Nokia E71 – The perfect business smartphone?
Back in late 2005, Nokia announced the launch of their E (Enterprise) series cellphones, with the E60, E61 and E70. Aimed at a business audience, they prioritized email and connectivity, as opposed to the multimedia focus in their N-series brethren. All were based on the Symbian OS as well, making them smartphones with the ability to add
Of course, Nokia aren’t the only players in this market. Ontario-based RIM has launched their wildly successful Blackberry phone-cum-email devices, and the Big Kahuna, Apple, is going from strength to strength with their iPhone and iPhone 3G.
To compete with the Blackberry series of full-QWERTY phones, Nokia launched the E61. It was hampered by a slow CPU, a TI OMAP 250Mhz unit, and low RAM – 64MB. It was followed by the E61i, which was mostly a cosmetic upgrade with a 2MP camera, a D-Pad instead of a joystick, and slightly thinner bodywork. But the same issues persisted.
In the interim, Nokia launched the E51 and E90, which were generally well-received. However, a gap still existed for a full-QWERTY performance phone, which was plugged by the phone we’re going to be looking at today, the E71.
This phone was leaked in January, along with the E65 slider, in slides presenting it to Vodafone UK. Ever since, the Internet rumour mills were abuzz with speculation, which was finally laid to rest on June 16 2008, when the E71 was announced, along with the E66 slider.
Specifications
Nokia Europe - Nokia E71 - Technical specifications
I’ll post the relevant specs here:
Form: Monoblock with full keyboard
Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm
Weight: 127 g
Volume: 66 cc
Series 60 Feature Pack 1
Full keyboard
Display and 3D
Size: 2.36"
Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
Up to 16 million colors
Power
BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Po standard battery
Talk time:
- GSM up to 10 h 30 min
- WCDMA up to 4 h 30 min
Standby time:
- GSM up to 17 days
- WCDMA up to 20 days
- WLAN idle up to 166 hours
Music playback time (maximum): 18 h
Memory
MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 8 GB
110 MB internal dynamic memory
3.2 megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels)
Image formats: JPEG/EXIF
CMOS sensor
digital zoom
Autofocus
Data network
CSD
HSCSD
GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 100/60 kbps (DL/UL)
EDGE class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL)
WCDMA 900/2100 or 850/1900 or 850/2100, maximum speed 384/384 kbps (DL/UL)
HSDPA class 6, maximum speed 3.6 Mbps/384 kbps (DL/UL) (3.5G)
WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g
WLAN Security: WEP, 802.1X, WPA, WPA2
TCP/IP support
Nokia PC Internet Access (capability to serve as a data modem)
IETF SIP and 3GPP
I’ll just run through the main features:
1) Battery – 1500mAH is a LOT. More on the battery life later in the review.
2) 320*240 Resolution – VERY nice, esp. with the 16million colours
3) OS – S60 FP1 with Demand Paging: This, combined with a new 369 MHz processor has made this phone VERY snappy and responsive, even with multiple apps open.
4) Memory – 2GB memory card included as standard (MicroSD)
5) Network – 3.5G and b/g Wi-Fi built in. Future-proofing!
6) Screen – 2.36â€. Kinda small, as compared to the E61/61i at 2.8â€, but far easier to handle the phone now.
Here’s a comparison between the E61i and E71
[BREAK=Box Contents and Design]
Box Contents:
The Phone
2GB MicroSD Card
Nokia charger (thin pin)
Wired handsfree (2.5mm)
Micro USB cable
PC Suite + Manual
Design and Ergonomics:
The E71 is VERY slim. The Micro-USB and Micro-SD ports are placed on the right hand side of the phone, under rubbery covers. On the opposite side, the (uncovered) 2.5mm jack and 3 buttons are placed. The buttons are for increasing and decreasing volume, while the middle button acts in a context-sensitive manner, to call up voice dialing from the home screen or acting as a Mute button.
The overall build quality of the phone is amazing. It feels as if it’s been hewn from a single block of metal, which is unbelievably thin. Even the battery cover has been redesigned, with a simple 2-button press to release it.
On the top, you will find the speaker and power button, which is a vivid red colour. At the bottom are the charging port and a lanyard for a holding strap
The screen itself is gorgeous; QVGA and transreflective, easily viewable even in bright sunlight.
