Nokia's E71 Smartphone
Sitting somewhere in between Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry in terms of looks, the Nokia E71 offers practically every function you could wish for in one device but is hindered by its minuscule keyboard.
Nokia is no stranger to business phones, in fact nearly half of all smart-phones sold so far this year were made by the Finnish giant. Despite this experience the E71 is still somewhat of a watershed moment for Nokia, as it is the company’s first notable attempt at providing consumer features alongside business-friendly applications – and all in a very appealing body.
Indeed the phone’s physical form is arguably its most impressive trait, particularly in the context of the features it houses. With a thickness of just 1cm the device will fit into any pocket unnoticed and while a qwerty keyboard generally makes for an ugly look on a phone its impact is offset here by the metallic casing around it; a material that also adds a feeling of sturdiness to the handset.
The interface used on the E71 will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has used a Nokia phone in the last few years, an intentional strategy on the company’s part to make it as easy as possible for users to upgrade from one phone to another. It is hardly the prettiest operating system but it is functional and generally logical, certainly one of the must user-friendly on the market at present.
In terms of features, business users will be happy to see all the boxes ticked in terms of basics like e-mail functionality and document editing software, while the addition of a GPS antenna and the built-in dictionary come as an added bonus.
The media-based options are equally impressive with an mp3 player, FM radio and video player all present – along with the 3.2 megapixel camera and access to online functionality. Use of the radio and mp3 player is hindered, however, by Nokia’s decision to have a smaller headphone socket than the standard 3.5mm size – what this means is you must either rely on the bundled headphones or use cumbersome adaptors in order to listen to music.
The biggest issue with the device is the keyboard, however, which is far too small for even the shortest use. The keys are just shy of 1/2cm in width each and are so tightly packed together that anything but the most precise use ends in errors and, in turn, frustration. At its very best this slows down texting, emailing, surfing and document editing to a slow crawl; at its very worst it makes these things near impossible, which kind of defeats the purpose of having such a device in the first place.
Perhaps to users more used to devices like the Blackberry this is a manageable problem but to those used to even moderately-sized keys it is going to be a major downside to the device.
In essence the E71 is a solid phone that only has one fault worth mentioning – it just so happens to be the very one that makes or in this case breaks the deal. Nokia have certainly gotten something right in terms of looks but perhaps their attempt to make it more slim and stylish than the iPhone allowed it to overlook the practicalities of the design used. Just a few millimetres more width and it could have been so very different.
An edited version of this review appeared in Business & Finance magazine on the 9th October 2008.
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Buy the Nokia E71 on O2.ie:
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