By Damian Koh
07/07/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,43607669p,00.htm

Rumors about the E71 have circulated on the Web long before the handset was officially announced. At the Nokia Connection event in June, the Finnish company finally came clean with the QWERTY smart phone to put all speculation to rest.

Design

There is only one thing we couldn't tell by looking at the pictures: The build quality. After spending some time with the E71, here's our verdict: Solid. And we mean it in the best and literal of ways. The metallic, duo-toned finish carried over from the E51 looks stylish and the construction of the smart phone is remarkable. You really have to pick it up to feel the solidness of the handset in the hands. On hindsight, the metallic chassis does attract a fair bit of fingerprint smudges.

Other than downsizing the screen from a generous 2.8 inches on the E61i to 2.36 inches on the E71, which frankly makes a difference only if you place the two phones side-by-side, the rest of the design aspects are improvements over the previous model. You still get the same QVGA resolution with support for up to 16 million colors. And at just 10mm thick and 57mm wide, the pocket-sized E71 puts a lot of other QWERTY phones to shame, including the earlier E61i.

Naturally, with a smaller footprint, something has to give. Initially our concern was with the E71's keyboard. It is noticeably smaller than the one on the E61i with the keys now placed right next to one another. But the now "tighter" keyboard cuts down the travel distance between letters Q and P, making it easier to type on the QWERTY with one hand.

After spending a few days with the phone, texting became second nature. The reduced spacing between the keys and the excellent tactility didn't make the experience any worse than some of the larger QWERTY keypads we have tested. There were times we made spelling mistakes and we reckon those with bigger digits may find it harder to get accustomed to the smaller keyboard, but that's where the auto-correction feature kicks in. It worked well in our trials, and for "standard" English words, we could get away with misspelling a few letters most of the time.

That said, the same feature could work against users who frequently use their own short forms or abbreviations as they would have to go through the suggested words and decide if they want to go with it, or stick to what they have originally typed. It's a little counter-intuitive at times, but we still gave it a thumbs-up for a decent implementation overall. It should be noted that the auto-correction feature can be turned off.

So with our concern over the keyboard thrown out the window, the next big question we asked was, did the real thing look as good or better than what's shown in the images? Again, for a QWERTY handset, the E71 looks gorgeous.

Features

The E71 runs on the S60 platform with Feature Pack (FP) 1 installed, so you won't see the fancy transitions of the FP2 on this handset. That said, it wouldn't have really mattered on an Eseries device targeting business users. Like the previous models, the E71 comes with a full range of wireless radios. These include Wi-Fi, HSDPA, infrared, Bluetooth A2DP and also GPS (with A-GPS support) for satellite navigation. Nokia also included a front-facing camera this time round for video calls which wasn't available on the earlier E61i.

Although it's the familiar S60 3.1 edition for the Eseries, Nokia did introduce a number of enhancements to the OS, and these are mostly for the better.

The standby screen is the first of the few enhancements you'll come across. The number of standby plug-ins has been increased so you get more quick-access options on the home screen. Also new to the E71 is the Switch mode. This allows you to switch between two customized screen profiles with different wallpapers, themes and program shortcuts for different times of the day. Just think of it as a virtual desktop that allows you to customize different phone profiles. It may be useful for users who want to keep a clear distinction between work and after-office hours, but in reality we think that's just not possible. So we'd say the Switch mode is only a good-to-have option.

Tweaks were also made to the Calendar and Contacts applications. There's now the additional split-screen agenda view for the calendar which shows the appointments alongside the month view. Previously, pressing right on the D-pad in Contacts brought the user to Groups settings. Now the same action calls up six actions which you would most likely use in the app, such as sending an email, text message or making a video call.

Some online reviews mentioned about the Easy Dial function which calls up the relevant contacts when you type the name of the person you want to call. Unfortunately, this wasn't available on our review unit. Nokia said this feature is currently available only in specific markets and didn't want to offer more details. In all honesty, this would have been a great addition to the S60 user interface, especially since this feature is already standard on Windows Mobile devices.

