Nokia E71 review
So there’s this phone called the Nokia E71. It magically showed up on our doorstep yesterday (shout out to FedEx Sameday!) and was begging for us to review it. Well, we’re not going to disappoint you. In fact, there will be no disappointment at all as you’ll see in our review. The Nokia E71 has officially entered the ring, and it’s coming out fighting. Spoiler Alert: we love this phone. Full review is after the break!
Design:
Obviously this is subjective, but this could really be one of the sexiest damn phones we’ve seen in a very long time. We could do without the tacky pattern on the back battery cover, but we’ll let it slide this time. The entire phone is chrome and while it’s definitely a fingerprint magnet (just have your assistant wipe it down for you) it looks really sharp in person. Everything is proportionate and sort of just works well together. The middle select key actually serves as the notification light, too. So when you have a missed event, the border around the middle key will glow white until you cleared the event, or until the expiration time you set for the notification light expires. It’s a nice touch and a creative way to get rid of the annoying older-fashioned status light. Oh yeah…did we mention this thing is thin? Seriously, we don’t know how they did it. Especially with everything that’s packed in here…man, that BlackBerry Bold is just huge compared to this. Everyone is going to have to step it up after this because as of now, we can’t find one single thing Nokia sacrificed to make the device this thin and compact.
Screen:
There’s a 320×240 screen on the E71 and it looks very sharp. It’s not as bright as the N95, but it’s very clear and easy on the eyes. Screen real estate isn’t a problem at all as we find it more pleasurable to use than an N95. Pictures and video look very detailed and clean. There’s a decent amount of contrast when looking at media, and you’ll especially appreciate the screen during some heavy web browsing.
Connectivity:
The world must be changing. Remember when Nokia would hold every single feature above your head and never give you the perfect phone? Well, we’re finally getting past that. We’re not positive if there’s support for the 2100MHz band here, so for now, we’ll assume it doesn’t have it and there will be a US NAM model, and European model. In terms of the hard connectivity specs, you’ve got a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone with 850MHz/1900MHz UMTS/HSDPA support, Wi-Fi 802.11 a,b,g, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS. Like most recent Nokia’s, the GPS is assisted by the network, but fret not because there still is a physical GPS chip in here.
Sound:
Like the E61 and E61i before it, the E71 houses a single speaker in the upper left of the phone. It seems louder than the E61 and it’s pretty clear for ringtones and alert sounds. Music sounds fine on it, but it’s not perfect. Bass is seriously lacking and you do get a “tinny” sort of sound. It is very, very loud, though, so you can be sure that alarm is going to get your ass out of bed in the morning.
Email:
What good would an E-Series device be without email? Besides the normal POP3/IMAP supported protocols, Nokia’s Mail For Exchange comes with the device out of the box and is incredibly easy to setup. The handset supports BlackBerry Connect (though we didn’t actually try it) and we’d imagine Goodlink as well. The messaging application had a little bit of a visual makeover, and it’s for the better. Text is extremely readable and emails look great. We’d have loved to see support for HTML email, but oh well.
Keyboard:
If there had to be one negative to the E71 (relax, it’s not the end of the world) it’s going to be the keyboard. Again, not a huge deal, but if we had to pick one thing to single out it’s the keyboard and it quite possibly won’t bother you. It did annoy us, though. Think of the physical keys on the E71 the same as the E61, just a lot smaller. They’re also not as squishy which is nice, and they’re pretty easy to press once you get it down. Our issue is, again, Nokia has not learned the basic keyboard layout and we personally can’t stand it. On a normal QWERTY keyboard the letter “z” is not directly under the letter “a”. It’s either under the letter “s” or somewhere in between the two. This makes typing a royal bitch if you’re not looking directly at the keyboard and is totally unnecessary. All they had to do is stick the damn period key in front of the “z” key and all would be well. Again, this might not be a big deal to you if you’re coming from a QWERTY E-Series already, but for us hardcore freaks who bang away constantly on the keyboard, we’d like the normal layout that’s used on basically every other QWERTY phone on the planet. Fix it please, Nokia. The keys have a nice white backlighting which makes them very easy to read. Just like the other models, the actual keys don’t light up, just the letters and symbols which makes for a very clean and sexy look.
