Nokia E71 vs. BlackBerry Bold: the QWERTYs rip each other to shreds
In the latest chapter of “response to the onslaught of reader’s requests,” we’ve decided to put the Nokia E71 and the BlackBerry Bold head-to-head. While both are totally different breeds of devices, they do share a number of similarities and are targeted to the same demographic. You’ve got two enterprise handsets with QWERTY keyboards, cameras, Wi-Fi, 3G, corporate email, great battery life, etc. Click on through to see which device wins out in this epic showdown of QWERTY gone violent.
We used some of the information from our Bold vs. iPhone post since in most cases it was exactly the same.
Design
BlackBerry Bold:
Some could agree the Bold is the sharpest and cleanest-looking BlackBerry ever to come out of Waterloo. With a complete black face, chrome border and sides, and faux black leather back, the device looks great. From all the matching chrome accents all over the phone to the simple and not confusing layout, RIM has designed a great BlackBerry which should set the bar for future devices down the road.
Nokia E71: Nokia, Nokia, Nokia…aw, who are we kidding? The E71 is one of the nicest designs to have come out of Espoo as of late. With a real metal structure (read: plastic BlackBerry Bold), great materials, and some pretty slick engineering, the E71 looks awesome. Well, except for the vicious red power button. Totally ruined it for us, Noke.
Build quality
BlackBerry Bold:
The BlackBerry Bold is built extremely well. Not including minor screen scratches and things of that nature, the Bold should be able to last you as long as you want to keep the thing. The unit is a little lighter than it looks and there no creaks or anything to get you worried about. The only negative thing we’d have to say, it that the build quality on the BlackBerry Curve slightly trumps the Bold. We’d ever go as far to say that the 8800 does too. But not the Pearl. Hell no.
Nokia E71: Again, Nokia hits it out of the park. Nokias have great build quality for the most part across the board, as do BlackBerrys, but the E71 is built like an absolute tank. Literally. We don’t think we could break this thing if we tried.
Size
The Bold is the biggest BlackBerry to be released in a pretty long time. Well, since the 8700. It is larger in every way than the BlackBerry 8800 and can sometimes feel a little hard to hold in one hand. It’s definitely no Curve. Comparing it the E71, the E71 feels much better when holding it, but since the Bold’s keyboard makes use of the larger size, we’re going to call this one a tie because of the pretty comfy Bold QWERTY.
Nokia E71: If you had to shrink 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, a camera, physical QWERTY keyboard, and other components into the smallest package possible, what would get? Most likely an E71. We don’t think the device could be any smaller, though the small size does hinder the QWERTY keyboard slightly. Everything else is well balanced, and it makes the Bold seem like this huge Dark Knight hovering over it, jealous it can’t shed a couple inches on its waistline.
Screen:
We’re sticking to the “BlackBerry Bold’s screen is the best. mobile. device. screen. ever.” line. Sorry, Nokia, but the E71s screen as decent as it is, can not hold a candle to the Bolds rich, sharp, and spaceous display.
OS
BlackBerry Bold:
This is a tricky and sensitive subject for a lot of people. Many of us live and die by the BlackBerry OS. Some could say we even know it better than we know some of our significant others… But therein lies the problem. While RIM has been on a mission to revamp the BlackBerry from the old school “pager” into an all-in-one communications device for consumers and business alike, we can’t help but wonder when the OS will get a real makeover. Not a Mariah Carey cover page airbrushed makeover, more like a Carnie Wilson 300lbs to 150lbs makeover. But, we do have to say that RIM has a great thing going. The BlackBerry minions have figured out every single tip and trick there is to squeeze every ounce of usability out the operating system, and for a lot of people, the OS is fine. It does what it is supposed to, and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just that the market has changed so drastically in the last year and half. People want to be connected more, they want to do more while doing less.
Nokia E71: S60, huh? We’d have really liked to see FP2 make it to the E71 out of the gate. Anyone that’s not a current Nokia user might have a bit of trouble dealing with access points, configuring their email, and getting around. This is a tricky subject as there are no doubt some die-hard Nokia fans, but we’d so S60 is showing its age a lot at this current point in time, just as RIM’s OS. What you do get with S60, however, is a ton of great 3rd party applications. We think you’d hard pressed to find more than 10-15 useful applications for the BlackBerry platform, whereas you have thousands for S60.
Call quality / RF performance
This has been explored before, but we find the Nokia E71 to be one of the worst performing Nokia handsets in the RF department. That compared to the outstanding reception on the Bold leaves us without too much faith that the E71 will be able to handle our daily usage in low signal areas. In terms of call quality, the Bold did a much better job at delivering us a clear and loud call, while the E71 often garbled our voice to the party on the other end. Speakerphone was the same with the Bold performing better than the E71.