Special mention must be made of the keyboard. The keys are attached to each other, unlike the E61/61i, where there was generous spacing between the keys. This, of course, is necessitated by the new-found slimness of the phone. The keys themselves are excellent; good feel and travel. I get about 24-26 WPM typing on them, with T9 off. This includes 1-2 errors, of course, but I find that the longer you type on them, the faster you become.
Moving on to the keys, Nokia has replaced the standard Symbian S60 Menu Key. It is now a Home Key, just like the E51. Along with that are shortcut keys for Calendar, Contacts and Messaging. Even better, you can actually customize these for a long/short press. Defaults for long press are New Calendar Entry, New Message and New Contact. Short Presses bring up Calendar, Messaging and Contacts respectively.
[BREAK=Camera and Software]
Camera:
The camera is a basic 3.2MP unit, with autofocus and LED flash. The autofocus is engaged by pressing the T button. Macro shots are at a minimum of 4 cm, which is awesome! Video capability is restricted to 324*240 @ 15fps unfortunately. The shots are lacking as compared to the E90, let alone the multimedia monsters of the N-series. Still, it might be argued that the camera optics aren’t necessarily the primary focus (hehe!) for this business-oriented phone. That said, there are many people who might pick up an uber-E series with a 3.5mm jack and a 5MP Carl Zeiss-optics camera with a Xenon flash. One can only hope!
Software
The E71, true to it’s enterprise focus, is based off Feature Pack 1 of the Symbian Series 60 Operating System. You can read more about FP1 here:
Mobile-review.com S60 3d Edition Feature Pack 1
Nokia have recently launched FP2, the first device being the multimedia-focused N78. However, the fancy transitions and improved Gallery were deemed superfluous to the enterprise focus of the E71, and were left out.
One of the main surprises of this phone is the Mode entry on the Active Standby screen. It acts as a virtual machine of sorts, with the idea that one Mode is for business (sober wallpaper, black theme and silent ringer), as opposed to one Mode for leisure (zany photos as wallpaper, funky themes and Cyndi Lauper songs as ringtones). Of course, these can be adjusted at leisure!
You can set up active plugins on the homescreen as well, which range from Wi-Fi scanning to Calendar entries. You can choose from a number of apps on your phone, of course. The whole thing can be turned off as well.
At the bottom of the screen, voicemail, new message notifications and missed call notifications show up in their own bubbles. Just click on them to check them.
One awesome new feature is the predictive dialing. Say I want to call Mom... I just type mom on the home screen and the contact shows up on the overlay. I then use the D-Pad to highlight it and dial the number. Very cool!
Opening the main menu, we can see that Nokia have arranged the apps and mini-apps into their own folders. Of course, this being S60, we can arrange the apps however we like.
Calendar is now split screen, just like the E90.
QuickOffice v4.1 is bundled. This is the full version, with editing and viewing both enabled out of the box. It’s a shame v5 wasn’t included – this version adds support for Office 2007 files.
Dictionary is a new addition, from Kernerman, an Israeli company. You can download multiple language packs from the Nokia website for free.
GPS Navigation – Nokia Maps 2.0 is included in this phone’s ROM. Cold start to lock-on is 1-1.5 minutes, which is very fast indeed.
Encryption is present and correct as well. It will encrypt the contents of the phone memory and memory card as well. It uses your phone lock code as your key, and a remote wipe is also possible, via a phone call. Very useful in a corporate environment.
Voice readouts for SMS are present. You can choose the voice and it will read out contacts and text messages.
Nokia Music Store Client is present in this phone, a first for a non-N series device. Not available in India yet, unfortunately.
Podcasting: Very useful! You can add your own podcasts as well, of course.
Full T9 has been enabled in the phone as well; this, combined with a full QWERTY keyboard is instrumental in fast typing and error correction. I have enabled T9, although this is a personal preference.
Enterprise Applications
Arguably the most important function for this phone. General email connectivity is excellent; Yahoo Mail and GMail are well integrated. The user just has to enter the username and password, and the account is set up.
Mail for Exchange is a free download from Nokia. The phone is also compatible with Intellisync, MS Exchange ActiveSync, Visto Mobile and Seven Always On Mail. A notable omission is Blackberry Connect, which Nokia managers have recently confirmed will NOT feature on the E71 and E66.
Mail for Exchange also supports syncing of calendar entries and contacts with the main company Exchange server. You can choose to check for new mail at specified intervals, as well as at peak-and non-peak times.
