Nokia E71: My new love
Posted by Christian Titze in E-Series, E71, Hands On, Nokia, Review, S60, Symbian, WOM-World
I have been using the Nokia E71 for a few days now. In this time I have noticed many good and bad aspects about it. There are many positive points and I haven’t thought that I would like a device like the E71 so much, because I’m a big fan of multimedia – but the E71 isn’t multimedia, it’s business. One thing the E71 has proven to me yet, is that a multimedia-freak like me can also “fall in love” with a business-device like the E71.
But what is good and what is negative about the E71? Read the rest of this article to find it out – I’m sure you’ll find a little surprise at the end of the text…
The things I like about the Nokia E71:
Design
The design of the device is just great. It comes either with a dark or a bright finish. The dark version, which I received, has a black keyboard and all the plastic-parts are black as well. The bright version comes with a white keyboard and plastic-parts.
Most of the surrounding parts are made out of chromed metal, which looks very nobly. On the battery-cover there’s “Nokia Eseries” engraved and the rest of it has little engraved dots, which make the backcover feel good in your hands. Thanks to those engraved dots the device also feels like it has more “grip”.
All of my friends who saw the device already, said that it looks extremely good.
Build quality
The E71 definitely is one of the best built Nokia devices I’ve ever seen. The chromed metal-housing makes the device not just look great, but also very stable. The door of the microSD cardslot, as well as the door of the micro-USB connector, are made out of gray rubber, but they aren’t wobbly or something like that – they are built very good. There are no shaking parts on the whole device.
Size & weight
The size of a device – nowadays one of the most important aspects for many people. Regarding to this aspect Nokia has done a great job with the E71. It is just 1cm thick, 57mm wide and 114mm high – maybe the smallest business-device in the world? With a weight of 127 gramms it actually feels just great in your hands, it isn’t too heavy although 127 g sounds much.
Full QWERTY-keyboard
Thinking of the small size you can’t imagine that there is a full QWERTY-keyboard? But there is one! Yes, Nokia has done it, a full QWERTY-keyboard in a device with such a small size. If you think back to the E71’s predeccessor, the E61, maybe you will think that it is hard to use, but aside the keyboard of the E90, the keyboard of the E71 is the best QWERTY-keyboard in a mobile phone I’ve ever seen. The keys have a great pressure-point and you get a nice feedback while typing in something.
Business-features
Under the small housing there are as many business-features as in a big device like the E90. The office-suite “Quickoffice” is preinstalled. There are also some great other applications like a dictionary or a translation-software. Another great application is the updated calendar, which has nice transitions and a new design that shows you all the entries for a day in a column on the right side. If you click on a date, the view switches to a list showing you the time when an entry is. The E71 features everything out of the box, which a business-user needs to get started.
With Symbian S60 3rd Edition as the operating system the user has the ability to install hundreds of extra-applications to get even more power out of his E71.
Standby clock
The E71 has a great clock in its standby. If the device goes into the standby, the screen turns black and switches off to save energy. There’s no clock or date in the standby, but if you want to know what time or date it is, just press one direction of the d-pad for a while and a huge clock with the date will appear.
Battery-life
As known from most Eseries devices the E71 also features a huge battery. It is powered by a BP-4L battery with 1500 mAh. I have been using the device for just a few days, but the battery-life seems to be pretty good so far.
The things I don’t like about the Nokia E71:
Light-gap over the keyboard
Over the keyboard there’s a little gap which causes that the light shines through it, if the keyboard-illumination is turned on. Of course this is just an optical issue, but it really doesn’t look great and makes such a well-designed device look cheaper as it is in the dark.
Finger-print-magnet
Because of its glossy chrome-design the whole device, except the plastic-parts, is a real finger-print-magnet. If you clean it at least once a day this is no problem, but if you don’t like to clean your device very often I would advise you to think about an other device.
2.5mm Headphone-jack
Another thing I don’t like about the E71, and Eseries devices in general, is the 2.5mm headphone-jack which forces the user to use the headset that is in the box or buy an adapter for a headset with a 3.5mm jack. I think Nokia could’ve build in a 3.5mm headphone-jack if they just wanted to, and that’s what I want to see in the future: Eseries devices with 3.5mm headphone-jack’s.