Something also interesting is the inclusion of predictive text on here. You might be thinking why you’d ever need predictive text when you’ve got a QWERTY keyboard, but it actually helps more than it gets in the way. It sort of works like how the iPhone does. If you’re typing fast and accidentally misspell a word but keep typing and hit the space bar, it will auto correct and suggest that word for you. It can also save you a good amount of typing time as it will suggest words for you when you are halfway through them and a simple press of the space bar selects the suggested word and keeps you moving.
Expandability:
There’s a microSD card slot right above the microUSB port on the handset, so you should be able to expand the memory of the phone to the largest microSD card you can find. We haven’t checked data transfer speeds to the memory card over USB yet, but we’re assuming it’s on par with the rest of the Nokias.
Call quality:
Nokia and call quality go together like ham and burger. Kool-Aid and sugar. The E71 doesn’t disappoint. We’ve had such a pleasurable experience with it that we’ve been calling people randomly just to talk on the phone. In all seriousness, it meets or exceeds what we’ve come to expect and love from Nokia. A phone that excels as a phone, as it should. It actually went toe-to-toe with our BlackBerry Curve in terms of holding onto a signal in low coverage areas. And all you BlackBerry lovers out there know that RIM makes one hell of a cell radio in those things.
Battery:
There’s a 1500mAh battery in the E71, and with a full day of heavy use like constant email, phone calls, web browsing, and all around messing with the phone, we’ve still got around 2 bars left. There should be no concern with the battery life here.
Conclusion:
We’re at the end of the review, but by now, you’ve seen how impressed we are with the phone. It takes a lot to get us excited but the E71 has done it. This thing, in our opinion, is the best phone Nokia has made to date. That’s a very bold statement, we know. But this really is going to be the phone to beat by a lot of manufacturers. From the design, to the specs, to the size, the feel — it has the entire package. It’s not for everyone, though. Some people prefer a straight up phone like a flip phone, but in terms of a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard, this takes the cake. It is just striking compared to the shit device the E61 was. It’s ok, we still love y’all that carry the E61, but this puts it to shame. One thing I personally can’t get over is the awesome dimensions of the device. It’s so perfectly thin, yet incredibly comfortable to hold and use. We just hope Nokia doesn’t wait too long to bring this to market as they need to strike now. Like right now. This second. After seeing all of the detailed shots and our impressions, how do you guys feel about the phone? Are you foaming at the mouth waiting for it or ice-grillin’ us?
>>Handset speaker (not loudspeaker) limited volume issue fixed?>>
Does anyone know if this issue is fixed??
I just bought this elegant phone but the photo edit option is not to be found anywhere. Can someone help?
does any one know if it will sync with a mac? all the stuff i need are in my mac laptop. its the only thing that’s keeping me from getting the e71. thanks in advance to your prompt reply, BG!
Odee, yes, it will work just fine with Mac. iSync plug in is available directly from Nokia (free) so your contacts, calendars will all move over and sync fine. Nokia also give you Multimedia Transfer for the Mac, which will let you sync content with iTunes (no DRM music though) and iPhoto. All this can be done over bluetooth or with the included cable. If you want to spend money on a solution, Missing Sync for Symbian is available from http://www.markspace.com and I believe has a few additional tricks up its sleeve.
@ Tournstone, thanks so much!
Can the E71 run more than one application at the same time like the E65
Only one word comes to mind. AWESOME!
it got 3.2 megapixel camera with flash!!..
I have a nokia e71 but if i put a video (MP4) the video lag. I also have a nokia e65 nice phone and the same (mp4) playes nice on it. Please help….
