Nokia E66

The Nokia E66 is the newest addition to the Nokia E Series family. The E Series family is reputed to have feature packed, value for money, high end business phones and the E66 is no exception. It was launched alongwith the other heavy weight from the E Series stable, the E71 which was quite a good phone, . The E66 has specifications largely similar to the E71. In fact, there is little difference between both phones except the design, form factor and the lack of the QWERTY keypad in the E66.

It is primarily aimed at business users who would like a smart phone packed with features, a superb design with a dash of style, and can do without a QWERTY keypad. It does have good multimedia capabilities as well, which make it versatile in function. It can handle almost anything you can throw on it easily as it is powered with a fast processor and loads of RAM. Being a Symbian OS v9.2 FP1 phone, it has a large repository of applications and games which add to its functionality and make it an all rounder.

Nokia E66 Specifications:

• Dimensions: 107.5 x 49.5 x 13.6 mm
• Weight: 121 gms
• Display: 2.4″ TFT, 16M Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px.
• Camera: 3.15 MP Cam with Autofocus, Flash, secondary videocall cam
• Chipset: ARM 11 369 MHZ Processor
• Memory: 110 MB Internal memory, 128 MB RAM
• Connectivity: GPRS Class 32, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, USB 2.0, Infrared
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• OS: Symbian OS v9.2 rel 3.1 with FP1

Other Key features:
FM Radio, VoIP, GPS Receiver with A-GPS

Design and Display:

The Nokia E66 is a very sleek, slim slider with a superb finish and great design. It looks very cool in black and is amongst the best looking and slimmest sliders currently available. With dimensions of 107.5 x 49.5 x 13.6 mm, it isn’t exactly small but is just about the average size for a smartphone. It is moderately heavy at 121 gms but doesn’t feel bulky. It has a great build quality, as expected of all Nokia phones and can withstand rough usage coupled with light drops. Its looks are in total contrast to its business image, which is a nice and welcome change. It is available in two colors, grey and white complete with a metallic finish. The slider is solidly built and won’t loosen up or creaky over extended usage. The design is clean, with keys blending in with the design.

On the front panel, you find the earpiece, video call camera, ambient light sensor, 2.4″ TFT display, standard key controls, Call, End, Left and Right select keys, Cancel key and 4 other shortcut keys - Home, Contacts, Messaging, Calendar, with a D Pad in the center. The slider at the bottom includes the keypad and the mouthpiece. On the right, you find the two volume control button, a voice command button and a dedicated camera shutter button. The left side houses the 2.5 mm audio jack, the Infrared port and the microUSB port. The top sports the Power button while bottom has the standard Nokia 2 mm charger port.

The display is a superb 16 M color 2.4″ TFT display supporting the standard resolution of 240 x 320 px. The display has superb brightness and contrast levels and vibrant colors. It has decent sunlight legibility as well. Overall, the phone has a great design with a good display with nothing much to complain about.

OS and Interface features

The Nokia E66 is powered by Symbian OS v9.2 rel 3.1 with Feature Pack 1. FP 1 packs a lot of features over the original OS v9.1 and noticeably improves performance. It is surprising why Nokia didn’t include OS v9.3 with FP2 with the E66 and E71, as that would have made the phone much more irresistible. The E66 however, does have a lot of FP 2 features bundled in. Underneath the hood of the Nokia E66 lies a blazing ARM 11 369 MHZ processor supplemented by 128 MB of SD RAM. This combo is more than enough to run scores of resource hungry applications and games easily without any lag. Multitasking is a breeze on the E66, thanks to the powerful hardware. It has 110 MB internal memory which can be extended further by 8 GB through the micro SD slot.

The E66, like all other E Series phones, comes with Office applications pre installed. Document editing isn’t supported out of the box though, which is a let down considering it is a business phone. It also supports the vast library of Symbian Applications - Office Applications, Email clients, Chat clients, Imaging Apps, Audio and Video players, File Explorers etc so you can easily download all the applications you need. Web browsing is a pleasure, as on all other Nokia OS 9 phones. The built in OSS browser based on Webkit is excellent and renders even heavy and detailed web pages exactly as they would on a PC. You seldom feel any lag, thanks to the huge amount of RAM in the E66. The E66 has an accelerometer which automatically changes the screen orientation with a tilt in the position, accompanied with nice animations. It features the Active Standby screen with some improvements which make it all the more desirable to use. Most of the OS features are much the same what you have seen already in older phones.

Multimedia and Camera

The Nokia E66 has much better music capabilities than other business minded phones. It has good sound quality with a nice frequency response. It does lack a bit in the volume department though. It supports a wide range of formats like MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA. The Music Player supports 5 equaliser presets and effects like stereo widening. It also supports the A2DP profile which allows you to listen to your music on a stereo bluetooth headset. The video playback is great on the superb 2.4″ TFT display supporting 16M colors. You can view videos in portrait, landscape or fullscreen mode in the default Real player. There are no delays in opening and viewing media files, all thanks to the fast processor and ample RAM.

The Nokia E66 has a 3.15 MP camera with autofocus and a LED flash. It shoots pics at a standard resolution of 2048×1536 px. The picture quality isn’t much to speak of, though the camera performs quite decently considering it is primarily a business phone. The Camera UI is great and offers a range of advanced options like sharpness, contrast, ISO, white balance. The camera does QVGA video recording at 15 FPS with rather mediocre quality. It also has a standard FM Radio with good reception, but without RDS.

Connectivity and Accessories

The E66 offers almost all the standard connectivity options like GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, Infrared. It also offers Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile support. It doesn’t miss out on any feature you would expect. It also has a GPS receiver built in with A-GPS support. GPS reception is quite good with a short lock in period and works flawlessly with the bundled Nokia Maps 2.0.

Along with the Nokia E66, you get a spacious 2 GB MicroSD card, a hands free, a charger, a data cable and a leather case. You also get the regular manuals, guides and a PC Suite CD. It has a relatively weak 1000 mAh BL-4U battery, compared to the E71, which offers about 6.5 hours of talktime and lasts about 2 days with standard usage. With Wi-Fi or any data connection on, the battery drains quickly.

Pros:

• Superb Design
• Sturdy Build quality

Cons:

• No QWERTY keypad
• Mediocre camera
• No Document editing
• No RDS with FM

Final Words

The Nokia E66 is a very stylish business phone packed with a load of features. It is almost at the top when it comes to business phones. It offers decent multimedia performance as well which makes it a good buy for anyone who wants a business phone with a mix of style, usability, entertainment and performance.

Rating : 3.7 / 5