Nokia E71
Nokia E71 (US)
I’ve had a chance to use the Nokia E71 for a few weeks.
Pluses
- the hardware is great; in particular, the phone has a very nice QWERTY keyboard, A-GPS is very fast, there is 3.5G support, and the phone is very small
- more buttons are user-remappable
- responsiveness is much improved over previous versions of Symbian phones (probably due to a faster processor, rather than software improvements)
- the phone seems less buggy than, say, the N82; in particular, the web browser works better
- there is lots of third party software, including Google Maps, ShoZu, Skype, Slick, Putty, MobiPocket, and more
- there’s no need to synchronize with the desktop; everything can be done over the air
- like all Nokia Symbian phones, works like a tethered or Bluetooth modem
Minuses
- the Symbian user interface and menu system is as convoluted and unintuitive as ever
- the phone still only has a 320×240 screen
- the 3Mpixel camera produces pretty lousy images
- no mini-USB connector, no charging through USB, and no 3.5 mm head phone jack
- Nokia wants lots of money for a navigation application (but basic mapping is free)
Overall, I think it’s a more practical phone than the iPhone and the hardware is better. The keyboard and modem capabilities alone would be a deciding factor.
I think the E71 is probably the best overall smart phone you can get right now. Unfortunately, that’s only a guarded endorsement because the standards are so low. Nokia has their work cut out for them in terms of improving the user interface and making the platform easier to program; Google’s Android looks superior on both counts right now, and when Android-based phones come out, they will be a serious threat to Nokia’s Symbian platform. Maybe what Nokia really should do is join them rather than fight them because Nokia hardware is great.
