Nokia E71

Nokia recently released two spanking new business class phones which offer a whole lot of featured packed into slim and classy cellphones. The Nokia E71 was released in the market a few days ago with Nokia E66 to follow suit shortly. Nokia E71 features a full hardware QWERTY keyboard and a slim body. It is dubbed as a successor to Nokia E61i.

Nokia E71 specifications :

• Dimensions : 114 x 57 x 10mm
• Weight : 127g
• Display : 2.36″ TFT with 16M colors
• Display resolution : 320 x 240
• RAM : 128MB
• Processor : ARM 11 369MHz
• Memory card slot : microSD
• GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSCSD
• WiFi : 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• OS : Symbian OS 9.2 Series 60 v3.1 UI
• Built in GPS receiver
• 3.2 MP camera with autofocus
• Approx. price : $500

So much for the specifications, lets start with the review. The first thing that you will notice about this cellphone is its extremely small QWERTY keyboard. Nokia has cramped the keyboard in a small space by reducing space between buttons and making them smaller. Maybe that also explains the reduced display size to 2.36″ from the 2.8″ found in the E61i. On the brighter side, Nokia has made the handset extremely slim at just 10mm thickness.

Design and Display

Talking about design, the build quality is absolutely amazing with a solid exterior. It has been made of metallic, duo-toned finished which offers a neat and stylish look. The handset feels solid in the hands. So much for the praise, Nokia has still not sorted out the fingerprint smudges that appear on the metallic part of the exterior, similar problem as the E51 had with its metallic backside.

The display is dissappointing as it has been reduced to a mere 2.36 inches from the 2.8″ one found in E61i. The resolution of the display is still 320 x 240 which is good enough for the display of its size. But the quality of the display is great as expected. The clarity and brightness is excellent and visibility under sunlight isn’t of any concern either.

The QWERTY keyboard has smaller keys and lesser spacing between the keys. That does hinder in typing but slowly you get accustomed to it but few typos are still unavoidable. The phone also has auto correction feature built in to rectify the typos but unless you are typing emails, using it while typing SMS is pretty useless.

Camera and Operating System

The camera resolution gets bumped to 3.2 megapixel along with the inclusion of LED flash. But the camera quality isn’t great which still remains a downpoint of the E-series. The camera interface is good with all the standard settings that you would expect. The LED flash is weak which makes night shots pretty much useless. The pics turn out good but nowhere near the quality that you would expect with a good 3.2 megapixel camera.

The Nokia E71 comes with S60 Platform with FP1, a bit of shock as FP2 is already out. Probably Nokia will FP2 in one of the future firmware upgrades for this phone. Some of the standard features include active standby screen, Calendar, Quick Office, Maps 2.0 etc. Maps 2.0 is the default application for using the built in GPS. Encryption feature has been incorporated which is a boon for enterprise users which allows you to encrypt contents of both your phone as well as the memory card.

Some extra features include Online music store and online sharing applications like Flickr,Vox etc. Its a pity that no accelerometer has been incorporated into the phone. The music capabilities of the phone are ordinary and nothing spectacular can be seen apart from the standard music player.

Easy Dial is another great feature as it lets you call the contacts as you type in their name. Apart from this, Flash Lite 3 support lets you watch Youtube videos on your cellphone. Calendar and Contacts applications have been bumped up with some new features.

Performance

The battery life is excellent and it can last a fortnight with a single charge and normal usage. Phone reception has hardly been a problem for Nokia and same goes for this handset. The 128MB RAM is sufficient for running multiple applications and menu navigation is also fast. Lack of 3.5 mm jack is another thing that might deter a few users. Camera and music player performance are nothing spectacular. But being the business class phone, it excels in business class features and plethora of connectivity options.

Pros :

• Extremely slim
• Fast performer
• Wi-Fi, GPS compatible
• Great battery life
• Flash Lite 3 support
• Great business class apps and features

Cons :

• Small display
• Cramped QWERTY keyboard
• No 3.5mm jack
• Average Camera
• Ordinary music capabilities

Final Thoughts

The Nokia E71 is a great phone with small dimensions to hit the market. It is a typical business phone which lacks imaging and multimedia capabilities. Great battery life, GPS, Wi-Fi, fast performance run away with all the glory. Small display is its major problem which might not make this phone a big success.

My Rating : 3.75/5