Nokia E71 Review

The Nokia E71 was announced at the same time as the E66 a few months back and in a short time has become one of Nokia’s best ever handsets suiting both Business and Personal sections of the market.

As always a big thank’s to WOM World for supplying the handset to us for review.  You may have seen a little while back Christian posted his thoughts on the E71 so this is a follow on from that now that I have managed to get hands on one for myself.  Here are the basic specs of the phone:

S60 3rd Edition

Feature Pack 1 based on Symbian OS v9.2

Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm

Weight: 127 g

369 MHz Processor

3.2 megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels)

320 x 240 (QVGA) at 15 fps (Video Capture)

110 MB internal dynamic memory

Now onto the main part of the review starting with a look at the phone.

Looking Around The E71

The left side of the E71 has a IDRA which is not found on a lot of phones now but is still handy sometimes, there is also a memory card slot for MicroSD up to 16gb and the Mini USB port for using the phone as a modem or when using PC Suite which comes in the box with the data cable.

The top of the phone has the loudspeaker and the red on/off button.  Turn the phone and on the right you have the headset jack which is not 3.5 unfortunately but a slightly smaller one so you have to use the supplied headset.  You also get the volume up and down and in the middle of the volume is a button you hold to enable voice dialling.

The bottom of the phone is very basic with the standard small Nokia pin charger.  The back of the phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus, an LED flash and a mirror for taking pictures of yourself (I still don’t know anyone who has used it for that though).

Now comes the main part of the phone, the front which is full of buttons…..50 to be exact!.  At the top you have the large speaker which gives off excellent audio quality, you also have a VGA camera for video calling if you so wish to try it out or are a keen user such as myself.

You get a very large and bright 2.36″ screen set in wide-screen format which is perfect for when you want to watch a video you have saved or just want to write large emails because you can fit much more on the screen than a normal screen.

Looking at the buttons you have  left and right shortcut keys which you can set to options of your choice, you have green and red keys to be used for making and ending voice calls.  There is also a 5 way pad in the middle made up of a silver square which is the up/down/left and right buttons and a big select button in the middle.

E-Series have some special buttons on them to speed up accessing the phonebook or contacts and the E71 has 4 of them.  Home for accessing the main menu, a calendar button, one for your phonebook and another for accessing your messages.

If you think that was all there is still the QWERTY keys at the bottom but these are a joy to use and allow really fast text entry either on text messages or email’s.  The keys are a little small when compared to the BlackBerry Bold but you soon get used to using them and are hammering out messages really fast in no time at all.

There may be a lot of buttons but they all have a reason for being there and after all this is an E-Series device which was aimed more at business people or users who want to keep in touch in many ways.  If you are looking for more multimedia then the N-Series is more suited.

Specification & Features

The E71 is packed full of features from your tradition Series 60 E-Series phone such as advanced email and calendar options but also ads OVI support such as Share Online, Nokia Maps, Sync and Download.

What I did like was on the home screen rather than having to go into your contacts, find the person you want to call and hit the green call button, all you have to do is start typing the name using the QWERTY keys.  If will find the name of the person you want to contact, then when you select that contact you get options to voice call, video call (when in 3G coverage only), send a MMS or sent a SMS.  This is such a handy feature and is found in the BlackBerry range so Nokia really are going all out to bring the best features to as many people as possible.  This was my favourite feature of the E71 because it was just so handy when you wanted to contact people.  I will really miss this feature when moving back to another phone from this.

Maps 2.0 is built in and this is the latest version from Nokia and with the built in GPS receiver you can can easily find where you are but please be warned you need to do one of the following 2 options first

1. Have a unlimited data plan such as Web ‘n’ Walk if your on T-Mobile or a network’s version of the service.  Maps uses a lot of data to find where you are and download that bit of the map.  You can easily use 1mb in seconds and this can really cost you a lot of money to use if you don’t have an unlimited plan
2. Another option is to plug your E71 into a computer and use the MapLoader software available from the Nokia website (this also works on Mac’s now thankfully).  MapLoader connects to the Internet, downloads the map you want onto your computer and moves it over to your memory card so you wont need a data connection to use Maps on your phone.  This is free to use but is not as quick as downloading the map on the fly.

