Nokia E Series E71 - White steel (Unlocked) Smartphone

While Nokia makes a habit of practically defining "featurephone" for the industry, traditionally it's handsets like the N95 that hog all the spotlight, leaving Nokia's few QWERTY phones in the shadows. Not that they've been trying too hard -- while the E62 and E61i have both shipped over here, neither has featured 3G data in US bands, and the E62 even had the distinct pleasure of having WiFi stripped out. Enter E71, the successor to those phones, and Nokia's very first QWERTY device to feature US-friendly 3G.

Nokia is also (finally) taking form factor much more seriously: at 10mm thick, the E71 is one of the slimmest Nokia phones to date, and Nokia claims it's the thinnest QWERTY smartphone on the market. The E71 also attacks the drab, plastic looks of its predecessors with chrome accents and a glossy screen. The phone is incredibly pocketable, and comfortable to hold and use. Of course, with the smaller size Nokia had to cut down on screen real estate and keyboard spacing, but at a QVGA resolution there's little suffering on that front. The keyboard had a much more rigid, clicky feel to it compared to the spongy keys of the E62, and we were virtually typo-free on it within minutes.
With all this concentration on the exterior, Nokia hasn't forgotten the feature overload of old. The E71 includes A-GPS, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, A2DP Bluetooth, 110MB of built-in memory and a microSD slot. There's also plenty of software to take advantage of all that tech, thanks to the quite-mature S60 platform. It's running 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, which lacks the screen transition fanciness of FP2, but seems much more stable and usable to us than its fresh-faced successor. Being a business centric device, the E71 comes with a full complement of office, email and PIM software, including a feature to switch on the fully between business and personal accounts, complete with separate mailboxes and home screens.



We'll confess to being spoiled by the iPhone's touch interface -- while there is more customizability and more power at your fingertips with the standard, d-pad controlled S60, there certainly seem to be an abundance of button presses to accomplish even simple tasks, though we never feel lost or confused by the OS. Some of the truly powerful features include Nokia's impressive Maps 2.0 application, the WebKit-powered S60 browser (which even includes an easy-to-use feed reader), and a strong integration with online photo services such as Ovi and Flickr, the former of which even includes geotagging for your photos. Nokia's own music store doesn't yet support the United States, but while the media-playback interface pales in comparison to today's more music-centric phones, playback support is certainly there, including true YouTube and Flash support.
The screen isn't particularly stunning, only 2.36-inches diagonal, QVGA and none-too-bright, but it certainly gets the job done and leaves room for all that QWERTY. Battery life is basically a non-issue, with 20 days of standby, and 10.5 hours of GSM talk, though the 4.5 hours of 3G talk might pose an issue. We didn't really put the processor to the test, but load times for just about everything were quite zippy, especially compared to the E62's consistent sluggishness in loading up simple things like recent calls and the address book.

Overall it's all about your OS of choice and what exactly you want to do with your phone.

Well I can break it down by the categories to keep it simple.

Like:
Slim design: I'm tired of carrying bulky phones and this phone feels sturdy when I hold it. The build quality is what I have come accustomed to with the e series.

Qwerty: I need this as I seem to have a hard time texting on a touch screen. Plus the buttons are raised an are responsive unlike some which are flat.

OS: I like the symbian system its clean an to the point. People will complain about its not intuitive enough or its hard to set certain things up. Every phone has a learning curve an this one is no different from any other. I like how I can switch modes from work to home and have a different set up for my needs.

Battery: What more can I say this battery for me lives up to the specs. Give or take depending on the day but I can go about a 2.5 days with heavy internet use texting an about maybe 5 hours of calls.

Apps: It seems now a days if your phone doesnt or cant download or use third party apps then its not worth it. Well this phone can download apps and they have a ton of them out there for all kinds of needs. So before I bought this phone I wanted to see whats available an how much or if its free.

Dislike:
Camera: I would have like to see a better camera on here like they have on the N series phones as well as a dedicated camera button. But I can deal with it. The flash is pretty bright but again I have seen an had better. Its doable for me.

2.5 MM jack: I wish they would have put the 3mm one on but it seems they have remedied that with the e72 I believe.

Signature manager: It seems that nokia decided to do this to stem people from downloading illegal or questionable programing on to their phone. But you can work around this by either getting it signed or just telling your phone to except all, if you trust whom you are downloading from an the program.

Back cover Plate: This thing is a finger print magnet. I just installed a zagg protector an it keeps it looking clean. Or what ever you want like a skin or cover.

Screen: The screen is excellent except for the upper center it seems that the letters seem faded or is fading. It was the same on my last e71 an that was used(one reviewing is new). Im not sure if it is a factory problem or what but I can live with it.

GPS: It is slow an the price to run it all year is ridiculous. There are other GPS apps for it but I dont think its safe to try an look at a small screen an drive. Others may be more talented than me at that but why risk it. Plan ahead or get a real GPS system. You can never have to many gadgets anyway.

Decision to buy:

I bought this phone for a number of reasons an everyone is different. For me it fit the bill an most of everyone's dislikes about it are just personal preference and nothing that I couldn't live with or work around. Its slim, has a qwerty, it was unlocked an works great with my network. Doesn't feel flimsy in hand an the battery life is a must as I don't like charging my phone on the constant. Plus I got a great deal on the phone but it took awhile to get it at the price I wanted to pay for.
One more thing an it might seem odd but I also bought it for the fact that there are forums for this phone so if you run into a problem then there is help. Plus its great to have people do all the homework for you such as best places for themes or apps or even a work around to a simple issue.

