Nokia E71

Review by Julian Prokaza on Fri 25 July 2008

Page 2 of 4

Ah yes, we probably should mention that the E71 is the nominal successor to Nokia’s first attempt to muscle in the on the Qwerty keyboard-equipped business smartphone market. Its first model, the E61, certainly had its plus points, but it was a little on the chunky side. The E71 is a good deal smaller and considerably thinner too – the main case is just 10mm thick, though the buttons add a little to this if you want to be picky.

Nokia E71 vs E61 (to scale)

This reduced size does mean that the E71’s screen is also a bit smaller than its predecessor’s, but the step down from 2.8in to 2.36in isn’t too detrimental. The screen is crisp and clear, but it isn’t the brightest we’ve seen, though that’s not to say it’s particularly murky. That said, we were initially foxed by the lack of screen backlight when the E71’s keypad is locked – the on-screen label for the soft ‘unlock’ key is all but invisible in this mode, though this isn’t something that will catch you (or us) out twice.

Despite the reduced dimensions, Nokia has also managed to cram in a few more buttons on the E71’s face. Along with the pair of soft keys and call start/end keys, there are also four quick-launch keys for the Home screen, and email, address book and diary applications. Nokia has also ditched the mini joystick used on the E61 and the E71 has a traditional four-way control pad instead, albeit with a twist – its outside edge now blinks with a cool white glow by way of a handset status alert.

The Symbian S60 operating system comes with the 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and it clips along at a fair old pace. Feature Pack 1 doesn’t introduce much in the way of new features, but the web browser is a notable improvement and it does a great job of rendering pages on the comparatively low resolution screen. It doesn’t make any attempt to repackage pages to fit their whole width on-screen, but if you scroll more than a short distance using the four-way pad and a whole-page overview pops up as a page overlay so you can see where you’re going.

 

The S60 FP1 browser still isn’t quite in the same league as Safari on the iPhone or Opera Mobile 9.5, but it’s streets ahead of Pocket Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile. As on the E61, the four-way pad moves an on-screen mouse pointer around, so selecting links and clicking buttons is much more intuitive than on other non-touch-screen smartphones.

Price checker

Nokia E71 specification

Operating system
S60 3.1 Edition
Processor
Unknown
System memory
NA
User memory
110Mb
Memory expansion
microSD (8Gb max)
Screen
2.36in TFT (320 x 240)
Bands
Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/2100 HSDPA
Camera
3.2mp (CMOS) + front-facing camera
Connectivity
802.11g, Blueooth 2.0, infra-red, microUSB, 2.5mm Nokia AV
Other
A-GPS, FM Tuner, media playback, Flash Lite 3 and MPEG4 playback
Quoted battery life
Talk time – GSM: 10h 30m; Standby time – GSM: 17 days; WLAN: 166 hours (1500mAh battery)
Size
114 x 57 x 10mm
Weight
127g

Comments


Comment 1
neutral
AJ 00:16 on 27 Jul 2008

You guys are biased. You write that Nokia is muscling it's way into the qwerty phone market, even though it's been making magnificent communicators for many years now, long before any other qwerty phone arrived.Furthermore, it seems to me Nokia is just now longer pre-installing the blackberry client, which does not necessarily mean there is no BB client that can be installed.You are fools to so prematurely dismiss such a cutting edge piece of technology.

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Comment 2
neutral
Julian Prokaza | registered | 58 posts 10:04 on 27 Jul 2008

Hi AJIf you can point me at a Qwerty keyboard candybar smartphone (ie like the Blackberry) that Nokia made before the E61, I'll amend the piece. Similarly, if you can explain how you can install the BB Connect software on the E71, I'll make the appropriate changes, too. -Julian

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Comment 3
neutral
A-P 11:37 on 6 Aug 2008

"So, this means that five key-presses are required to type the ?@? symbol, and seven to type an underscore"Actually, there is a @-key so it's only one key-press.. and at least for me, the underscore ended up being the first of the frequently used characters, so that's two key presses..

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Comment 4
neutral
Mystonique 08:42 on 22 Aug 2008

I have had an E71 for about a week now (before that 6110). I have never owned a crackberry but have navigated a colleagues a few times. Crackberry's a much more complicated gadget to navigate, IMO and it has fewer features. I spent a lot of hours researching devices before taking the plunge in an effort to get one that will do as much as possible, as efficiently as possible and E71 hasn't disappointed - it's a great device.

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Comment 5
neutral
Bennie 08:36 on 29 Aug 2008

You mention that only your folders appeared when you installed MS Exchange - is this a limitation on the E71 or is there a way to get folders synced too?Thanks

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Comment 6
neutral
Bennie 08:37 on 29 Aug 2008

That should have been '...only your inbox and NO folders...'

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Comment 7
neutral
Greg 23:48 on 2 Sep 2008

hi guys,Im looking at getting this mobile but I wondered, i get an e-mail that is sent to my e-mail address for my website on my laptop, is there a way that it can go to my E71 aswell? How does that all work? This will be the main reason I will be getting this mobile so your help is appreciated.Cheers

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Comment 8
neutral
Greg 23:50 on 2 Sep 2008

PS - mails go to my Outlook Express at the moment.

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Comment 9
neutral
oli 15:54 on 8 Sep 2008

hican anyone tell me where the underscore (_) is on the E71?thanks

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Comment 10
neutral
Christina Ramsand 11:45 on 10 Oct 2008

the e71 is available to preorder in the UK on [url]http://shop.nokia.co.uk[/url]

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Comment 11
neutral
dan 01:54 on 24 Oct 2008

Get one email address ie gmail and forward everything to that.

Then us the E71 email client to recieve your gmail acc.

ps its a great phone.

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Comment 12
neutral
Peter 02:30 on 29 Oct 2008

I just got myself an E71 and for the most part I love it. What annoys me is the lack of multilingual support. What is the use of a Japanese dictionary, when the E71 can't even display the Japanese characters? I browse websites of several different languages, and it would be nice if the browser could display those characters.My own web searching has indicated that I just need to change the default font to a unicode supporting one, but as yet I've found no way to do that. Any ideas?

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Comment 13
neutral
Jacqueline 08:39 on 3 Nov 2008

Hi Am asloUsing the Nokia E71 & am not able to find the (_)Key.Can Anyone out there tell me.

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Comment 14
neutral
Mathew 17:37 on 4 Nov 2008

Press Ctrl/Chr. Its the first selection on the list.

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Comment 15
neutral
Dee 21:49 on 9 Nov 2008

I love the look of this but I'm just a regular phone user but want a QWERTY keyboard - WHY are these always designed towards business users therefore making the phones and price plans really expensive?Would I be nuts to get this phone if not using for business purposes and if so PLEASE can anyone tell me if there IS a mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard for us non-business users out there? Thanks

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Comment 16
happy
Dee 11:41 on 6 Jan 2010

Even i don't know, please mail me when you come to know.

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Comment 17
neutral
govpok 12:19 on 28 Jan 2010

What key is the underscore ( _ ) on a Nokia N63 phone? Ctrl/chr doesnot have underscore(_).

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