Personally, I am running MS Exchange ActiveSync on the phone, tied in to my company’s email setup. However, the lack of BB Connect is a major problem, as we are going to be issued BB devices. Carrying two devices may be an issue.
Browsing on the default browser is excellent. Based on the same Safari base as the iPhone’s browser, it renders pages faithfully. Of course, the small size of the screen and low resolution necessitate a lot of scrolling around. Opera 9.5 is compatible with the phone as well, of course
[BREAK=Multimedia and Battery Life]
Multimedia
The phone has the standard Nokia Music player; with a 5-band user-adjustable EQ. Sound quality was ok, even through my Sennheiser PX100s with a 3.5mm adapter. You can add 3rd party programs to have more EQ presets/bands, of course. That’s the beauty of S60!
As for movie playback, the standard formats have been included, as has h264. However, I’d recommend any E71 user install CorePlayer ASAP, with its far superior codec handling.
Flash playback is included as well, worked alright with YouTube and Ovi.
The standard FM visual radio is built in as well, with support for Visual Radio.
Battery Life
Excellent! The 1500mAH battery is awesome. With 2-3 hours of calling, ½ hour of Wi-Fi usage and numerous messages sent and received a day, the phone gave me 2.5 days of battery life. Of course, YMMV!
[BREAK=Performance]
Taken from Mobile-Review:
Performance
Thanks to it’s beefed up memory and a faster CPU (ARM11 running at 369 MHz, against the E61i’s ARM9 and its 220 MHz), the E71’s performance has almost doubled compared to the E61i. You can literally soar through all applications and menus; also the handset can have more applications running in the background.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Is this the perfect enterprise device? Well, yes and no. It’s got Symbian’s expandability, a decent 3.2MP camera, and a fast, FAST UI. It handles documents well, and typing on the QWERTY keypad is a breeze. That said, push-email could be handled better, as could HTML messages on email. Nokia Messaging, a new programme from them allows much better Push and HTML mail handling.
However, as a good, fast, solid messaging phone with good document handling capabilities, this phone is hard to beat. Current pricing is ~20,000 rupees, which is quite expensive, but this does happen to be Nokia’s flagship E-series phone in India, not counting the Communicators and the newly released E75.
Back in late 2005, Nokia announced the launch of their E (Enterprise) series cellphones, with the E60, E61 and E70. Aimed at a business audience, they prioritized email and connectivity, as opposed to the multimedia focus in their N-series brethren. All were based on the Symbian OS as well, making them smartphones with the ability to add
Of course, Nokia aren’t the only players in this market. Ontario-based RIM has launched their wildly successful Blackberry phone-cum-email devices, and the Big Kahuna, Apple, is going from strength to strength with their iPhone and iPhone 3G.
To compete with the Blackberry series of full-QWERTY phones, Nokia launched the E61. It was hampered by a slow CPU, a TI OMAP 250Mhz unit, and low RAM – 64MB. It was followed by the E61i, which was mostly a cosmetic upgrade with a 2MP camera, a D-Pad instead of a joystick, and slightly thinner bodywork. But the same issues persisted.
In the interim, Nokia launched the E51 and E90, which were generally well-received. However, a gap still existed for a full-QWERTY performance phone, which was plugged by the phone we’re going to be looking at today, the E71.
This phone was leaked in January, along with the E65 slider, in slides presenting it to Vodafone UK. Ever since, the Internet rumour mills were abuzz with speculation, which was finally laid to rest on June 16 2008, when the E71 was announced, along with the E66 slider.
Specifications
Nokia Europe - Nokia E71 - Technical specifications
I’ll post the relevant specs here:
Form: Monoblock with full keyboard
Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm
Weight: 127 g
Volume: 66 cc
Series 60 Feature Pack 1
Full keyboard
Display and 3D
Size: 2.36"
Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
Up to 16 million colors
Power
BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Po standard battery
Talk time:
- GSM up to 10 h 30 min
- WCDMA up to 4 h 30 min
Standby time:
- GSM up to 17 days
- WCDMA up to 20 days
- WLAN idle up to 166 hours
Music playback time (maximum): 18 h
Memory
MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 8 GB
110 MB internal dynamic memory
3.2 megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels)
Image formats: JPEG/EXIF
CMOS sensor
digital zoom
Autofocus
Data network
CSD
HSCSD
GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 100/60 kbps (DL/UL)
EDGE class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL)
WCDMA 900/2100 or 850/1900 or 850/2100, maximum speed 384/384 kbps (DL/UL)
HSDPA class 6, maximum speed 3.6 Mbps/384 kbps (DL/UL) (3.5G)
WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g
WLAN Security: WEP, 802.1X, WPA, WPA2
TCP/IP support
Nokia PC Internet Access (capability to serve as a data modem)
IETF SIP and 3GPP
I’ll just run through the main features:
1) Battery – 1500mAH is a LOT. More on the battery life later in the review.
