Full Review and Specification for the Nokia E71 Review

Tag : Steel Shutter
 RIM BlackBerryreally consolidated its dominant position in the business handsetarena a couple of years ago, when its new Pearl (and later theCurve) series reinvented the QWERTY phone genre. These werebusiness phones with a stylish, more compact design and, as aresult, corporate types were suddenly more relaxed about takingtheir email-savvy handset to the pub at weekends.
Meanwhile, although Nokia was enjoying a modicum of success withits own E61 business phone − which sported a full QWERTYkeypad, push email, and loads of business functions – criticsargued that, while capable, it lacked the polished, sleek andcompact design of the BlackBerry. Nokia E71 - Crossover appeal
Since the launch of the E61, Nokia’s Eseries production linehas been rattling along efficiently. The E61 was upgraded toinclude a two-megapixel camera and became the E61i, but it hastaken a good two years for the Finnish manufacturer to launch abrand new take on the QWERTY business phone. But boy was it worththe wait.
The Nokia E71 is not only the best business smartphone we’veyet had the pleasure of reviewing, it’s one of the bestall-round phones that we’ve encountered.
Of course, this is all part of Nokia’s master plan; toproduce a smartphone which appeals to both business users andconsumers. In fact, the E71 even includes a Switch mode featurethat lets you switch the phone’s homescreen from a businessview (a display featuring business apps like email, calendar andnotes) to a consumer view (a display featuring music player andphoto gallery).
In addition to marketing its crossover appeal, Nokia has evidentlyspent much time and effort in designing and building a phone that,to coin a well worn cliché, ticks all the boxes. The E71looks good, feels great, has a fantastic feature set, is easy toset up and is a dream to use. What more could you want from abusiness phone? Nokia E71 - Look and feel
The Nokia E71 actually has more in common with the BlackBerry Curvethan the BlackBerry Pearl because it boasts a full QWERTY keypadrather than the abridged version you find on the Pearl. Despite thefull QWERTY and the large display, the E71 is remarkably compactand fits neatly into the palm of your hand. There’s a versionwith white keys and another with charcoal keys, and both look greatwhen set against the phone’s shiny chrome fascia.
The feeling of quality is enhanced by the liberal use ofhigh-quality metal in the handset’s construction. TheE71’s chassis is almost entirely constructed of lightweightstainless steel, and there’s a dimpled effect on the rearbattery casing that gives the phone added grip.
The phone weighs 127g, which may sound heavy, but feels perfect fora phone of this leaning. It is designed to be held in either one ortwo hands, but our choice was to hold it in the right hand andnavigate the QWERTY keypad, the joypad and the soft keys with ourthumb. Nokia E71 - Setting up mobile email
Mobile email scares people; particularly those that don’thave access to round-the-clock IT support through work. However, itreally couldn’t be more straightforward.
To set up access to your home email account from the E71, all youneed is your email address and your password. It really is thatsimple. Meanwhile, if you want to set the phone to access your workemail, you’ll just need your work email address, password,exchange server details and your access point.
Unlike the BlackBerry devices, mobile email isn’t pushed toyour device and you will need to connect to your email account tocheck new incoming email. Once connected, it takes a second or soto retrieve a message when you click on it for the first time.However, once downloaded, that message is stored on your device andcan be viewed even when you’ve disconnected from youraccount.
One major perk with the E71 is the ability to view attachments.We’ve received and opened gif files, JPEGs, Word Docs andPDFs via the E71, and they all render really well on thehandset’s large display. It’s especially useful, if youneed to check a document in its original form while on the move.
When deleting emails, you can choose either to delete them justfrom the phone, so the header remains, or you can choose to deletethem from the phone and server. The emails are then deleted fromyour display when you disconnect from your account. Nokia E71 - Personal navigation
Built-in GPS is fast becoming one of the must have features on thetop smartphones, and you get A-GPS on the E71, which gives you aneven faster fix on your exact location.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a business user or aconsumer, being able to navigate your way to a destination in yourcar or on foot with the aid of sat nav is a major asset.