Overall: Buy it an you wont look back

This has to be the best smartphone I've ever owned.
List of previous smartphones and their downfalls (IMO): SMT5600 (no wifi, hardware failed), t-mobile SDA (chubby phone, hard to browse net), t-mobile MDA (bulky), t-mobile Dash (great phone, so-so battery life), t-mobile G1 (poor battery life, bulky), HTC Touch dual (no wifi).

The Nokia E71 solves almost all of these little quirks I have with the previous phones I owned. The E71 is pencil thin, literally. The battery cover is metal instead of plastic, which makes it very sturdy. The keyboard is well built, buttons are easily accessed without error. Browsing with wifi is smooth and easy. connecting with wifi with apps installed is easily done too. I do not have internet data plan, therefore wifi is a big plus for me. Battery life has been rated very good for this phone, which is another feature I wanted. The built in GPS works well with Garmin XT mobile software. GPS signal fix takes about 2-5 minutes inside of a car. similar to the iphone and android app store, nokia has one called OviStore. It does not have as many apps as iphone or android but it does offer free apps as well as paid. This is the first phone I have used with Symbian OS instead of Windows mobile. Symbian60 OS is quite stable and quick. I like how there is 4 special buttons that already have built-in quick press and long-press actions. for example, press the home key to bring you back to home screen, or hold home key and it will pull up a task manager of all running programs to swap to. Connecting the USB to the phone you get an option of: mass storage, or pc sync, etc. Overall, Nokia has really done a great job setting up the phone software to work optimally out of the box.

Auido quality is superb! speaker phone is pretty loud and clear even at highest level. the location of the speaker is at the top of the phone which is a great place to prevent muffling the sound had it been placed on the back of the phone. the headphone jack is 2.5mm, which means you need to use an adapter to use regular headphones.

Camera function: although this phone was meant for business, it has a 3.2 MP camera with autofocus capability! there is no dedicated camera key. you'll notice professional reviews say the image quality is so-so and I completely agree. you have to have perfect lighting to get a high quality image, otherwise pictures are washed out or grainy. Closeup shots are pretty clear especially when using the autofocus button. it also shoots video, and the quality of it has nothing impressive or bad to mention about.

So how does this phone compare to Iphone and G1?
iphone and g1 both will have better webbrowsing experience due to larger screen and touch screen. although battery life will be considerably less than the nokia e71. Iphone does not have a keypad, which is something I look for in a phone. It's more responsive than touchscreen. with G1 it has a keyboard but you have to turn it to the side and slide open the keyboard to press in a phone number. My HTC Touch Dual was perfect, with the exception of not having wifi (something I really need when I don't have a data plan). The deal breaker might be a larger appstore and better cameraphone. So if those are you're two needs, look elsewhere because finding symbian software is considerably harder than finding windows mobile/android/iphone apps. On the other hand, most of the software needed is already supplied out of the box! Great job Nokia, you have converted me from WinMo!

I bought the E71 about 3 weeks ago after looking at the iPhone and a couple of Nokia's N series devices. It's my first smartphone and I'm struggling a bit with the size over my previous small LG flip phone. It still fits easily in my pocket. There is no comparison in functionality with my old phone. I'm still configuring Mail for Exchange but everything else I've tried works quickly and easily. Transferring my sim from my old phone was a breeze. The phone was working within minutes of its delivery to my house. I lost some information when I transferred contacts from my old phone memory to the sim but that could have been user error and doesn't impact my impression of the E71.

Battery life is excellent. My old phone needed to be charged every night and sometimes during the day. The E71 lasted over an entire weekend of use without a charge. I can probably make it through overnight business trips without the charger.

I had no trouble adjusting to the keyboard and can (finally) send text messages without impacting my blood pressure. I was never able to master text entry from a phone keypad.

I've connected it to my home wifi and to one at my office. I've used wifi and 3G to get to gmail and several websites. The view is a bit different from my 24" monitor but it works pretty well.

You might want to spend some time with a symbian manual or guide before purchase. Getting full use from the phone does require some investigation and knowledge of the OS. I suspect I'll be learning how to use it's features for some time. My son owns an iPhone and I have to say that interface seems easier and more intuitive. However, I'm very happy with the E71 for my use.

The Nokia E-series and N-series smartphones are an excellent alternative to Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and Palm OS devices, and several of them far surpass the iPhone's capabilities. The Symbian/Series 60 platform has a user base of over 3 million people worldwide, with thousands of third-party applications available (many for free) and well-established community forums. The E71 in particular is a stellar communicator and mobile computer, for personal and business use.

I have only found a few drawbacks or shortcomings of the E71. First, email: The most glaring omission is the lack of HTML support in the built-in mail client. (There are other mail clients available for S60 that do support HTML email, but I haven't tried any of them yet.) The mail system is also not as full-featured as Blackberry email—e.g., setting an out-of-office autoreply from the handset—but then again, nothing is! Second, SMS and MMS messages cannot be viewed in a "threaded" or "conversation" format—but again, there are third-party solutions to remedy this. And last, there is not a built-in way to switch automatically between the mobile network (GPRS, EDGE, or UMTS/HSDPA) and WiFi (IEEE 802.11b/g) for Internet access; but once more, third-party software solves this problem (SmartConnect seems to work quite well).

I wish AT&T or T-Mobile would carry Nokia smartphones at subsidized prices. There is one MAJOR advantage to buying a non-subsidized GSM/UMTS phone, though: You can use AT&T's MEdia Net data plans, which cost $15 less per month (for unlimited data) than their PDA/Smartphone data service. Saving $180 per year in service cost, and not being locked into a 2-year contract, makes it a lot easier to justify the extra initial cost of a non-subsidized, unlocked handset.