2) 320*240 Resolution – VERY nice, esp. with the 16million colours
3) OS – S60 FP1 with Demand Paging: This, combined with a new 369 MHz processor has made this phone VERY snappy and responsive, even with multiple apps open.
4) Memory – 2GB memory card included as standard (MicroSD)
5) Network – 3.5G and b/g Wi-Fi built in. Future-proofing!
6) Screen – 2.36â€. Kinda small, as compared to the E61/61i at 2.8â€, but far easier to handle the phone now.
Here’s a comparison between the E61i and E71
[BREAK=Box Contents and Design]
Box Contents:
The Phone
2GB MicroSD Card
Nokia charger (thin pin)
Wired handsfree (2.5mm)
Micro USB cable
PC Suite + Manual
Design and Ergonomics:
The E71 is VERY slim. The Micro-USB and Micro-SD ports are placed on the right hand side of the phone, under rubbery covers. On the opposite side, the (uncovered) 2.5mm jack and 3 buttons are placed. The buttons are for increasing and decreasing volume, while the middle button acts in a context-sensitive manner, to call up voice dialing from the home screen or acting as a Mute button.
The overall build quality of the phone is amazing. It feels as if it’s been hewn from a single block of metal, which is unbelievably thin. Even the battery cover has been redesigned, with a simple 2-button press to release it.
On the top, you will find the speaker and power button, which is a vivid red colour. At the bottom are the charging port and a lanyard for a holding strap
The screen itself is gorgeous; QVGA and transreflective, easily viewable even in bright sunlight.
Special mention must be made of the keyboard. The keys are attached to each other, unlike the E61/61i, where there was generous spacing between the keys. This, of course, is necessitated by the new-found slimness of the phone. The keys themselves are excellent; good feel and travel. I get about 24-26 WPM typing on them, with T9 off. This includes 1-2 errors, of course, but I find that the longer you type on them, the faster you become.
Moving on to the keys, Nokia has replaced the standard Symbian S60 Menu Key. It is now a Home Key, just like the E51. Along with that are shortcut keys for Calendar, Contacts and Messaging. Even better, you can actually customize these for a long/short press. Defaults for long press are New Calendar Entry, New Message and New Contact. Short Presses bring up Calendar, Messaging and Contacts respectively.
[BREAK=Camera and Software]
Camera:
The camera is a basic 3.2MP unit, with autofocus and LED flash. The autofocus is engaged by pressing the T button. Macro shots are at a minimum of 4 cm, which is awesome! Video capability is restricted to 324*240 @ 15fps unfortunately. The shots are lacking as compared to the E90, let alone the multimedia monsters of the N-series. Still, it might be argued that the camera optics aren’t necessarily the primary focus (hehe!) for this business-oriented phone. That said, there are many people who might pick up an uber-E series with a 3.5mm jack and a 5MP Carl Zeiss-optics camera with a Xenon flash. One can only hope!
Software
The E71, true to it’s enterprise focus, is based off Feature Pack 1 of the Symbian Series 60 Operating System. You can read more about FP1 here:
Mobile-review.com S60 3d Edition Feature Pack 1
Nokia have recently launched FP2, the first device being the multimedia-focused N78. However, the fancy transitions and improved Gallery were deemed superfluous to the enterprise focus of the E71, and were left out.
One of the main surprises of this phone is the Mode entry on the Active Standby screen. It acts as a virtual machine of sorts, with the idea that one Mode is for business (sober wallpaper, black theme and silent ringer), as opposed to one Mode for leisure (zany photos as wallpaper, funky themes and Cyndi Lauper songs as ringtones). Of course, these can be adjusted at leisure!
You can set up active plugins on the homescreen as well, which range from Wi-Fi scanning to Calendar entries. You can choose from a number of apps on your phone, of course. The whole thing can be turned off as well.
