Nokia’s latest offering in their lineup of ‘E’ series is the E71. Featuring a full- QWERTY E71 is an update of the E61 which was released in 2006.
It boasts a 2.36 inch QVGA screen, a 3.2MP cam, in built A-GPS. It runs on the Symbian S60 9.2 v 3.1. Weighing at a 127gms the phone features a rock-solid build with a slick outlook which is very pleasing cuz unlike some phones this one not just looks good it feels good- in-fact great. Nokia continues to impress one and all with the build quality of their E Series phones. Looks alone can definitely sell this one.
The Battery supplied with it is the BL-4L, 1500mAH capacity.
It’s a Quad band phone which supports both WCDMA (850-1900 & 850-2100) frequencies as well.
The most apparent, distinguishing feature of the phone is its keypad. The impressive build quality extends to its usability as well. The materials applied are good, both in terms of physical feel and the tactile feedback. Plastic used here is of good quality.
In addition to the QWERTY Keypad there are the standard Selection Keys (2), the D-Pad, Connect/Disconnect Buttons and 4 More Buttons: the Home Key, the Calendar Key, the Phonebook key and the Messaging Key. These altogether are called as the One Touch Keys.
The Home key acts is the Menu Key, to access the Main Menu. If you have any application open and you want to go the home screen this is key. Keeping it pressed brings the opened applications list.
The calendar key as the name suggests brings the calendar out. If you keep the calendar key pressed it opens new page that takes the entry of a “meeting”.
Same gos for the Phonebook key as well. Pressing it brings forth the contacts list. Keeping it pressed brings up a “New Contact” entry form.
The best part of the lot is that three of them can be customized. The Contact Key, The Calendar Key and the Messaging Key.
Both actions: Short Press and Long Press can be assigned different actions.
The screen measures at 2.36 inches. Bright and smooth, is sufficient for a business device. The orientation is that of a widescreen.
S60 9.2 v3.1
The OS is the generic S60 OS version 3.1 with some extra applications that are category specific.
The Phone comes with the following Applications installed:
*Quickoffice- A well known document creator/editor. Documents, Worksheets, Presentations can be created using this application.
*Adobe Reader- PDF Reader.
*a Dictionary Application- GlobalDix 3.0
*Emoze- It is a Free Push Emails, Calendar, Contacts, etc. application for a mobile phone. It is a network dependent application. It supports Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail, Yahoo, OWA and ISP mail services.
*WE : offset – Its an application that detects your flight route automatically (can be done manually) based on the location of your departure and arrival airports. It then calculates the amount of carbon emission that was caused by your journey and a compensation of the emission is made through this application using a chargeable SMS or Credit Card. The CO2 offsets helps fund projects around the world that focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
*WiPresenter- Psiloc Wireless Presenter- as the name suggests it is an application to make Power Point presentations using Wifi.
*Multiscanner- A card reader application.
*PanoMan- Is a Photo Stitch Application. One can take more than one pic of a scene and stitch to get a wide angle effect.
There are a few application available for installation, if you require
There is SportsTracker, Solitaire, Worldmate, Yahoo!go, and Windows live. The Windows Live application is not shown in the picture cuz as soon as you install the application the Icon of the respective application comes up and the generic one, for the uninstalled applications gets deleted.
*Advanced Call Manager- It is the most interesting Application available for the E Series. The application allows you to manage your contacts, that is, you can set a groups of users from whom you want to receive calls and from whom you do not wish to receive calls. The application also allows you to set the action that needs to be performed for the group like: accept the call, reject, divert, send a personalized SMS, personalized greeting playback or even mute the ringer.
The application comes handy for someone with a busy schedule who just does not want unwanted calls. He/She can simply ward them off using this application.
Battery Life: equipped with a BL-4L 1500mAH battery, the largest capacity offering from Nokia to date, the device is no short of a dream come true for a S60 user. First, charge of mine, 2nd day for me. And its down 50% at the moment. Most users will find its battery life sufficient.
Nokia’s S60 devices, over the years, have been sluggish. But in the recent times they’ve rectified this. E71 is no exception. Speed is as good as it gets. OS is responsive. Accessing menus, applications is not painfully slow. It’s the best Nokia has to offer.
Multimedia:
Being a E series phone it would not have been surprising if it didn’t have all the features that are indispensable for a multimedia centric device. But still the Nokia E71 offers a 3.2MP AF cam, FM Radio and Stereo Music Player.
The camera is nothing to boast about. It’s an average camera (relative to phone’s cams these days). Its not as good as the one we find in the E90. A Question then: Why didn’t they just incorporate the one found on the E90 ? Perhaps a size issue.
Its Music Player, however, is a surprise. It is pretty good. It produces better sound than the E90 in my opinion. The only problem there is loudness which is the case with almost all Nokia phones. One major problem (for me) are the headphones. It is absolutely impossible to enjoy the music with these earplugs. All devices should be supplied with in ears instead of plugs. Isolation from outside noise is impossible with these type of plugs, unless you’re willing to keep them pressed against your ear so that theres no room left for the noise to creep in. Please take it as a suggestion Nokia, start providing in-ears. Make it a standard feature.
The phone also features a FM Radio which requires the hands-free to be plugged in.
The phone also has VOIP support.
An unprecedented feature incorporated into this Phone is the “Switch Mode” Facility.
The function allows you to create two Modes, each with its own set off applications for the standby screen. Themes can be specified for the mode as well. And with the execution of the mode function it switches to the other mode changing the Home screen applications, theme and wallpaper.
The phone also features Encryption facility which ciphers your data.
One noticeably good feature of the phone is the ability to access the contacts list from the home screen itself, without having to go press the contacts button first and then typing in the name. You can just start typing on the home screen and the contacts just get listed alphabetically…
This feature can, however, be turned off.
Another good move in the Contacts department has been made that action list has been moved from the “options” button to the D Pad itself. Now you can access action list, to be performed on the particular contact, by just highlighting the contact and then pressing right on the D Pad.
Conclusion
It is fair enough to say that Nokia has done an exceptional job with its E series. The E71 is well built, looks nice, the lags in the OS of yesteryears have been long rectified. A Perfect combination. There were no lags in Menu traversing. Even with 3 or 4 applications running in the background the phone doesn’t hang at all, no speed lag either.
It is not a multimedia centric device, however, its looks alone has the potential of swaying some potential N Series buyers to its side. My cousin, who i recommended the N82 (showed him one, he liked it) was instantly swayed into buying this one. Even if its cam is not good enough.
Potential buyers of the E90 may have second thoughts due to its bulkiness and, most importantly, its hefty price. New buyers may opt for this one as it has equal potential with the exception of E90′s mammoth internal screen which is, of course, E90′s only. However, coming from an E90 and switching to the E71 will not be much of a gain; if at all.
