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.