Thank you for this. My provider won’t have the phone here in the UK until the end of this month – if then if the introduction on the E90 in 07 is anything to go by, and the dummies in the Carphone Warehouse don’t really cut it. I love my E90, a very useful anti-mugger device if you can’t find a brick, but the screen light on email is deficient, I am hoping that the E71 is a step up from that. Early comments about the qwerty keyboard: it’s the same layout – albeit much smaller – as the E90 and that has never given me any trouble, nor did my E61 that preceded it.
Hey, I must like Nokias?
I made a comment about a month ago and still haven’t bought this phone because I’m so indecisive that it hurts my brain, literally.
I come back to this phone and thank the person who said it does sync with Macs – thank you!
My other question is, does it support flash? Am I able to watch youtube on it if I wanted to?
Thank you in advance to who answers my questions!!!
This is a good phone, but two issues
The battery does not last as long as my previous Nokia N95. I have switched email sync to manual, off with the bluetooth but still battery hungry. I note the battery going down overnight when phone not in use. N95 did not do that.
Also, the phone gets very warm, almost hot when used and at times I note it is war even when not in use!!
Otherwise a good phone.
Hubby just bought this phone for me and I’m normally your simple Sony Erikson p990i kind of girl so I was afraid that this another posy phone with not much to say for itself. But was I wrong. I immediately fell in love with the maps (although it’s a pity there is no map for Africa!), the speed of the internet, the sound sharp and loud. I agree with the reviewer – with so much packed in but yet it is compact, with a great gun-metal colour and a place to put all those oily finger prints. All I can say is that I’m glad I got it!
My E71 turns itself off when it feels like it!! does anyone else have this problem??
Supplier changed my E71 for a new one, works well now. No heating of the phone and the battery lasts much longer. Also the camera is now in focus! Original was a dud one.
Any one having problems, heating, battery or switching…. get it changed by supplier.
I have been wanting the Blackberry Bold for the longest, but it hasn’t been released yet in the states and I’m tired of waiting for it to be released, so I came across this phone today at BestBuy and fell in love with it instantly!!! My sister and I each ordered one today for a good price for an unlocked phone, so we will be using this phone in several days!! I hope that it is as good as it sounds!!
Excellent phone so far !!! Using E71 since July 2008, excellent use of e-mail an web, very fast phone, almost 3,500 contacts, 8 gb memory card and still the phone is very fast.
Not any restrart or bug until now.
Perfect choice to replace the Curve as I did.
Battery life approx 3 days with hard use inlcuding use of WiFi. Very reliable phone and highly recommended.
hi everybody , no much more good , mostly am using to listerning music , no powerfull, sorry do it yourself.
ppl please help
nokia N95 G8 or nokia E71 ??
just picked it up..
brilliant device..it will be a shame to call it a phone.
has EVERYTHING…@momchil- incl Radio.. Performs BRILLIANTLY.
It is quite unbelievable really that this neat package has so much!
go for it..!
You write:
We’re not positive if there’s support for the 2100MHz band here, so for now, we’ll assume it doesn’t have it and there will be a US NAM model, and European model.
What does this mean?
Will a Nokia I buy in the US work in europe?
Does the E71 work with Tmobile 3G, US of course. thanks!
i have had 3 in the last month, all with same problem, software issues, freezes all the time, i work in a phone store and have been for 3 yrs, the amount of problems with it, and the company recognizes this problem. i would not get the Nokia E71 with all the software issues they have had and the amount i have seen come back. arghh so frustrating, i want the blackberry bold. much better
1.can I use push mail
2.skype on the e 71
3.can I make folders for e-mail
I had the Bold and that too did not work. The Bold was crashing and dropping all in and outbound calls as well. The trackball had stopped working after a week. I could only scroll down- not up. It was the worst phone (BB BOLD) compared to any device I have ever used. I am currently still using a N9300 that has been accidentally stepped on, dropped and had other various things done to it over the past three years and it still works perfectly. The Bold, I dropped it while getting out of my truck on dirt, and the edge was all scratched to hell from one drop onto soft dirt. I don’t think the Bold is built well at all- not compared to my old Nokia at least.