Nokia E71 Review
Earlier this year I was in the market for a new phone, and I spent a long time researching the available models, features, and prices. I ended up choosing a Nokia E71, and after using it for 6 months I hope I can give a good review of the pros and cons of this phone. My priorities in a mobile phone, in order, are:
- Quality and ease of use of voice calls and SMS
- Internet browsing and email
- Build quality
- Size
- Camera
- Other apps, games etc
If you have similar priorities in a phone, hopefully this review will be useful for you.
My first impulse was to buy an iphone. On paper, it looked like a great option for the internet browsing and email. I ended up borrowing one from a friend and giving it a good road test. I was glad that I did, as I found a few features which were a deal breaker for me at the time. I know criticizing the iphone is an easy way to get yourself flamed by apple fans so I will have to be careful here!
Using the iphone, the internet browsing is indeed fantastic. There is also a huge range of games and applications available to download, and some of them are pretty good! However my top use for a phone is still to make calls and send messages. For my tastes, the touch screen on the iphone was actually a bit fiddly to use. I like to be able to type on a phone without even looking at the keys at times, like when I’m in a meeting and need to send a sneaky message. Typing a message on the iphone for me required constant attention, and with no texture to the keys at all I found my fingers slipping on to other letters. The size was also a downside; it did not feel comfortable in my pocket.
Once I had decided the iphone wasn’t for me, I looked around for something with similar features. The Nokia E71 was a bit of an oddball choice as it is really targeted at business users. However browsing reviews online, this seemed to translate to good build quality and stable software, both definite pluses!
The E71 is a candy bar style phone, which I like for the added strength. I have had a clamshell design in the past and found that it broke easily at the hinge. It has a large screen, although less than half the size of the iphone. It also has a full QWERTY style keyboard. To be honest, I could take or leave the QWERTY keyboard. It does work quite well because the keys are raised in the middle, reducing slippage to other keys. However most regular cell phone users are very quick with the standard layout with 3 or 4 letters to a number. With practice, I am almost as fast with the QWERTY keyboard as with the 0-9 pad and it is less button presses. But there is still a bit of hunt and peck to find the right key sometimes. Using the shift or control keys is awkward as you have to hold 2 tiny keys at once. I have actually thought about getting a Bluetooth keyboard for those times that I want to do more typing on the go.
The E71 has dedicated buttons on the keypad for home, calendar, address book and email. You can customize the use of each button, and assign different functions for a long press of each button. I find the email button, and the whole integration of email into the E71 to be very useful. The phone comes with a wizard that configures your email the first time you run it – after that it is a matter of pressing the button, and the phone checks for any new email on the server and copies it to your phone. You can send emails from your phone as easily as writing a text.
Internet browsing is similarly easy. The included browser is quite good, but you can easily download a third party browser if you want a change. I have also tried opera mini and skyfire, and both worked well. I think skyfire is a little better with a range of media like embedded videos and some java based sites.
The biggest disappointment for me is the camera on the E71. It wasn’t terrible at first, but the design doesn’t include any kind of protective cover as in many other Nokia models. In fact, the camera actually protrudes from the back of the phone, making it very easy to scratch. Mine quickly became almost useless due to the wear on the cover. It still takes pictures, but has a lot of flare in bright light because of the scratches. I guess Nokia thinks business users don’t need to take many pictures.
In terms of size, the E71 is just a little thinner and shorter than the iphone. However it is almost half the thickness which makes a surprising difference to pocketability. I can comfortably carry mine in a pants pocket.
In summary, the E71 is a great little phone. It is more portable than its width suggests and feels well built and solid. The medium-large color screen makes web browsing fairly easy, and the integrated email is great. For me, there is a question mark over the QWERTY keyboard. Some might prefer the familiarity of a 0-9 style keypad, but even with fairly large fingers it is quite easy to press each key. The camera is a letdown but other multimedia features are good – the media player works well for mp3s and video, and the voice recorder is a plus for note taking. All things considered, this is a well thought phone that with a few design changes could be my dream phone.