I try to limit my new mobile purchases to one device a year. I follow new releases very closely, and try to spot that gem which will do everything I need it to do well. The Nokia E61i, released last month, caught my attention as a potential gem.
I’ve been using my N73 since last summer (you can see my review on HoFo), so I’ll obviously compare my experience with this device with it. The main reason to buy an E61i was that I wanted to try out wifi and qwerty, which are critical for a true convergence device. I did not need GPS so I felt the ridiculous price of the N95 was not for me, and I don’t like sliders.
The box came with the following: phone, manual, CD, charger, USB cable, headset, 256m memory card.
This is the firmware information: 1.0633.22.05 15-02-07 RM-227
Hardware
As seen in pictures, this device is very nice looking and thin. It’s obviously wider because it’s a qwerty device, and you get a large screen. It feels a lot more solid and better built than even my N73 which wasn’t that bad. The back cover and front is all aluminum with plastic around the edges. The screen is very big and of excellent quality. The loud speaker is pretty standard compared with past phones, and the notification light is useful and customizable.
The keyboard is very nice. I have to get used to qwerty since I’m used to the normal phone keypad, but the keys are nice and the D-pad is such an improvement over a joystick. I find it weird that the side buttons are on the left side instead of the right side which would seem more intuitive for using it with the right hand, but the buttons are fine and easily usable.
Battery
Battery life is very good. The day I got it, I spent hours at 1 bar left and it never gave me a battery low warning. After charging in once overnight I have yet to drain the battery with heavy use. This is one of the major reasons for getting this device, as I really didn’t feel like charging a phone every night. This thing will probably be charged once a week and never come close to running out.
Software
This is where I think the E61i really shows what kind of device it is. The OS is S60v3, and does not include FP1. The UI (so far) is very stable and hasn’t crashed or given me a memory error at all. While FP1 would have been nice, I also see the N95 bug threads pop up and am glad they play guinea pig. Although stable, I did find the menu browsing to be slightly slower than my N73, but not enough to be annoying. I installed all my usual (GMail, Google Maps, etc) without any problem. As a test, I loaded the device manual in the PDF reader. On my N73 any time I tried to do that, I could not zoom in or browse it without crashing with an out of memory error. I was pleased that the E61i could view it with no error.
Another nice thing I found out is the device comes packed with software. Not only does it have all the usual Nokia stuff like messaging, Web, IM, PTT, WLAN wizard, quickoffice, etc, but it also comes pre-installed with Worldmate which I think is a very nice program, as well as installers for Exchange and Blackberry connect for those who need it, a golf game, Widset, Podcasting, a Reuters news app and even location and positioning software already on the device for use with a bluetooth GPS module. Note that mine came with a 256m memory card and most extra software were on that, so versions in other markets may vary.
As far as connectivity goes, it has everything from GSM, UMTS (which I can’t test here since I live in Canada), bluetooth, ir, wi-fi. The built in WLAN wizard works well and had no issue finding my network. The implementation is good, and it creates an access point so all applications can select to use wifi just as they would use a normal access point. I tried the built in wi-fi telephone app but couldn’t figure it out, I guess you need a SIP service for that. I just installed Friing and Skype was working right away.
Multimedia
The big change over previous messaging handset is the 2MPx camera. From reading comments I feared that this would be a weak spot that couldn’t take pics inside, but it’s not true at all. I found the quality to be quite good for a 2MPx and it works fine indoors and outdoors. The camera does not have auto focus or a flash so obviously sufficient lighting is required.
The gallery app is the standard non-Nseries gallery. It doesn’t have the fancy features, but it’s faster and it’s not buggy. This was the single most buggy area of my N73, and I can’t tell you the number of times my N73 crashed, froze or gave a memory error while using the camera or gallery software. The E61i doesn’t have the enhanced multimedia features of the Nseries such as picture editing but I prefer it to bugginess.
The music player is the same, which I find pretty basic, and it comes with the usual RealPlayer and such.
Conclusion
I think for what it’s purpose is, this is the perfect device for people wanting a well built, stable Internet device. It does everything it supports well, from browsing, messaging, editing documents, doing some basic multimedia and connecting in various ways. When looking at the competition in this area, I think this is a top solution. Over my N73 I gain the qwerty keyboard including a much better D-pad, wi-fi, a more solid build, at the cost of enhanced multimedia features of the Nseries.
Out of all the convergence devices out there (Windows Mobile, Palm, Blackberry, Symbian) I believe right now the E61i is the best choice, at least for me.
Pros:
- Solid build
- Battery life
- Wide range of connections
- Included software
Cons:
- Missing extra Nseries multimedia software
Score: 9.5/10
Nokia site for the E61i: http://europe.nokia.com/A4344018
I’ve been using an S60 smartphone for years now, and the ability to add third party apps is the cornerstone of owning a smartphone. I wrote a “must-have” list a few years back but over time applications changed so this list needed to be redone. Let’s start with applications every phone can use because they are Java based:
