Nokia E61

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Features
Targeted at mobile professionals who need to access their documents while on the move, the E61 supports the most common features of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint (Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP and 2003). In addition, it is also compatible with Zip manager and Adobe Acrobat reader. Those working in sensitive industries will appreciate Nokia for dropping the camera from this system.

The Nokia E61 runs on Series 60 Symbian OS which, unlike its Series 90 counterpart, does not offer touchscreen capabilities. What you do get is a suite of software applications which are preinstalled on the E61. These programs are also available on Nokia's support Web site and more can be found online.

For the absent-minded, the security model on the E61 protects data using the onboard device wipe and device lock management tools. So if you are storing sensitive data in your smart phone, you can rest assured it remains protected even when the device is misplaced or stolen.

The E61 provides support for a variety of email solutions including native email client, Intellisync Wireless Email (purchased separately), GoodLink, Seven Always-On Mail, Visto email technology and push email like BlackBerry (needs subscription). Our review unit came installed with SingTel's BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) and setting up our email accounts was done in a jiffy. Obviously, being able to receive emails like regular SMS text messages would be a boon to mobile professionals who are always on-the-go. For general users, they can configure the E61 to access their POP3 or IMAP4 accounts instead.

In addition to email capabilities, the Nokia E61 offers full phone functionality. It supports GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA 2100 (3G) networks in Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America. There's 64MB of built-in memory and you can opt for more storage space with optional miniSD cards. The commercial unit comes packaged with a 64MB miniSD media.

If you are in a meeting and it's inconvenient to answer incoming calls, there's also an option which allows you to reject calls with a text message. Other capabilities include conference calls, voice dial, vibration alert (which is sorely missed in the Nokia N9300i), speakerphone and dedicated key for Push-to-Talk. You can also enable the Say Caller's Name function which interjects your phone's ringing tone with the name of the calling party. It's not 100 percent accurate, but it certainly helps to recognize the caller without having to look at the phone's display.

Unlike the Moto Q and Samsung's i320n (both are touted as slim handhelds featuring a QWERTY keyboard and running on Windows Mobile 5.0), the E61 comes equipped with wireless LAN. Connecting to hotspots was a breeze and we were up surfing the Web in a matter of seconds. Our main grouse was still with the stiff joystick which became a little uncomfortable after prolonged use. There were no options to scroll diagonally on the screen.

What's really useful, though, is the Mini Map browser. When surfing the Internet, a transparent square box with red borders pops up to give an overview of the entire page, making it really intuitive to browse Web pages on a small screen. You can shift the square to select the portion of the site you want to view in detail and zoom in on the necessary areas. You can also select the Page Overview option and the Web page will be resized to fill the entire screen on the E61.

Additionally, the device can be plugged to a PC and used as a modem to connect to the Web. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 1.2 (allows up to a maximum of six connections concurrently), infrared, and USB full-speed. As with most other smart phones these days, you can synchronize your E61 with your desktop via either of these connections.

The E61 also matched our expectations in terms of multimedia capabilities as well. We were able to play back our MP3 tracks, flash videos and MPEG-4 movies. In addition, we could store our favorite images to play back either on the phone's internal memory or on the miniSD card.