Although I did mention the E71 has OVI services it will not work with N-Gage properly  because there is no graphic acceleration so the games would be too poor quality to make effective in making this a supported handset.  Then again the N96 also lacks this feature and as well known Mobile Industry Review Blogger, James Whatley said a few months ago you really need good graphics to enjoy N-Gage.  I did download the software and send to the E71 but when I tried to install I got an error saying ‘Unable to install, Not an N-Gage device’ and the installer ended so no go with N-Gage I’m afraid.

OVI is a great service for Nokia and I know I keep going on about it, but it is so handy to have a suite of applications online as well as on their phones because there are so many possibilities.  If you are using the phone for business use then Sync will be priceless because it lets you backup your contacts, notes, calendar entries and all your important data over the Internet so if something happens like you loose your phone or get a new one, all you do is install Sync, log into your OVI account and you can re download all your data.  And best of all this service is FREE!.  Just remember data charges apply but an unlimited option would be perfect.

Being E-Series there are some extra business style app’s you wont find on N-Series.  These are under the ‘Office’ section and include

• Active Notes which is a more advanced Notes package
• Intranet which allows you with the right settings and permissions to access a company Intranet

You also get the main ones  like File Manager, Calculator, Clock and Adobe PDF for viewing of PDF files

I did mention earlier that the E71 has a more advanced calendar and a handy change to older versions is the split screen.  Now when you look at the main screen you get the dates on the left hand side as you would expect to see and when you highlight a day with something saved you get a overview on the right hand side.  Really handy for quick viewing and editing of your tasks.

Have you got one phone for work and another for play?.  Well another handy tool up the sleeve of the E71 is a simple idea called ‘Switch’ where you can get one mode for personal settings like email accounts, to do lists and ringtone and have another profile for personal settings so once your out of work you can switch with one simple key press.  This is a first I have seen in a phone and once you have set it up right it is like you have two phones in one.  More phones should have this feature going forward.  Nokia if you are reading please keep this feature it is so handy especially for people who use the one phone for work and personal but want to keep work for work and personal for personal.

Connectivity Options

The E71 is packed with different ways to connect to the Internet or transfer data.  These are:

• HSDPA 3.6mb/s
• GPRS
• HSCSD
• EDGE
• IRDA
• Bluetooth
• WiFi 802.11 b/g

IRDA is an outdated technology but Nokia felt it worth putting into the E71 to make it a real connection powerhouse and with HSDPA for on the move and WiFi for when you are near a HotSpot, plus Bluetooth for file transfer or modem use there really is nothing the E71 cannot do wirelessly

Battery Life & Build Quality

With all the features listed, all the connectivity types and that massive screen surely the battery is going to be poor?.  Well Nokia have thought ahead and have shipped the E71 with a beefy 1500mAh battery which with some calls and data use should last you 2 to 3 days at least.  I was charging mine every second day but that was with very heavy data and text use.

When it comes to build quality it is very simple to explain.  Awesome!.  The metal finish makes the phone slightly heavier than a normal plastic phone but if feels so strong it is well worth it and the whole phone just looks well finished from the shiny case to the well made buttons that don’t feel like they will fall off like many people are reporting with the BlackBerry Storm which only has a few buttons but many people are let down with the build quality.  The Nokia E71 feels like a premium phone.

Final Thoughts

In total I had use of the Nokia E71 for around 3 weeks and was using it every day as my only device of choice.  And I have to say it is the best Nokia phone I have used so far and I have to seriously think about calling it in my view the best smartphone ever!.

With a premium build quality, massive 1500mAh battery, Nokia’s Series 60 OS allowing a wide range of extra applications to be installed, the OVI suite and the many different ways to connect to people or other devices from HSDPA to Wifi and Bluetooth the Nokia E71 is the handset of choice.  I have always been more of a N-Series person because of the better camera’s and more multimedia functions but I would have no hesitation in purchasing a E71 to use as my only phone.  it does so much, looks great and is available now with T-Mobile, 3, Orange and Vodafone so you can pick up cheap on a contract or even if you want Sim Free you can pick it up for between £300 and £350 depending on where you look.

Filed Under: Reviews

Tags: e71