Review: Nokia E71

Finished in shiny metal and high density plastic, the Nokia E71 immediately gives a sense of quality, with its 126g somehow seeming too light. The key is that at just over 10mm thick, it’s the thinnest qwerty-keyboarded phone in the world, bar none.

All of which makes a change from the heft of the also-metallic E61i – on which this improves in just about every way possible. The only obvious downsides of the move to the E71 are that the screen has had to be slimmed down to 2.4” (from 2.8”) and the keyboard is slightly slimmer, but these are bearable considering what you get.

Specs and info

Price: £270
Operating system: Symbian OS 9.2, S60 3.1
Processor: ARM
Memory: 128MB
Dimensions: 112 x 57 x 10mm
Weight: 126g
Display size: 2.4 diagonal inches
Display resolution: 240 x 320
Expansion slot: 1 x microSD

We’re quite used to seeing GPS and auto-focus cameras, plus Podcasting, Share Online, Nokia Maps and Nokia Music Store on Nseries devices like the N95, but here they’re present and correct on the business-focused qwerty E71, which reaps full benefit from using S60. About the only things missing from the firmware are Location Tagger (for geotagging photos) and Internet Radio, both of which are only an easy download away.

In addition to all these newcomers, there are stalwarts like Quickoffice, in updated v4.1 (full) editing form, Adobe PDF Viewer and Zip Manager. Web is the new improved Feature Pack 1 version, and there’s full Flash Lite 3 (ie video) support. For the E71, Nokia has added a full multi-language dictionary, plus a VPN client (for secure access to company intranets) and an encryption utility.

It’s a very full software package – even more so once you realise that even the standard PIM apps have been overhauled: Calendar’s had a dramatic makeover, Contacts gets a pop-up ‘Quick things to do’ list (plus Smart Dialling integration into the Standby screen) and Messaging gains numerous performance tweaks plus a brilliantly simple email setup wizard that just asks for your email address and then uses a database on Nokia’s servers to automatically fill in everything else you need. A handy new Modes function on the Standby screen lets you switch between the device’s shortcut configurations (eg ‘Work’, ‘Evening’).

At this point you’re probably wondering what the catch is. Partly to save space in the thin form, and partly for cost reasons, the E71 can’t really hold a candle to the likes of the N95 on the media front. For starters, there’s no 3D graphics chip, so video playback is a bit jerky, with all the work having to be done in software. Image display is also fairly slow – and isn’t helped by Gallery being the ancient version used in the E61i, dating from 2005.

The camera, while distinctly better than that in the E61i, is still of lower quality than the Carl Zeiss units in the Nseries handsets – and it shows, with poor handling of contrast in both sunlight and indoor settings. The E71’s camera is no worse than an HTC-made 3MP unit, but is disappointing considering Nokia’s recent record in this area. However, the optional auto-focus works very well and allows super close-ups down to 4cm. Video recording is limited, at the standard QVGA by 15fps, albeit with a high quality audio soundtrack.

But apart from the camera, you’ll love the E71, with its wide 3G support, wi-fi, A2DP (and wired 2.5mm stereo headset for music), superb Treo-like qwerty keyboard, the best D-pad we’ve seen and, saving the best for last, the same 1500mAh battery as the E61 and E61i – widely honoured for keeping this class of device going for two to three days on a single charge. At the E71’s launch, a Nokia exec told how he’d used it for a week-long trip without a charger. Try that with just about any other device in these pages.

Essential Verdict

Performance: 8/10
Very fast, great multitasking, but poor multimedia performance

Design: 10/10
Quite superb. Rounded corners and cool metal construction

Features: 9/10
Ticks every box, only losing a point for average camera

Value for money: 9/10
Realistically priced too – you get a lot for your money!

Overall score: 9
Not a world beater, but certainly an extremely worthy contender

Review originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine. Words by Steve Litchfield.

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