I’ve just completed my review of the Nokia E66, which is now live over at MobileBurn.com. You can also catch Dotsisx’ coverage of the Nokia E66 here at Symbian-Guru, she’s got several videos thus far, with more coming, and a few other posts that I’m sure you’ll enjoy. However, I wanted to give you my thoughts on it, as well.
I’ll confess, as much as I enjoy Nseries, I also thoroughly enjoy my E90, and was pretty excited to get my hands on the E66. In reviewing it, I came across several things that simply drove me mad:
1. That blasted camera button – it drove me completely mad that the dedicated camera key on the E66 refused to launch the actual camera application. The button is completely useless until *after* you’ve launched the camera application, which is just plain silly. Any phone on the market with camera button uses that button to launch the camera, in addition to functioning as a shutter button. I can only hope this is addressed with a firmware update, though with the E90 suffering the same issue, I’m not holding my breath.
2. The 2.5mm audio port – this is also completely maddening for me, and it annoys me on the E90, as well. Though I don’t often use a wired headset on my handset, it also eliminates the possibility of using other things, such as external speakers, or the audio input on my truck. There’s simply no way you can convince me that a standard 3.5mm audio port: 1. costs *that* much more 2. takes up *that* much more space. Using a 2.5mm port is very clearly simply a positioning/marketing decision, and I find that incredibly frustrating.
3. Those awful icons – there’s seriously no way to get rid of them. Those nasty, boring grey icons are there to stay, and that’s completely horrid. Why on earth, with everyone else focusing on making phones have more eye candy, would the E66 (and E71) have such horrific eyesores in the menus?
So then what did I love about it?
1. The dual-standby – 100% brilliance, and I hope to see Nokia build on that. I’d like to see it include the profile (so you can have a ‘work ringtone’ and a ‘play ringtone’) and I’d also like to see the ability to schedule this. I.e. weekdays at 730a, switch to ‘Work’, then back to ‘Play’ at 515p, and use ‘Play’ on the weekends, too. Completely automate the process.
2. The email setup wizard is FANTASTIC. Seriously, I entered my Gmail username and password, selected IMAP, and that was it. THAT WAS IT. No tinkering about in the port settings and all that mumbo-jumbo. Excellent work, Nokia. Now port that to the other phones. Yes, Nseries users use email, too, believe it or not.
3. Size/build quality – seriously, the hardware on the E66 (minus the offending button and headset jack) are beautiful. Rock solid slider, quality build, high-quality materials. Now, Eseries guys, go play with the Nseries guys. Hang out, talk. Please.
4. The double-tap to silence. Seriously, flip to silent is cool and all, but then your screen is facing down, and you can’t see who calls next. The E66′s ability to detect when you tap twice on the screen is completely brilliant, and I’m hoping one of the accelerometer folks like Keynetik or other can give me an app for my N95 that does that – stat.
The E66 was an odd beast to review because it presented me with an interesting conundrum. First, when reviewing a phone for MobileBurn (or anywhere, really), it’s important to note *how* I review a phone. An honest review, in my opinion, takes a look at the things that the phone is advertised/promised to do, and determines how well it does those. The E66, in that regard, is a solid 9, maybe a 10 if the camera button doesn’t bug you. However, for me, personally? It’s about a 4.
What’s that? How is that? Easy – it just didn’t fit me. I just didn’t, at any point, think to myself, “I’d like to buy one of these for myself.” There’s nothing that I could really find on the E66 that was a clear failure. Every feature works pretty much exactly just like it claims to. It just isn’t the right phone for me, personally.
How does that help you? I suppose it doesn’t, really. Well, if you’re used to alot of the multimedia aspects of the N95, the E66 would likely not be a great choice. However, if you’re on pretty much any other Eseries device, it’s an incredibly worthy upgrade. It’s small, feels rock solid in your hand, and the keypad is a dream to type on, coming very close to the N75, which had the best keypad of any S60 thus far.
