Design:
There is only one thing we couldn't tell by looking at the pictures: The build quality. After spending some time with the E71, here's our verdict: Solid. And we mean it in the best and literal of ways. The metallic, duo-toned finish carried over from the E51 looks stylish and the construction of the smart phone is remarkable. You really have to pick it up to feel the solidness of the handset in the hands. On hindsight, the metallic chassis does attract a fair bit of fingerprint smudges. Other than downsizing the screen from a generous 2.8 inches on the E61i to 2.36 inches on the E71, which frankly makes a difference only if you place the two phones side-by-side, the rest of the design aspects are improvements over the previous model. You still get the same QVGA resolution with support for up to 16 million colors. And at just 10mm thick and 57mm wide, the pocket-sized E71 puts a lot of other QWERTY phones to shame, including the earlier E61i.
Features:
The E71 runs on the S60 platform with Feature Pack (FP) 1 installed, so you won't see the fancy transitions of the FP2 on this handset. That said, it wouldn't have really mattered on an Eseries device targeting business users. Like the previous models, the E71 comes with a full range of wireless radios. These include Wi-Fi, HSDPA, infrared, Bluetooth A2DP and also GPS (with A-GPS support) for satellite navigation. Nokia also included a front-facing camera this time round for video calls which wasn't available on the earlier E61i.Although it's the familiar S60 3.1 edition for the Eseries, Nokia did introduce a number of enhancements to the OS, and these are mostly for the better.There are a handful of applications preinstalled on the E71 and that should get most users up and running in no time. Maps 2.0 now resides on the phone's ROM (so you don't have to reinstall it if you do a hard reset), and you can create/view/edit new Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents using QuickOffice. We were a little disappointed that Mail for Exchange (Nokia's free software that's the equivalent to Microsoft ActiveSync) wasn't preinstalled, but that's not a big deal since you can always download it separately online.
Performance:
The rated battery life was remarkable, with the 1,500mAh Lithium-polymer cell capable of delivering up to 10 hours of talk-time and standby for up to 17 days. On regular usage of making calls, sending text messages, checking emails and navigating using GPS, we could get about three days of use without reaching for the charger.The camera on the E71 wasn't the best around even though its resolution had been bumped up to 3.2 mega-pixels and it now comes with on board LED flash. Video recording was also limited at VGA at 22fps and QVGA at 30fps. Even the image browser, which seriously needs some sprucing up, hasn't changed a bit from its predecessors. In terms of image quality, we'd say it's passable given the proposition of the phone.
Conclusion:
We don't want to sound like Nokia fanboys here, but it is hard to walk away without feeling impressed by the E71. Sure, it doesn't have everything. We want stronger multimedia features and, perhaps, also a 3.5mm audio jack, but to Nokia's credit, the E71 was never meant to compete with its Nseries counterparts. The handset is great at what it's supposed to do and then more. Combine that with a price of S$798 (US$573.19) without contract [easily S$300 (US$215.49) off if you include a two-year plan], it's a smart phone we would highly recommend. Included in the commercial sales package is a 2GB microSD card loaded with a local map, pouch, wrist strap, stereo headset, micro-USB cable, battery and charger.
In a nutshell, the E71 takes everything that was on the E61/E61i including the ergonomics, design and functionality, and made it even better.
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