Nokia E71
My all-time favourite mobile phone was my old Sony Ericsson P910i but SE’s later phones just don’t match up in features or ease of use. I replaced the P910i with a Nokia E61i after the scroll wheel got wrecked by an idiot in airport security in Jakarta knocked the phone off the scanner in his haste to look at the duty free booze I was carrying.
The E61 was okay for text messaging and such but I had a hard time setting it up to send and receive email no matter how many times I rechecked the settings. The other problem was the sheer width of the phone making it difficult to find a belt pouch for it. It fit into the pocket of a work shirt but I had it drop out when I bent over, luckily without breakage, just a couple of scratches and a dent on one corner. The E61 was solid with a steel battery cover and a large battery, making it good for those long conversations with clients when things go wrong.
I had a brief interlude with the Sony Ericsson G900 but a drop of sweat on the screen managed to find its way into the screens inner layers and stopped the touch screen interface from working at all. Just as well, I had been trying to find an excuse to junk the phone as signal dropping (in places where cheap mobiles had no problem) poor screen visibility in sunlight conditions and the tiny virtual keyboard along with a fairly opaque menu system compared to the old P series were getting on my nerves.
Time for a new phone. Previously I had a hankering after the Nokia E90 but after seeing it in real life I didn’t really like the bigger size compared to most of the current crop of mobiles. My bad experience with the SE G900 and the tiny virtual keyboard made me look for something with a full keyboard. The HTC TyTN II and the HTC Touch Pro were contenders with their slide out keyboards but the size, price and the fact that Windows mobile was driving the things counted heavily against them. Blackberries had the full keyboard but were pretty large as well.
Then I saw the Nokia E71. All of the functionality of the E61i was there in a a slimmer package. Even though this phone’s trim size fits in most cell phone pockets (those built in to many cargo/BDU type pants) the battery was the same size as the larger E61 giving excellent battery life of up to ten hours of talk time as well.
Signal strength is up there with the best of them and the phone is a quad band unit making it useful almost anywhere in the world. The connectivity is rounded off with HSPDA 900/2100, WiFi, Bluetooth (A2DP) and infra-red for those whose laptop no longer has an infra-red transceiver. Mine came with a 2GB MicroSD card for extra storage for email and such.
The newer phone has a couple of features that I found lacking on the E61i. The first is automatic key locking. I don’t know why Nokia left that out of the E61 but I always had to remember to lock the keys manually. The second is a real alarm clock function which can use multiple alarms. Finally Nokia built in the GPS in the E71. As there is nothing missing you have to wonder how they fit everything in there with a maximum thickness of 10 mm.
Thinks I like:
- Small size fits in pants pockets without making you look like you have a cancerous growth.
- Great signal strength and clear calls.
- Has fairly good office file viewing software.
- Solid feel.
- Sunlight viewable screen.
- Built in GPS.
- Full keyboard which I can use one handed.
Things I don’t like:
- Screen a touch small, I know it goes with the trim profile but my eyes are getting older.
- Keyboard a little cramped for my large hands, see above for why I can learn to live with that.
- Limp white colour, I prefer the grey version but there were none in stock anywhere.
- The shiny back cover in polished stainless steel with etched lines is a magnet for fingerprints.
- People asking how I like my Blackberry.
I find it’s a lot easier to type with the tip of my thumbs since the keys are so packed tightly together. I too have large fingers but I haven’t had too much trouble writing out messages quick.
I have gotten more used to the keyboard but still cannot use my thumb tips as the size factor prevents it. Overall it is a really nice phone to use with very few shortcomings.