Battery life
You’d be surprised, but we’ve found the Bold and E71 to go toe for toe in our battery tests. They both last longer than any other 3G device we’ve used, but to be fair, since the E71 isn’t the best RF signal holder, the Bold was on 3G more than the E71, and the E71 was rarely on Wi-Fi. We say the Bold inches out the E71 in the battery department.
BlackBerry Bold:
Listen, you can’t throw around the word “BlackBerry” without thinking about email. That’s RIM bread and butter, and we don’t see that changing for a very long time. There are probably 500 competitors vying for the title of “Best. Email. Ever.”, but they’re not coming close anytime soon. While Windows Mobile offers some of the same feature-set, there is nothing like using a BlackBerry for email. From changing your out of office message, to configuring email filters on the go (what, you think we actually get all 6,000 comments from our iPhone 3G giveaway post on our BlackBerry?), to remote searching (awesome!), RIM has perfected email on the BlackBerry for the most part. When new features like full attachment viewing and HTML get introduced, though, it gets a little murky. Instead of viewing attachments natively off the bat on your BlackBerry, RIM’s data network will compress and send you what you need bit by bit. There is also a clear separation between RIM’s BES services and BIS services, and they are totally unnecessary. There is no reason we should have the ability to view HTML on BIS, but not on BES yet (unless you hacked that in), and there is no reason file type support is so convoluted. For instance, we can listen to our voicemail MP3s on our BIS email, but not on BES because even the latest BES service pack still doesn’t support the encoding used in our MP3s. Things like this really confuse users and there’s no reason for it. BIS features should mirror BES features as much as possible and be upgraded at the same time. If we have to email an attachment from our BES to one of our BIS email accounts one more time…
Nokia E71: Email is email for Nokia. There’s no HTML support, there’s really not a lot of configurable options when using an Exchange server, and the email application isn’t the most reliable thing under the sun in general. As far as comparing it to email on a BlackBerry… well, we won’t even go there. It would take a couple more days to list all the issues and inconsistencies with Nokia’s default email application. We’re not saying it’s terrible, it is definitely usable, but it’s not something we’d like to use. Get it?
Keyboard
Another tricky subject. You’ve got the Bold which mashes up the Curve, the Pearl, and the 8800’s keyboard, and you’ve got the E71 which takes its cues from the E61i. If we could fault the E71’s keyboard, it would be that it is a little too small to use 100% comfortably. We’d also point out the stupidity of their keyboard layout once again. Get it through your heads, the “Z” key NEVER goes directly under the “A” key. That’s not how it’s done, boys. The keyboard does give you a nice response when pushed, and the keys are a bit on the hard side, but that actually works well on the phone. With the Bold, we find ourselves banging away emails like we’ve always done — that’s great. RIM didn’t mess with success here.
Corporate usage
BlackBerry Bold:
RIM has made the BlackBerry the hands-down winner for a perfect desktop extension. Pretty much whatever you can do from Outlook on your Exchange server, you can do from your BlackBerry. In addition to looking at the device specifically, RIM’s BES server offers the now standard way of managing, controlling, and deploying devices across a corporate infrastructure. Their BES servers allow IT admins to tweak and configure every possible setting, making this is the ideal solution for mid-to-large businesses and government agencies. RIM’s focus on security also make the BlackBerry the most secure device on the planet to use in a corporate environment.
Nokia E71: And dropped BlackBerry Connect again why? Not a good idea, guys. At least as far as the U.S. market is concerned. You had a device which would have been bought by the pound and used by a lot of corporate executives along with their BES, giving them an opportunity to venture outside of the immediate BlackBerry world. You now have to deal with people buying devices personally for the most part, and at + / – $500 with no discount for corporate volume purchases, it’s going to be a tough sell. Especially considering MailForExchange’s shortcomings.
Pricing:
BlackBerry Bold: The Bold’s pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’s going to be in the $199-$299 price range with a two-year agreement. Or three if you’re unlucky to be a slave to Ted Rogers.
Nokia E71: The E71 is priced at $499 at Nokia stores directly, but you most likely can find it for around $420-$475 depending where you shop.
Conclusion:
It’s a little hard to put this but… we absolutely loved the Nokia E71. It was the best S60 we’d ever used. And it still is, some would argue. There is no doubt it is the finest QWERTY device Nokia has made. Don’t bring up the E90, ok? Even though we had used a Bold prior to our Nokia E71 first review, it wasn’t until we had both devices together that we really had our mind change. This is a personal opinion here, but the BlackBerry Bold smokes the E71 out of the water in so many ways. The E71 is fine as a personal communication device, but once you enter into the realm of corporate email, or even small business, for that matter, the Bold is the reigning king, and will stay that way for a pretty long time.
the E71 DO support HTML email in fact I set up 2 yahoo mail account on my e71 painlessly without any problems, I don’t know about hotmail or gmail since I don’t use them but I imagine the result would be the samj
Looking at the numerous blogs and forum messages on the nokia e71’s lack of blackberry support but alternative pushmail services and comparing to the bold, I thought the experience below will help some of you wondering what to do.
