E71 - They Learned And Improved
A few months ago, I was trialling the Nokia E61i and was totally in love with the form factor and the build quality of the handset, 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 follower. At that time, the E71 was still a rumor with a few specs and pictures leaked, but nothing major. A month or so later, the E71 was announced, and I won it during the launch event in Lebanon. Now that I have the E71 in my hands, I decided to take a look back at my old wishlist and see how many boxes does the E71 tick. I was surprised to see that almost all the improvements I had asked for have been implemented in the E71, then realised that this is why I’m totally in love with this handset.
In the general improvement category, I wished for the E61i follower to deliver a better multimedia experience and to lessen the gap with the Nseries. The E71 delivers all that I wanted: the better camera (though with a purple tint), GPS, A2DP, the better music player (the same as the one found on new Nseries), Share Online and the Nokia Music Store.The E71 even goes the long way and brings Mode Switching, a proof from Nokia that says “we know you have a life after 5pm people”. It still features the crappy Gallery interface and fails to bring image and video editing (but then again even the N82 doesn’t have video editing) and N-Gage. I understand the decision not to include N-Gage in the E71, but I kind of wish they did put it: landscape mode is here by default, there’s tons of buttons to control the game and Business users are supposed to have some money, i.e. be able to afford N-Gage games.
In the hardware category, I asked for a lighter handset without a significant drop in build quality, a faster qwerty and an easier way to insert symbols, an accessible memory card slot, the ability to personnalize the shortcuts keys, and tri-band HSDPA. Here as well, the E71 delivers everything except the tri-band HSDPA (why oh why?). It is not only 16% lighter than the E61i but it is also smaller in size and has a much better build quality and feel. It also sports a smaller but miles faster qwerty with the ability to keep a button pressed in order to insert symbols, an external memory card slot as well as personnalized shortcut keys with long press settings.
In the software category, I wished the E61i’s follower would make good use of the landscape screen and have predictive text input, a smarter standby and better PIM management. The E71 doesn’t miss one wish here, and brings all of these to the table with a few more. Predictive text input is a joy to use when you get used to it, the dual Standby messaging notification issue I was facing on the E61i is now solved and in style and efficiency, and both Calendar and Contacts have been revamped to make use of the bigger landscape screen. The E71 also brings the new Dictionary application, the new Encryption and Intranet features and a handful of free software licenses (Advanced Call Manager, Multiscanner, WiPresenter, WorldMate, GlobalRace and Top Hits Solitaire).
All in all, I think it’s fair to say that the E71 brings the most important updates to the table compared to the E61i and I’m stomped to see for once Nokia releasing a handset that ticks almost all the boxes in my improvement wishlist. So kudos to the Finnish company for making such a beautiful and desirable piece of technology, and kudos for looking at their past mistakes and issues with the E61i, learning from them, and improving upon them.
Myself had a better RAM memory on my wishlist and Yes there is! But then they made the screen smaller…so here I am with the great E90 instead.
Great overview Rita. I have just completed my first unboxing video of an E71 from WOM on my blog. Its a great device. I hated at first, but after a few days use, Im warming to it now.
I’ve been saving up for the e71 ever since it was announced(not quite there yet!). I’m glad to know it has a capable music player; with its larger external memory compatibility the e71 will become my main music device while my n73 keeps on taking photos.
The main draw of the eseries to me, though, is the qwerty keyboard(evidently I don’t consider the e66 as belonging to the eseries!) and the ability to print documents directly from the phone.
Well, I must disagree on certain aspects… e.g. the camera might be better than on the E61(i) but it is much much weaker than on the E90. Additionally they have again a 2.5mm headphone plug… And size does not really matter here…
So, after all a real great phone, but I miss the camera from the E90 - altough it was also a bad one… but not as bad like the one in the E71…
For people in love with the E1 and wanna upgrade the E71 is superb.
But the really flawless business device is the E90.
Cant live with web browsing on 2.34 screen. 2.6 is minimal for me.
Well,4′ is more than great.
I am interested in experimenting with the E71. Is there a device emulator for it, and if so can you recommend a good reference site for installing and configuring the emulator?
Ammar,
I am ready to give up on the big screen, for better and faster software, and this is what the E71 delivers. The E90 killed me with its music player and its slow to death software.
Alex,
I don’t know any emulators for the E71 online. Maybe someone else can help you with this.
Alex, an emulator can best emulate the graphical interface- and the speed of your emulator depends on the machine that is running the emulator. The faster your machine the more pleasent your experience and vice versa. To really test out the phone, you’ll need to get hold of a physical unit- which allows you to experience the processor, ram and tactile feel.
E71 is a great device, however there’s no device in this world that can satisfy the needs of all consumers - therefore you’ll need to ask yourself what key functions are you looking for in a device.
To those who said E61i is far superior than E71, your credibility as a contributor is highly questionable.
Btw, this feedback was concieved and executed via a E71 set
I just wish they would make share online available for e90 too, feel kinda jealous for e71..
I would have loved an E90, but at $888… WOW. I’ll keep my E71 and add JoikuSpot Light and eePC. (Just my two-cents.)
Sep 30th, 2008 at 2:02 am
[...] Dotsisx has been sharing her thoughts on the E71 over on Symbian Guru, and reckons Nokia have listened and learned. [...]
Nov 12th, 2008 at 1:00 am
[...] also both a great step ahead from their predecessors in terms of software. The E71, for example, fixes all the glitches that I found in the E61i, whereas the N82 is simply impressive in terms of RAM and GPS fixes compared to the [...]