At the bottom of the screen, voicemail, new message notifications and missed call notifications show up in their own bubbles. Just click on them to check them.
One awesome new feature is the predictive dialing. Say I want to call Mom... I just type mom on the home screen and the contact shows up on the overlay. I then use the D-Pad to highlight it and dial the number. Very cool!
Opening the main menu, we can see that Nokia have arranged the apps and mini-apps into their own folders. Of course, this being S60, we can arrange the apps however we like.
Calendar is now split screen, just like the E90.
QuickOffice v4.1 is bundled. This is the full version, with editing and viewing both enabled out of the box. It’s a shame v5 wasn’t included – this version adds support for Office 2007 files.
Dictionary is a new addition, from Kernerman, an Israeli company. You can download multiple language packs from the Nokia website for free.
GPS Navigation – Nokia Maps 2.0 is included in this phone’s ROM. Cold start to lock-on is 1-1.5 minutes, which is very fast indeed.
Encryption is present and correct as well. It will encrypt the contents of the phone memory and memory card as well. It uses your phone lock code as your key, and a remote wipe is also possible, via a phone call. Very useful in a corporate environment.
Voice readouts for SMS are present. You can choose the voice and it will read out contacts and text messages.
Nokia Music Store Client is present in this phone, a first for a non-N series device. Not available in India yet, unfortunately.
Podcasting: Very useful! You can add your own podcasts as well, of course.
Full T9 has been enabled in the phone as well; this, combined with a full QWERTY keyboard is instrumental in fast typing and error correction. I have enabled T9, although this is a personal preference.
Enterprise Applications
Arguably the most important function for this phone. General email connectivity is excellent; Yahoo Mail and GMail are well integrated. The user just has to enter the username and password, and the account is set up.
Mail for Exchange is a free download from Nokia. The phone is also compatible with Intellisync, MS Exchange ActiveSync, Visto Mobile and Seven Always On Mail. A notable omission is Blackberry Connect, which Nokia managers have recently confirmed will NOT feature on the E71 and E66.
Mail for Exchange also supports syncing of calendar entries and contacts with the main company Exchange server. You can choose to check for new mail at specified intervals, as well as at peak-and non-peak times.
Personally, I am running MS Exchange ActiveSync on the phone, tied in to my company’s email setup. However, the lack of BB Connect is a major problem, as we are going to be issued BB devices. Carrying two devices may be an issue.
Browsing on the default browser is excellent. Based on the same Safari base as the iPhone’s browser, it renders pages faithfully. Of course, the small size of the screen and low resolution necessitate a lot of scrolling around. Opera 9.5 is compatible with the phone as well, of course
[BREAK=Multimedia and Battery Life]
Multimedia
The phone has the standard Nokia Music player; with a 5-band user-adjustable EQ. Sound quality was ok, even through my Sennheiser PX100s with a 3.5mm adapter. You can add 3rd party programs to have more EQ presets/bands, of course. That’s the beauty of S60!
As for movie playback, the standard formats have been included, as has h264. However, I’d recommend any E71 user install CorePlayer ASAP, with its far superior codec handling.
Flash playback is included as well, worked alright with YouTube and Ovi.
The standard FM visual radio is built in as well, with support for Visual Radio.
Battery Life
Excellent! The 1500mAH battery is awesome. With 2-3 hours of calling, ½ hour of Wi-Fi usage and numerous messages sent and received a day, the phone gave me 2.5 days of battery life. Of course, YMMV!
[BREAK=Performance]
Taken from Mobile-Review:
Performance
Thanks to it’s beefed up memory and a faster CPU (ARM11 running at 369 MHz, against the E61i’s ARM9 and its 220 MHz), the E71’s performance has almost doubled compared to the E61i. You can literally soar through all applications and menus; also the handset can have more applications running in the background.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Is this the perfect enterprise device? Well, yes and no. It’s got Symbian’s expandability, a decent 3.2MP camera, and a fast, FAST UI. It handles documents well, and typing on the QWERTY keypad is a breeze. That said, push-email could be handled better, as could HTML messages on email. Nokia Messaging, a new programme from them allows much better Push and HTML mail handling.
However, as a good, fast, solid messaging phone with good document handling capabilities, this phone is hard to beat. Current pricing is ~20,000 rupees, which is quite expensive, but this does happen to be Nokia’s flagship E-series phone in India, not counting the Communicators and the newly released E75.