I used to own the E61i and finally made the switch into the bold and the e71. I had bought the 2 phones because the latter was so cool in design that I had to get it despite the fact that I avoided it initially because of lack of BB support. After using the 2 for about a week, these are my experiences:
Design
The Bold is nothing revolutionary in design altough it has the best screen I have ever seen, the 3G is quick, the bluetooth is finally stereo unlike the e61i. Compared to the e61i which had BB support, the bold is a very small upgrade. I had traded a lesser pixel camera (e61i had higher pixel) for a stereo bluetooth (which comes in handy for mp3 listening).
The e71 is of course in a class of its own, it is really really cool. So cool, I had to get it despite not really using it because of lack of blackberry pushmail
Pushmail
Despite the presence of email.nokia.com’s own pushmail, seven, consilient and others (I cannot remember the name but I did try almost all of them), they are still no match for blackberry. The 2 areas seriously lacking are: (a) the non BB pushmail (are more like pull mail) saps battery like nothing because they constantly had to “dial” into the gmails etc to pull mail down. This does not happen at all for the BB even though BB checks every minute or so. (If this alone does not faze you, then stick with seven as it is the best of lot for dependability although it saps battery the most.)
(b) more problematic (which I am surprised not many have highighted this problem) is that because I tend to travel alot, the BB alternatives will really run up your roaming costs because just to get email, they have to connect to pull mail. BB just receives. So, at the end of the day, without blackberry pushmail and since I travel overseas alot, it just could not do, therefore the bold wins out over the e71.
Since the e71 does not support BB, the nearest competitor to the bold is still the e61i. I have reluctantly given my e61i to my brother, I hope I dont regret it trading for the bold. After 1 week, the nokia e61i feels much more solid as the BB had to self reboot a couple of times already. However pushmail definitely arrives faster on the bold than the e61i with BB support.
Ranking
Design – e71, bold, e61i
Pushmail – bold, e61i. Forget about the e71 even with the pushmail lookalikes.
Application Speed – bold and e71 tied, e61i
Battery Life – if no email, then e71, e61i, bold, with pushmail, e61i, bold, e71
Mp3 via bluetooth – e71, bold. forget about e61i which has no stereo
Camera – e71, e61i, bold (latter is only 2meg)
end
i love my nokia e71. i prefer it especially since im using it with nokia intellisync, which i guess puts this on the same level as blackberry email features.
I’m so caught between these 2 devices, so much that I am almost going to base my decision on the one that supports Agendus PIM because my next smartphone is gonna replace my Palm PDA (and I am so reliant on the Agendus application) as well as my mobile. I am crazy about Agendus because it simply sorts calendar and contacts nicely, even linking birthdays from contacts to calandar. Someone please help!
Their not bringing the Bold to the USA its in 13 other country’s. Just check out the Blackberry website. Besides I kinda like the Nokia better. only the 3.2 megapixel shoots blurry pics.
really? something might be wrong with you camera since mine shoots perfectly. just got mytouch last night and returned it las night too after seeing its video capture and camera didn’t even came close to E71’s.
I’ll get the BB9700 soon and compare it w/ E71. thing is, E72’s coming out…
Good job! I’ve made up my mind. Despite being used to Nokia phones, my next cell will be a BB Bold. Thanks!
great bgr
nice comparison
and still after reading this i found blackberry bold more cool
but i think the cost u mentioned is not updated……….
Thank you very much!!! Posted this ‘Dilemma’ over at crackberry.com (http://crackberry.com/blackberry-9000-smartphone-hands-review?page=2). No reaction so far. I even emailed RIM and got a real lame answer. In spite of all that I’m moving slowly over (back) to the BOLD..
. Once again thanks for helping people like me who cant decide.. 
.
that’s a pretty mad review. i work for a phone company and customers ask me the difference. now i know what tot tell them. haha. i’ll never be lost for words no more.
I have just received my new E71 and it is broken, there are so many buttons that just are not working…Dont get me wrong I love the phone, its small, sassy and the internet is quite fast however, my email is more not working then it is working, my voice mail messages are for some reason delivered to my email together with voice recording attachment? Why – no one can explan…
I love the phone so will give it one more try and change it tomorrow, and if that does not work will try Bold….
Anyone having RF/reception problems w/ their E71? (E71-2, U.S. version)? If not, what build do you have? I read that possibly build 37/2008 and later addressed the reception issues?
Except the E71 breaks down after 6 weeks and is unusable!
L
Another brilliant comparison! ..
