E71 - Tiny, Thin, Tempting
I cloture this overview of the 3 handsets I had my hands on during the “Convergence of Mobility and Internet Nokia Strategy” press conference in Lebanon, with my initial impressions of the E71. As I said in Driving With the Guru, the E71 was my BIG astonishment of the day. It didn’t just surprise me, it actually made my jaw drop, literally, which made the Nokia rep laugh at me.
The astonishment is due to the tiny tiny tiny (copy and paste that over a 1000 times) form factor. I can’t emphasize enough on how small, thin and pocketable it is. Basically, when the devices were on the table, I was looking and thought all of them were E66s, then when they announced the E71, they held one of them and I noticed the Qwerty on the bottom part. I was speechless. Don’t look at the internet pictures of the E71, you will think it’s huge. Just wait for it to hit the market and go hold one with your own hand: I guarantee you will be surprised.
Here are some pictures of the E71, as well as comparison shots with the E66 and the N95, taken by me and by Antoine Naaman, T3 Middle East editor, who kindly shared his pictures from the event.
E71 held by Antoine.
E71 in my hand, see how small it is!
E71 sitting next to the E66. It’s only a little bit bigger!
From top to bottom: E71, E66, N95. See the astonishing 10mm thinness!
As you see, the E71 is little bit thinner than the E66 but is wider and taller. It is definitely a very good looking handset with its shiny metal look and nice black plastic, and no one will ever confuse it with a cheap handset. Compared to the E61i that I had for two weeks courtesy of WOMWorld, the E71 is way smaller and will definitely make you wonder about the advances in technology these days. The E71 packs an additional GPS chip, a 3.2MP camera with Autofocus, as well as A2DP in a device that is 1.75 times smaller than the E61i. Yes that is RIGHT, and here is the proof:
- E71 dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm totaling a volume of 64.98 cube centimeters.
- E61i dimensions: 117 x 70 x 13.9 mm totaling a volume of 113.84 cube centimeters.
- The ratio of the E61i’s volume to the E71 is 1.75 !
Even the weight has dropped a good notch from 150g to 127g making the handset 1g lighter than the N95 8GB. Another couple of nice facts about the E71, that I have to thank Antoine for noticing, are:
- The software is blazing fast. Moving around the menu is pretty instantaneous, and even comparable to S40!
- The Now Playing screensaver that the N81 offers is available on the E71 making it easy to know the song you’re playing without unlocking the handset.
- The new built-in Dictionary application only offers English-English by default, but a great set of dictionaries can be downloaded, for FREE. It also offers translation.
The E71 isn’t all goods though, and here are 4 disadvantages that I noted, that aren’t by any means deal-breakers :
- Autofocus with the T key is pretty counterintuitive and a feature that no everyday consumer will find by himself, definitely.
- The metal also collects some fingerprints, but it’s nothing to be alarmed or repulsed by.
- The latin/arabic keypad (since I had the model that was going to be sold in Lebanon) had the latin characters in blue and the arabic ones in white, which made typing in English pretty impossible. The only solution might be to turn the backlight on all the time. This of course won’t be a problem in countries where only white-colored latin characters are used.
- Due to the small size of the handset, the qwerty is minuscule, but reviews are stating that text input is decent on it, so it shouldn’t be a problem once you start using it.
Some fingerprints on the back of the E71.
E71 keyboard: invisible blue latin characters and visible white arabic characters.
So who does the E71 target?
Obviously the E71 is for those people who do a lot of texting and emailing on their handset, which is pretty much all of us, right? It’s also for those who were looking into qwerty handsets but were driven away by the huge E61i or E90: the E71 will make it a blast to go Qwerty with its pocketable size. It’s also for those who want the advantages of a Qwerty without having to give up the basic multimedia features.
Will current owners of an E61i move to the E71?
