Nokia E71 Review

Introduction:

Nokia’s E-series started its life-span in 2005, being announced as a “business-oriented” device. The main purpose of these devices is to help you organize your day and work with e-mail. Like the ones from the N-series, the E-series runs on the Symbian platform.  It’s  a bit modified however, and their specifications don’t include powerful cameras and speakers. Besides, their appearance is rather official and (hopefully for us) more metallic.

The package includes:

Design:

All models of the series are unisex, and even though it lacks the E66’s compact size, the E71 could just as well attract the ladies’ attention. Ladies themselves just need to meet the following requirements – be fond of metal (the material, not the music genre), to have no worries about the width, which is a bit above average, the little heavier weight, and to actually like business-looking phones.




You can compare the Nokia E71 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The phone is almost entirely constructed of metal and respectively it weighs more than average (127 grams), but it seems to have worked out long enough in the gym, since its body is really firm and without any redundant elements. When you hold it in hand, it gives the impression of being something massive and durable, and in one’s pocket it feels like a magnificent cigarette box, or in other words – convenient. The only thing we didn’t like is that the metal parts seem to attract finger prints very much.

The E71 is equipped  with a 2.4” QVGA display and offers perfect image quality, no matter the light conditions. Below the display you’ll find the functional keys; the send and end keys and four shortcuts, leading to the main menu, calendar, phonebook and messages. All of them, as well as the D-pad are really handy, in spite of their small size.

You surely want to ask if the designers managed to gather a nice QWERTY keyboard in the comparatively compact body. The short answer is “It depends.” We need to note that we use a unit that has a Cyrillic input language too. The keys are small, with a good relief and are easy to press, but they are really strangely arranged. If you’ve used some of Nokia’s previous QWERTY models (for example the E61i), you may have gotten used to the fact that the bottom row of keys isn’t moved by a step to the right. This is a common practice for other developers, since this way the keyboard resembles the one you know from the computer. Well, the Finns are obviously not concerned about that, so if you don’t have any experience with some of their QWERTY phones, you’re going to need some time in order to get used to it.


You won’t be exactly shocked by what you’ll see on the sides. The microSD card slot and the miniUSB port are on the left, and the volume rocker, the voice command/microphone mute button and the 2.5mm jack are on the right. Yes, unfortunately for the 3.5mm fans, they will have to wait for the budget-oriented E63. The place to plug the charger in is on the bottom, and the power button is located on the top.

Interface, software and multimedia:

It’s wonderful to realize that there’s a notable intellect behind the good looks. In the E71’s case, the brains go by the name of Symbian 9.2 S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1. Since this OS is popular enough, and we have discussed its pros and cons a lot of times, we won’t go into details again. We’ll just mention a few changes that make the difference between the new E-series models and the other Symbian phones.

The feature that made an impression on us at first glance was the switch mode from the standard home screen. It instantly reminded us of the classic story about the good Dr. Jekyll and the evil Mr. Hyde… actually the latest one we could think of is Dexter (the TV series). In other words it lets you transform your phone with the pressing of a single button. It’s a wonderful option for those people that work hard during the day and then occupy the clubs at night. Actually the feature lets you set two modes with different themes and applications on the home screen. By default, one of them is called “Business” (with e-mail, calendar, search, notes and others turned on), and the other one is called “Personal” (it focuses on the music and video player and for example a private e-mail).


What makes an impression is that the icons are different from the ones on the multimedia Symbian phones, but are still clear enough and you’ll easily get used to them. You don’t have any options for some strange main menu layouts (i.e. V-like or horseshoe-like) but this isn’t such a pain. Well, if the good business functions were missing though, the situation would have been worse.

Fortunately they are available. We’ll mention just a few important details here. First, you have a limitless number of contacts and search by first and last name, which can be done directly from the home screen by typing on the keyboard. Second, there are automatic settings for the popular e-mails, there’s no need to remember servers and ports for them. We managed to check our Gmail account in about 20 seconds after we began using the E71. This of course was also because of the full keyboard. Finally, the organizer functions can be described just as “nothing’s missing”. The wide screen provides enough space for you to view the calendar, set tasks and alarms. It also turned out to be very suitable for web surfing.


