Nokia E71 successor: How to make it the perfect phone
Posted by Christian Titze in E-Series, E71, Nokia
I have been using the E71 for a very long time now. After all the weeks with it I’m very happy with the phone and its features. Unfortunately there are also some huge cons compared to Nseries-devices. In this post I want to show you what Nokia could make better in a possible successor for the phone.
Camera
The thing I hate most about the E71 is its camera. The device has a 3.2 megapixel camera with a crappy LED-flash and no special camera-key. The noise in the pictures is very bad and you can almost compare the camera to the N81’s. A successor definitely should feature a 5 megapixel camera and a special camera-key on the side of the device.
3,5mm headphone jack
One of the most annoying aspects of the E71 is the 2,5mm headphone jack. Nokia, why do you build in those 2,5mm jacks if nobody uses headphones with a 2,5mm connector? This is just annoying, the user needs to buy an adapter to use his 3,5mm headphones or he needs to use the crappy headset which comes with the phone.
Bigger keys or touchscreen
Lots of my friends had problems with using the small keys of the E71. To use the small keyboard correct you need to get used to it and you also should have thin fingers. If you don’t have thin fingers or if you’re using the E71 for the first time typing in something definitely is a problem. To solve this problem a possible successor should get bigger keys or even a touchscreen all over the front of the device.
Not so many business keys
As an Eseries-device the E71 needs all those special business-keys, e.g. for accessing the calender or your contacts quickly. But a multimedia-user don’t need all those special keys. Without those keys there’s enough free space for bigger keys which are needed by many users with big fingers, as mentioned before. Another option would be a touchscreen.
Non Eseries device
Since the E71 is an Eseries-device it’s especially designed for the business-users. A successor with all the features above shouldn’t be Eseries but Nseries because of its huge amount of multimedia-features.
Conclusion
In my opinion a device with the E71’s measurements, its chromed housing, a good camera and a touchscreen would be perfect. Because of the multimedia-features it shouldn’t be an Eseries, but the device would perfectly fit with the Nokia Nseries.
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Hi,
I am using the E71 for several months now and while I don’t really have small thumbs I like the keyboard very much. I didn’t mind that it took me one or two days to get used to it.
The camera really could be better but I am not buying a phone for the camera (at least not until now, since so far most of them more or less suck). But I wouldn’t mind a key at the side.
And I really like the business keys. Besides the form factor the business abillities are the reason why I bought the phone.
I agree with the headphone jack and thankfully Nokia moved in the right direction with the E63.
I would like to see the qwerty form factor in the N series. But more importantly an evolution step on the E71 and not revolutionary changes.
Cheers,
Tim
You can customize the functions of the “business keys”, so you can make them open de gallery, media player, etc.
Actually my first comment to improve the E71 would be to not only have a larger screen but more importantly a higher resolution screen. 240×320 is pathetic by todays standards.
[...] World’s Christian Titze has been using an E71 for a while now, and wonders what could make the device even better than he already thinks it [...]
you will need the upcoming N97 then….
Ok, but is the N97 a bit over size and will it have the superb build quality of the E71?
why does everything have to be an N series phone. all you did was describe what the 5800 is and the n97. this phone does not need a touch screen and it does not need multimedia features. add the headset jack and better camera and thats it. are you new or something
i think that the keyboard on the e71 is perfect, is the most perfect phone for typing, in the future i would like nokia improve the camera, the quality of the pictures is really bad, some features like the image editor of the nseries missed on the e71, a excellent mail client with html integrate with the device too, because the new nokia messaging sucks. may be an app store of nokia also.
More megapixels == even more noise!
I’d rather have 1 megapixel if it was decent quality. and nokia messaging sucks alright, they should brng back the old client