Hi,
Can any 1 help me as I bought a Nokia from Nokia in Heathrow Terminal 5 ,sim free.
Salesman advised me there that I could use this as receiving emails like Blackberry!
I just found out that it is imposib can anyone adv me if there is download available?
I have owned both now use the E71 for day to day use, slim design is good for me, fed up with carting around bulky phones,battery life on the E71 is good.
Been a BB user for 6 yrs and got a E71 given by our IT dept. Great little machune, very well build and fits nicely in any pocket. Type area is small but workable.
On both email (readability/lay out) and calendar (cant see other attendees in meeting requests/cant cancel meetings etc etc) nokia can not compete with BB. As I am living of this thing the Nokia is not sufficient. Will now move back to a BB bold.
Ashame, I like the looks, size and battery life but functionality is just not good enough at this stage
Let me start by stating I have been in this industry for 20+ years. I was the first person on the plant to market the Blackberry 950(Mobitex) platform. I love blackberry for may applications. Voice,reception quality and restrictive OS are the two issues that stand out most with The RIM product.
I now have a Bold, an N95-8gb an e61i and wating to receive the e71 from ROGERS.
1) Nokia has the reception quality for the GSM market -HANDS DOWN.
2) Nokia also has exceptional Battery maintenence on their products.
3)RIM is the master for CORPORATE SECURITY(BES)
4)RIM 3.2MB Camera is disappointing for print quality images and stability.
4) Way more apps for bus and fun on Symbian platform.
5) Data plans are way cheaper(on Rogers) for Nokia vs Blackberry.
Conclusion, if you don’t need Corporate email, PIN technology, then either units are strong performers. If you want a great mix of Media, Qwerty, and Advanced technology then E71/N958gb are the tickets..
In otherwords, if your a self-employed media/technology geek you’ll love the Nokia products and never miss RIM at all. If your boss needs you on a supervised leash, the Blackberry is the way to go. BGR I am watching your report closely and have nothing but a positive inspiration for your jounalism.
BIGWYLIE
thats a good review but iv owned the bold and now have the e71 and it is so much better and more user friendly!! i dont understand what the review about the email is about because its absolutly fine but your the experts!! and the other good thing about the e71 is you can change modes so its like having two phones and you can get away from the business side of the phone!!
thnx 4 d comparison guys !!! i wl still go wd e71 ! its mch much classier !!!!!!!!!!!!
im confused with your conclusion. what was the pick?
Have th e71 now for 6 mnth, moving back to BB
E71 best in size in looks, great for leasure mail use (advanced texting), calendar particularly weak, go BB if you need profesional portable mail and calendar
UPDATE: FROM DECEMBER RESPONSE
Okay, I have had the E71 for two weeks straight.
There is no way I would ever go back to the BB BOLD.
REASONS:
1) Battery sucks… I mean Really sucks!!
2) Camera is totally useless.Blurry and limited function, settings.
3) WiFi totally messed up. Always sets to 3G even if you are in oyour WiFi zones? NOTED PPROBLEM FAQ from Rogers. Tech Support.
4) Giant 4 tons of weight! you would expect the battery to last a month!
I would only retun to a Bold if a corporate employer wanted me on a BES Server.
NOKIA E71… What a classy device!!!
I had no trouble at all with the Push Email set up.
Battery is amazing.
I was worried about the tiny keyboard, not anymore. After about 30 minutes of setup time iI felt very comfortable with the Small QWERTY template. The keys are rounded so the type accuracy is even better than expected. (only negative [0] is an odd funny key location?
Push email is fine.
I do agree that some calendar settings and font settings could be improved.
My verdict is in…Nokia e71 is by far a way better consumer level QWERTY device.
Way more fun and apps are great.
Now if Nokia could only develop a APP Store like the iPhone? that would be utopia.
Camera is great. Hmmn- sames 3.2 as a bold but the pics are real pics!!!! Not blurry and slow flash like the BB Bold.
i think this report was biased. What about office software, zip application, fm radio, internet radio, 3g and 3.5hspda speeds truly on the nokia e71 when bold roams back from gsm up to 3g. WHAT about the slew of apps from the nokia catalog what about streaming video without choppiness. Give me a break with blackberry Look if you want a multifunctial true 3g device go with the E71 but if your looking for an email device with a nice screen which all blackberry’s are then go with the bold. I repeat blackberry’s are only email devices period. I will give them that but otherwise they need to catch up to Nokia’s multifunctial devices
Iphone iphone iphone…I had one and got rid of it the next week…Iphone is a 400.00 dollar ipod..No MMS ? Come on you would think apple would make a phone that can send and receive pics without typing in two lengthy passwords on some websight then wait days to get the pic. E71 all the way….But then I got the Bold 9000 too…
Both great phones, but I would choose the E71 for the simple fact that I wont have to take it in after a month to get the roller ball fixed.