E61i Thoughts - To Learn And Improve
The E61i was announced on February 12th 2007, meaning that it is more than a one year old device. Yet, the E61i still doesn’t have a successor. So what should Nokia keep form the E61i, and what should they work on to improve the experience?
Overall
As it is a custom to repeat : Nokia should learn that business users have a life after 5pm, and that multimedia junkies have a job. The borderlines between Eseries and Nseries should fade as we go further in time. Yes, there will always be multimedia focused devices but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be good for business, and the opposite is true.
So basically, the E61i successor should bring a better camera, autofocus, GPS, A2DP, stereo speakers, video and image editing, a better music player, Share Online. I don’t see why it shouldn’t support the Nokia Music Store and N-gage, the first one more than the 2nd, as this is a way to push Nokia’s new services to business users (ie. those who have money!).
Hardware
- A little improvement in weight can be welcomed, as the E61i becomes a bit heavy in the hand when constantly used. But this weight cut shouldn’t come at the expense of the materials: metal and good plastic are a must.
- The qwerty could use some improvements, speed-wise. I am not an expert to know the best configuration, or key size or shape, but I believe a lot can be done. Also symbol-wise why not make a long-press automatically insert the symbol or number? It could be a good solution for faster typing.
- The shortcut keys need to have better settings: on keypress, long press, and why not double press too? Direct access to the Message Inbox and not just the Mail Inbox could be a very useful addition.
- The memory card slot should be accessible without removing the battery cover, duh, especially when the said cover is as hard to remove and replace as in the E61i!
- And the most important improvement has to be the inclusion of European AND American HSDPA. Business users above all, are constant travelers, so why should their device be confined to one continent when other handset manufacturers give them 3G support everywhere?
Software
- Predictive text input could be awesome to correct spelling and improve typing speed.
- Better PIM management: this is the one area where I expected Eseries to be superior, and was letdown.
- Make good use of the landscape screen, like in Messaging, but implement it all over the UI, especially in contacts, logs, calendar, …
- Have a smart standby menu. Why? Now, when I have my message inbox set as my Active Standby Mailbox, I still need to set the Message Notifier to show in order to avoid the one new message pop-up. This means that I have 2 lines notifying me of new sms, which is such a waste of space. When the message inbox is set as the Active Standby Mailbox, message notifications should not appear.
You brought it right up to the point. We need the N-Series and E-Series coming together. As they said in the AAS Insight: “No one works all the time, no one plays all the time”.
Eg. at a business trip it would be nice to have a portable media platform for the evening.
And we need better calendaring too. I want categories, especially as Symbian already supports them since V 9.1.
And for the future, higher screen resolution would be nice …
And what about E71? It should do a very good job in replacing E61i.
There’s actually an option in Tools > Settings > Phone > General to turn predictive text on, but it doesn’t seem to do anything…?
I’d also be interested in some further details of how this handset’s PIM functionality comes up short. I find it perfectly suitable for my needs, but I don’t use Outlook on the desktop side.
And thanks for giving some attention to this often overlooked handset!
I see you’re still using the E61i.
Arne, nodding along with you
Ratko, yeah but still not officially announced. This post is more about what the E61i lacks and what its successor should have. The rumored E71 ticks a couple of boxes, but not all of them.
AC, that’s true, the option is there but it seems to do nada. PIM-wise the lacks are in more calendar categories, better log management, integration between contacts and calendar (birthdays), between messages and calendar (get a message that says u have a meeting somewhere => immediately add it to the calendar)…
Razor1973, now more to write posts while doing my morning walks
i’m back to the N95 as my main phone.
I play with my other phones all the time and may take one or the other with me to work, but always keeping the E61i nearby so that I can switch back whenever I get the urge or know I’m about to type A LOT.
Jul 17th, 2008 at 1:00 am
[...] the most convenient implementations I have seen so far. When I had my E61i, I complained about how it stupidly wanted me to have double notifications whenever I wanted it to show an excerpt from the new Message I receive (Eseries owners should know [...]
Sep 29th, 2008 at 1:00 am
[...] but there were also so many things I hated about it. I concluded my trial posts with this one: E61i Thoughts - To Learn And Improve which basically exposed all the issues that I thought Nokia should address in the E61i’s [...]