Camera-mode
Since the E71 has no special camera-button you need to use the normal keypad for taking a picture. This is very hard because the device has an autofocus-camera. You either can capture the photo without focussing the object by just pressing the center of the d-pad or you can focus first by pressing T and then capture the photo. In my opinion this takes too much time and is very uncommon, so maybe Nokia should have build-in a special camera-button.
- written with the Nokia E71
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When you compare E71 with E90, which one is better for buying if you are considering work with office documents, built quality and battery life?
Thanks!
P.S. Merry Christmas!
Thanks, I wish you also a merry christmas!
To be honest I would buy the E71.
1.) better build quality
2.) much smaller
3.) keys have more feedback
4.) cheaper
(5.) better design)
Of course the E90 has an amazing screen, but it is also very big and unhandy. I can’t say much about the battery-life, actually all Eseries devices have a great battery life.
However, that’s just my opinion.
I have always love the E71. Yesterday I had an opportunity to play with it while washing my car at a car wash. One of the guys who also came to was his car had an E71, so I asked if I can play with it. Unfortunately I am only upgrading in May 2009.
Thanks for the answer!
I’m also thinking to buy this or other business phone but I can not decide which one to buy.
HTC Touch Pro is my priamr objective but I’ve never worked with WM phone and that is reason of my dilemma.
If you really can’t live with the fingerprints, google a company named Zagg They have a product called “invisible shield”.
I use their product for my brand new E71 and i am very satisfied.
It takes away a bit of texture on the back but still not slippery.
It comes off easily as well.
I got my E71 just a few days back…while transfering songs through PC suite I cannot access my memory card…i cant access my memory card at all through USB…please can anyone help me out??
Happy new year to all !!!
Mars, I’ve experienced his problem myself and i found out that you have to rename the memory card from the phone (menu->tools–>memory->options–>Memory Card Name) after that do a restart of the phone, try to sync again and you are ready to go.
Good luck!
am loving every minute with my E71,i think its simply the best.which sites can i find easy to download themes for my phone?
You can find great themes for S60 3rd here:
http://www.pizero.net
http://www.jaspp.net
http://www.babinokia.com
thanks…what folder do i retrieve the themes from in my phone after downloading?
Hello, in the end of the post you said that it was written in you E71. What app did you use? I have a wordpressblog and would like to post from my mobile as well.
Thanks!!!
Hi xnxs,
I’ve used the pre-installed quickoffice for writing the text and then I published it with my computer.
“Light-gap over the keyboard”
this is SO TRUE. it was the FIRST thing i noticed and I was so disappointed. the phone looks so cheap when it lights up. I am not that impressed with the overall quality of E71. (I sold my iPhone and got e71 instead – I may be overly sensitive about this issue considering that I was used to the iPhone extraordinary hardware quality). when i think about, the high price I paid for e71 really reflects its beautiful and amazing software, but nothing more.
I am wondering how could the desinger of the E71 miss such design flaw!
anyways, is there a way to keep the screen backlight on but completley turn off the keyboard (even under low light?). not only i want to avoid seeing this gap -which is a great distraction- but also annoying that the keyboard’s illumination stays on when watching a movie in a dark room
Yes, the light-gap makes the whole phone look cheap.
I don’t know if you can only turn off the illumination of the keypad – but I don’t think so, sorry.
you know you can set the keys to be a special camera button though?
and even set the menu button to be something else.
because you already have an assigned menu button that you cant change what it leads to.
Recently got an E71 was an upgrade from E65.The phone is very good however the gap with light seeping through makes it look a cheap phone. What a shame.I wonder if any mobile shop can stick a small strip on the inside to stop this. I dont have the displayed digital clock on the dispaly but a small arms clock in a corner. Would I need to download a bigger clock?
Hi Iqbal,
the E71 definitely is a great device. However, the light-gap over the keyboard is a shame
You don’t need to donwload a bigger clock, but I don’t know how to set it up, since it came by default with my E71.
To change the clock you go:
Menu – Tools – Settings – General – Date and Time – Clock Type
And you can change it there.
X
Thanks for the info.However size remains small….
Hi, i update my e71 to the new firmware 200.xx, and now i feel than the battery is consumed faster, i think is because the stripe screensaver with clock that which always remains in the screen when the phone goes to energy saver mode, someone knows how to disable?????