The Nokia E71 comes pre-loaded with Navteq maps for the UK and,whether you’re looking to plan a journey or find a localpoint of interest like a restaurant, bar or petrol station, youstart by clicking on the Maps application.
By clicking on Maps > Options > My position, the E71 willlocate your current position on the map with the aid of A-GPS,which usually only takes a few seconds.
Once the satellite has found you, a small red dot appears on themap and, from here you can search all your local points ofinterest, or plan a journey with this as your starting point. Using the Nokia E71 for navigation
Once your location is fixed and highlighted on the map, clickOptions, Search and Addresses, and you can upload the addressdetails of the place you’d like to navigate to. You can alsochoose to view the address on the map and save it to Favourites ifit’s a location you’re likely to visit again. Once thedestination is stored on the device, you can choose whether youwant to walk there or drive there, and the E71 will then calculateyour route. For UK journeys, the only thing we had to download tothe device was the voice instructions (which were free) andthat’s it. We’ve used it for several journeys andit’s excellent. You will have to pay a licence fee if youwant to download live traffic updates and this will cost youanything from £3 for a 30-day licence to £15.74 for aone-year licence. Using the Nokia E71 to find your nearest
The E71 includes a wealth of free and pre-loaded points of interestwhich are sensibly categorised under headings like Eat and Drink;Going Out and Entertainment; Sights and Museums; Transport;Accommodation; Shopping; Business and Services; or Leisure andOutdoors.
These are great if you’re simply looking for an address, acontact number for reservations, or a location on a map, so thatyou can navigate your way there.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, or ifyou’re abroad and need to download local points of interest,then Nokia lets you download one of a choice of useful city guidesfor £6 a pop.
You have a choice of guides from the AA, Berlitz or Insight andthey come in a choice of English, Dutch, German, Spanish or Italiantranslations, and you do get a free trial before you buy whichlasts about 10 minutes. Camera and music on the Nokia E71
The E71 is a handset designed for work and play, and anyconsumer-friendly phone worth its salt will boast a decent cameraand music player.
The E71 sports a 3.2-megapixel camera with auto-focus and automaticflash, as well as a camcorder that shoots VGA video at 22fps.There’s no dedicated camera key with the E71. Instead, youcan access the camera via the Media folder in the phone’smain menu.
The camera is a simple point and shoot, designed for one-hand use,with zoom, settings and shutter key all controlled by theE71’s joypad. Don’t make our mistake of assuming thatthe key with the dot on the right side of the phone is also ashutter key. It isn’t. It’s a voice-dialling key.
The camera may not boast a Carl Zeiss lens, but it’sbeautifully simple to use, you have the benefit of a huge displayand photo quality is really rather good. And once a photo has beentaken, a little menu pops up alongside your image giving you theoption to delete the image, send your photo as a message or byBluetooth, post it to the web or set it as a business card reader.You can also share your images online using services like Ovi,Flickr and Vox. So if sharing photos is your thing, the E71 makesit very easy.
As for music, the device gives you a competent multi-format player,a 3.5mm headset port, a large potential storage capacity via themicroSD card, and a pre-loaded application that gives you directaccess to the online Nokia Music Store.
Other musical assets on the E71 include an FM radio, a Podcastapplication and the ability to download 3D ringtones. Nokia E71 - Verdict
As with all the best phones, there’s loads more to say aboutthe Nokia E71 that we don’t have space for here. You get agreat web-browsing experience with HSDPA data speeds, there’sa great driving game pre-loaded, and there’s loads of extraslike Push-To-Talk, instant messaging and internet calling. We alsolove the fact that you can call a number from your contact list bysimply tapping in their name on the phone’s keypad while onthe homescreen. It’s speed dialling made simple.
Nokia is positioning the E71 as a phone that can bridge thebusiness and consumer divide. And although we may dock Nokia pointsfor using the dreaded ‘prosumer’ term, we can’tfault them for an absolutely top-notch handset.