For high-speed connection to the global network the phone relies on HSDPA 3.6 Mbits/s or Wi-Fi. The Symbian browser is the best one for devices without a touch screen – it opens pages flawlessly and features a mini-map that makes viewing the larger ones easier. The good news is that the phone is usable in the GSM networks all around the world, but unfortunately the 3G is only available in Europe or Asia (or only in the USA, depends on the version).


The bad news is that the camera is pretty mediocre. In theory, a 3.2 MP shooter with autofocus and a flash should not be bad at all, after all this was the standard for a cameraphone two years ago, and some of the devices of that time still impress us with outstanding quality in this aspect (the Sony Ericsson K800 for example). Unfortunately, this is not one of those cases. The only positive side here is the interface, which resembles the one of Nokia’s top cameraphone- the N82, and offers a lot of features. The quality however, is light-years away and characterizes with unnatural colors, noise, noise and… that’s right – noise! The videos can record at QVGA resolution and 15 fps, totally giving you the opportunity to shoot the next movie about the previously mentioned Jekyll and Hyde. The lagging frames and grotesque figures, the self-changing colors are all built-in effects (actually they are missing in the menu, but one way or another they are always on), which will definitely counterpart for the appropriate atmosphere. In other words, “Brothers, in the name of God, don’t shoot!”



But why not listen to music? Through the headphones, of course, you wouldn’t want it any other way. The external speaker crackles a lot. Not that the headphones are wonderful, but at least are completely usable, in spite of the slightly sharp sound. This time, we didn’t go for Lil Wayne and T-Pain (as in our Carbon Arte test), but stick to the classic (Snoop Dog and Tina Turner). Thankfully the phone features a nice player with big enough album covers, user-friendly interface, equalizer and audio settings. You also get an FM Radio with the cool option of downloading a list with all the accessible radio stations in you region directly from the internet. And if this isn’t enough for your music needs, you can play samples and download songs and albums from Music Store.

The quality of the MPEG4/H.264 format clips you’ll able to play with the video player is really high, even compared to multimedia monsters like the Renoir or the Pixon. Too bad that the maximum resolution of the videos you’ll be able to play with the build-in player is 320x240, and DivX and XviD files are not supported. This can be easily resolved by installing the proper software. What exactly? Well, have you thought of Core Player for Symbian?




If you accidentally find yourself lost you can rely on the built-in GPS. It offers you the option to download maps, in order to shorten loading times. Localization is done in about 3-4 seconds (warm start) on a cloudy autumn day, which is a rather good achievement. The navigation itself is cool, even if you don’t need to go on a long business trip. For example, you can landmark the location of a nice place, which you don’t know how you’ve gotten to (and even less) how you’ve left.

Performance:

Our eyes begin to tear up when we remember how the first Symbian phones worked, but not because of the nostalgia. It’s not very practical to wait for a minute for an application to load, even less practical if it’s something important. Fortunately, the E71 works very, very fast and you won’t run into such problems. Still, we’ll miss the beautiful smooth transitions that we witnessed in the E66.

The phone is also up to the mark when it comes to sound quality during a call, even though we expected something more from a high-end business phone. We don’t have any remarks about the volume, but the voices were “dangerously” sharp on both sides of the line. This can be reduced a little by turning the volume down a bit. The loudspeaker is rather monotonous, but usable as a whole.

The manufacturer has thought of those of you that speak a lot, and has equipped the device with a battery that officially has to endure up to 10 hours of talk time or 408 hours of standby. Of course, such results cannot be achieved in case of intense writing and surfing.

Conclusion:

Everyone of our team liked the Nokia E71, even though none of us is a downright business user. With it, you’ll be able to easily organize and optimize your work so that you’ll have more free time for yourself and your favorite hobbies. Our only serious remark is about the camera. Yes, it’s not a main factor when buying a business phone, but when you pay about $450 for a phone, you’d expect that everything in your new device should be top-notch, right?