Yes, Yes and Yes. If you’re an E61i owner and saying that you’ll pass on this one, wait till you get your hands on it. Oh how I guarantee you’ll buy one! Size and cuteness aren’t the only features that’ll make you jump ships, but the hardware add-ons, the better multimedia features, and the endless list of software improvements over the E61i will make it impossible to look over the E71.
In conclusion, as you must have noticed, I have a crush, a huge crush on the E71, and it’s an awesome thing that I won one during the event because I would have had to buy one myself if I didn’t. I can barely wait for it to be released to get my prize!
“Cloture” ftw!
Haha, yeah, I sometimes take my french knowledge a bit too far
whatthehell.
just how many phones do you win??
give ME the n82.
pretty please *blinks eyes*
Aatif,
I have NEVER EVER won anything in my entire life, and winning 2 phones in such a short time was totally unexpected. Anyway, I still haven’t received any of them, so I am still stuck with my poor built N95.
ahhhh should I be saving up for this now? it looks really nice!
I do agree that the size of the E90 did “scare” me away.
At school I sometimes don’t take with me my laptop and writing meeting reviews (from social activities) in QuickOffice is quite a pain with the N82
Looking how small the E71 is, it is really tempting to start taking a look on the E series.
What I’ve liked with the Nokia’s smartphones is that it more or less can replace the laptop something which I do like.
(There are after all not very much you can’t do on these devices)
@Dotsisx
It was about time to win something then >_<
I too don’t win much in my life, but I have the excuse of “winning in life”, I say.
(Been through almost accidents, and coming alive from it)
I do have won a phone. And that was during Telenor’s campaign seeking beta tester for their services. In which I won a N73.
I’ve been quite addicted to the S60v3 since then.
(Even though Symbian devices have been my main mobile handset since the N-gage Classic).
You know have some of the best phones from N- and E-series and I do feel that you deserve it.
It will also provide us with want you think of the devices, something that is good information for people reading the website.
All in all. I would say it’s a win-win situation.
i won a free guardian license on thesymbianblog once.
and free mile high pinball from nokia for first acess.
but the mile high pinball code never worked, adn they stopped replying to my mails.
I’m now in the phase “where can I buy it now ?”, and I was curious about something.
On QWERTY keyboards there’s no accented characters printed on the keys (é,è,à,ä…those of you writing in french or german will understand ;)), so how does one write these characters ? Do you have to use the chr/symbols software menu to get them ?
This is the only thing making me think about choosing either an AZERTY or QWERTY keypad model….please help…
Hi,
nice preview. You honestly spoke your heart.
Thanks….
Nicely described all the features…
Helped me in deciding that i m BUYING the phone….
its launhed a week back in India
THANX again..
Guys, if I buy an English E71 how can I convert it to Arabic. I don’t wanna buy the Arabic one because of the keyboard (hardly visible blue English letters).
@ Ali, you can buy the Arabic version mobile than purchase the English only keyboard/keypad separately and replace it with the Arabic and English one : )
so this way u will be able to use the Arabic and wont get bothered by the Arabic letters on the keyboard/keypad.
Thanks Anonymous but I do not live in the Middle East. I live in North America. I have no way here of buying the Arabic one.
Just bought it yesterday… Loving it. It is the best phone I have ever had. Fast, small, smart. You name it. I picked black color which is more suitable for men.
Hi, I recently bought a E71 in Australia but it didn’t come with the dictionary. Where can I download the dictionary that was supposed to come with my mobile without having to pay for it?
Thanks,
James Massard
I just ordered the beast!!!! cant wait, its being delivered on saturday….. WOOOHHOOOOO (the child inside me gets unleaahed once in a while!) lol
Hi,
I would love to have this phone…presently having Sonyericsson W960i ….I thought the touch screen would make me hasselfree of writing text msgs but was wrong it go worse…Would like to know if the E71 has features of transmitting contact details by bluetooth??? appreciate your reply…as this is very much important to me…because it will save a lot of money for me..
Thanks…
Jun 23rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
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