nokia I have ever used. The features list is as long as your arm and the wifi connectivity is a great addition.
I won't be using a Blackberry until they come up with something much better. I defy you not to like it...
Jah
3 years ago
This device is truely staggering in what it can do and how esy it is to use. My normal Smartphone is the E90. I am very surprised how many of the E90's functions the E71 can do so well. Here some specific aspects that I find great about this Smartphone:
- 2/3 day battery life (honest)
- easy to use one handed. In real life you don't always have both hands free
- quick, really quick. Many Smartphone with CPUs with twice the speed of the E71 are not as quick as this device
- lovely well designed hardware
You need to think if this device as a 'game changer'. It is what future mobile phones will become. Yes its a phone first and entertainment device second (unlike the iPhone). But with sat nav (real sat nav), Nokia music store access and A2DP (stereo bluetooth) its actually a pretty good entertainment device as a well as a rock solid business device (and yes unlike the iPhone you can use the E71 as a 3G modem for your laptop).