Ever since I arrived to Paris, I had been using the N82 as my workhorse while the E71 was sitting politely in my drawer collecting dust. 5 weeks later, I got an operator contract, which left me with 2 SIM Cards: a prepaid one that expires in 6 months and a new contract SIM. The E71 was taken out of the drawer, and the moment I removed it from its pouch, I remembered my grandmother and understood why she liked it so much. I’ve visited every phone shop and operator shop I found in Paris so far and seen tons of handsets, but the E71 certainly looks and feels different. There’s no way you can compare it to other handsets on the market regarding build quality, because honestly, it competes on a league of its own.
Now both the E71 and N82 go into my everyday bag, but the E71 has become my new workhorse: I am using it a lot, especially in public, in the subway stations as well as in waiting rooms. I’ve started noticing a trend of behavior around it. People LOOK at it. Not just teenagers or businessmen, but everyone. Women, men, young, old, modern, traditional, locals, tourists. Everyone. Some of them simply glance at it, others are more intrigued by it and stare at it. Sometimes, the ones sitting or standing next to me will keep their eyes on my screen. I’m not annoyed. As a matter of fact, when this happens, I start multitasking, switching between editing a document on QuickOffice to web browsing to looking something up on Nokia Maps, all while controlling my podcasts. The E71 definitely attracts eyes and it’s a fun situation that reminds me a lot about the Axe Click commercial featuring Ben Affleck;
Suffice it to say, the N82 is my Ben Affleck, the E71 is my elevator guy. It’s no surprise then that Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s CEO, uses an E71. Now anyone up to challenge the elevator guy, please stand up!