There are a handful of applications preinstalled on the E71 and that should get most users up and running in no time. Maps 2.0 now resides on the phone's ROM (so you don't have to reinstall it if you do a hard reset), and you can create/view/edit new Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents using QuickOffice. We were a little disappointed that Mail for Exchange (Nokia's free software that's the equivalent to Microsoft ActiveSync) wasn't preinstalled, but that's not a big deal since you can always download it separately online.

Encryption is another new feature that will be useful for enterprise users. This requires the phone's lock code and you can encrypt contents on both the phone's memory and the microSD card. In addition, there's also a remote lock option. The initial encryption takes a while, but once completed, it was back to normal and we didn't notice any lag in the performance of the phone.

From the E61 to the E61i, and now the E71, Nokia has been adding more multimedia features into its Eseries lineup. The upgraded 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera module with built-in flash is one such example. Then there's the Music Store and online sharing (Ovi, Flickr, Vox) applications. Would it then compete with the multimedia-rich Nseries devices? Yes and no. Yes, because there are similarities in terms of the features. No, because the Eseries handsets almost certainly offer more in terms of enterprise applications and solutions. So we believe there will still be separate demands for the two phone series.

Unlike the E66 which was launched at the same time, the E71 doesn't come with a built-in accelerometer. Although it can be argued that it doesn't really make sense for automatic screen rotation with the 320 x 240 screen on the E71, there are other uses for the motion sensor, such as turning the phone over to mute a call. This is a feature which has already been introduced on the earlier 8800 Artes as well the recent Samsung Omnia and HTC Touch Diamond, so it's a pity that Nokia has decided not to include it on the E71.

The E71 may be great, but it's not perfect. We like the minor interface enhancements such as holding down certain keys to access a shortcut function (similar to the E51) and pressing the center button on the directional pad to call up the clock, date and other vital information. But having to hit three buttons at the same time (which is a mini feat itself) to copy and paste text, and using the T button to autofocus then the center D-pad key to take a picture works counter to basic intuitiveness.

Performance

The rated battery life was remarkable, with the 1,500mAh Lithium-polymer cell capable of delivering up to 10 hours of talktime and standby for up to 17 days. On regular usage of making calls, sending text messages, checking emails and navigating using GPS, we could get about three days of use without reaching for the charger. Of course, how much you'll get out of a fully charged cell depends on your usage pattern, but suffice to say, most people would at least be able to go without a charger for two days, even on heavy usage.

As a phone, the reception was solid and the top-facing speakerphone was loud enough for both video calls and hands-free use. In the few days we have been using the phone, the E71 performed without a hitch and we were also notably impressed with the handset's snappy response. According to Nokia, the E71 is equipped with an ARM11 400MHz processor and 128MB RAM.

The camera on the E71 wasn't the best around even though its resolution had been bumped up to 3.2 megapixels and it now comes with onboard LED flash. Video recording was also limited at VGA at 22fps and QVGA at 30fps. Even the image browser, which seriously needs some sprucing up, hasn't changed a bit from its predecessors. In terms of image quality, we'd say it's passable given the proposition of the phone.

Conclusion

We don't want to sound like Nokia fanboys here, but it is hard to walk away without feeling impressed by the E71. Sure, it doesn't have everything. We want stronger multimedia features and, perhaps, also a 3.5mm audio jack, but to Nokia's credit, the E71 was never meant to compete with its Nseries counterparts. The handset is great at what it's supposed to do and then more. Combine that with a price of S$798 without contract [easily S$300 off if you include a two-year plan], it's a smart phone we would highly recommend. Included in the commercial sales package is a 2GB microSD card loaded with a local map, pouch, wrist strap, stereo headset, micro-USB cable, battery and charger.

In a nutshell, the E71 takes everything that was on the E61/E61i including the ergonomics, design and functionality, and made it even better.