Nokia E63 Review

Introduction:

Unexpectedly, SMS messages have become the most popular mobile service. Who would have thought that people will write messages in a peculiar way on these small keyboards? Years later, phones are much more advanced and the variety is greater, but this service continues to hold the first place. So it should be expected that developers will try to make it more user-friendly, shouldn’t it? Until recently, the availability of a full keyboard was something typical only for business phones, but manufacturers began to realize that the ordinary customers also like using SMS, e-mail and chat and QWERTY keyboards have made their way into every level of consumer devices.

Design:

Thanks to this, we have models like the Nokia E63. Based on the popular business smartphone E71, a full keyboard is now available to everyone. Its appearance is more casual, replacing the metal with a high-quality plastic. Hopefully, the build quality doesn’t suffer from this and is still very high-end. The colors are also more liberal and instead of the boring grey and black, here we find the fresher blue or red. The E63 has gotten a bit thicker and is now 13 mm, instead of the E71’s 10 mm. There is virtually no change in the other dimensions and as a whole the size is pretty decent for a QWERTY phone. Speaking of the keyboard, we have to mention that the keys are very handy, although a bit small. Unfortunately, once again, the bottom row of keys isn’t shifted to the right so you’ll have to get used to it in order to avoid mistakes. When it comes to buttons, we have to note the total lack of such on the sides – no volume rocker and no power key.



You can compare the Nokia E63 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

As is typical high end Nokia phones , the E63’s display won’t disappoint you. It looks good indoors, as well as when exposed to direct sunlight, though in the latter situation the colors become a bit undistinguishable. Still, the image is clear enough and allows you to use the device with no real issues.

Software:

Even though this is the first E-series model that isn’t business-oriented, the E63 is by no means dull.    It runs on Symbian 9.2 with Feature Pack 1, just like the E71. The option of switching between two modes is also present here, reminding us of the fact that the E63 can easily turn into a business assistant. As such, it offers perfect organizer functions; phonebook, e-mail client and Internet browser. The last one lets you check your favorite page, and for a fast connection you can use either the 3G or Wi-Fi network. According to Nokia, the E63 is designed to use the Internet or to access social networks and we were eager to find out what options it packs for this. We were surprised to see that it actually supports a Facebook “application”, though it has to be downloaded additionally. We put it in quotes intentionally, as this application is nothing more than a shortcut that opens the mobile version of the site in the browser. While it is very useful, since Nokia is advertising that the phone is for the social networks addicts it would have been better to equip it with a real, optimized application like we see on the Xperia X1.


What the E-series phones aren’t good at is multimedia. Is the E63 better, since it is targeted at the general consumer and not the business crowd? As you would expect, Symbian’s standard media player is used, which is really good, but this time a 3.5mm jack for headphones is also on board. This is a very welcome addition, because in contrast to the decent loudspeaker the headphones from the package perform rather poorly. When we plugged in a nice pair, everything came into order. There are no surprises considering the video playback quality - it’ll be top-notch when you play MP4/H.264 clips with QVGA resolution, as long as you don’t mind the relatively small size of the 2.4” display.  The E63 downgrades the already poor 3.2 megapixel camera found on the E71 to an equally poor 2MP shooter, though it does snap pictures quickly.

Performance:

We don’t wish to repeat ourselves, but the E63 is yet another fast Nokia smartphone. Although equipped with relatively slow processors, the S60 devices seem to be optimized very well and won’t annoy you with slow reactions. You are worried if the battery is going to last for the day and if you will be able to check the social community? No need– according to Nokia, the E63 has 11 hours of talk time.

And talking is what a phone is created for, right? We wouldn’t recommend the E63 to a businessman that makes official calls, but otherwise we don’t have any serious remarks on it. What we don’t like is the low volume of the earpiece, so you might not hear very well in a noisy environment. The quality is good, but the voices are a bit sharp in both directions.

Conclusion:

To tell you the truth we were a bit prejudiced about the E63, since it is basically a simplified version of the E71. Still, targeted at the social crowd, doesn’t disappoint us and although the plastic body its quality is quite high. The only functional change is the lack of a GPS for navigation, and the worse camera is completely acceptable, since that of the E71 isn’t really any better. In its relatively compact body the E63 packs the high functionality of an E-series S60 smartphone with a handy hardware keyboard (even though it has some small drawbacks), making it a preferable device for the heavy messagers. Whether or not it’s worth it depends on whether you like its appearance and price. It is significantly cheaper and if you don’t need a GPS then this certainly should be a phone to consider. An alternative is the Motorola Q9h, which has a slightly better keyboard and is based on the Windows Mobile operating system.