Nokia E71

release date: July 2008
colours:
 
black
 
silver
Nokia E71

RATING

4.5 stars

Pros

  • 3G and HSDPA
  • GPS
  • QWERTY keyboard
  • Wi-Fi
  • Battery life

Cons

  • Camera

SUMMARY

Thin Symbian OS 9.2 smartphone with 2.4-inch screen, QWERTY keyboard, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, A-GPS and Nokia's Mail for Exchange. Good value handset.

Review

Nokia say the Nokia E71 is the "slimmest QWERTY keyboard smartphone". It is the thinnest at just 10 mm. The E71 comes joint 4th in our database of thinnest mobile phones.

PROS: The E71 business phone has most of the required features - EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, quad-band, WLAN (Wi-Fi), assisted GPS with Nokia Maps 2.0, Symbian OS 9.2, Nokia S60 Web browser, QuickOffice 4- Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe PDF, Zip Mail for Exchange Client, Push Email, FM radio, visual radio, Push-To-Talk, Bluetooth and a QWERTY keyboard. It's even got infrared. Who uses infrared nowadays?

The battery life is excellent. The E71 uses a BP-4L Li-Po 3.7V 1500 mAh battery. 10.5 hours 2G talk time. 18 hours music playback and 4 hours GPS usage before you have to recharge.

The 369 Mhz ARM processor gives excellent performance too, few lags when navigating between screens. There's 256 MB NAND memory and 128 MB SDRAM, 71 MB free executable RAM.

CONS: The 2.4-inch screen might not be to your liking. Having used an iPhone for a while, reverting back to a small screen seems a step backwards. The 320 x 240 (QVGA) resolution is OK for most tasks, although browsing the Web, whilst benefiting from a wider screen, is still a far less enjoyable experience than you'd get on a bigger screen.

The 3.2 MP camera is mediocre and other features such as the music player are basic. Being a business phone, this won't concern most potential buyers.

Design

The Nokia E71 is available in 2 colours - black or silver. It's very thin. 10 mm. 57 mm wide - needs to fit the QWERTY keyboard and weighs in at 127 g - average weight for a smartphone. Sides and back are stainless steel.

Quick tour

Top: Power button, speaker (good, for a phone).

Left: microUSB port.

Right: Volume rocker, voice record button, 2.5 mm audio jack.

Back: Patterned-metal. 3.2 MP camera with LED.

Front: 2.4-inch QVGA screen. Decent. Beneath the screen are 4 handy shortcut keys: home, calendar, contacts and messages. They're easy to press.

QWERTY keyboard: Good separation and easy to press for a phone of this style. We prefer the wider slide out QWERTY keyboards - bigger keys. Fat-fingered people might want to get a hands-on with this phone prior to buying.

Nokia E71 QWERTY

Features

2 Customisable Home Screen Modes

Switch home screens from business to personal. Switch between the two, if you can be bothered. Gimmicky and unnecessary.

3.2 MP camera

Image quality is subjective - it's a 3.2 MP camera with no Xenon flash. One man's wow is another man's cow. Poor low light shots. Photography isn't the focus of this camera, so expect a less than stellar performance. The camera does have plenty of S60 features - 2048 x 1536 pixels (3.2 MP) camera, digital zoom, 3.8 mm focal length, 10cm to infinity focus range, LED flash, white balance, flash modes, photo geotagging, capture modes, scene modes, colour tone modes, image and photo editor, and share your photos on Ovi.

The camcorder shoots 320 x 240 (QVGA) video up to 15 fps.

Nokia E71 Camera

microSD Memory Card Slot

Nokia say it supports up to an 8 GB card. You can probably use a 16 or 32 GB card. We don't know if there will be any problems if you do this.

Web Browsing

3G, HSDPA and Wi-Fi. Connectivity is good. The wide screen gives a better Internet browsing experience. You see more of the page without having to scroll. Pages can appear quickly within a 3G or 3.5G coverage area. Alternatively, use Wi-Fi.

Nokia Maps 2.0 and GPS

Use the pre-installed Nokia maps to navigate. A-GPS pinpoints your position. You can sign up for voice navigation. Walk around streets gawking at your Nokia maps.

Summary

Looks good. Lots of features. The ideal business phone. Wi-Fi, 3G, HSDPA, GPS, QWERTY keyboard, Symbian OS, 3.2 MP camera - all yours for less than £290 SIM-free (at launch) or get it for free on a pay-monthly mobile phone contract.

Features / Specifications

* confirm features at manufacturer's Web site.

Release Date
July 2008
Size
114.0 x 57.0 x 10.0 mm
4.5 x 2.2 x 0.4 inches
Weight
127 g
4.5 oz
Colours
 
black
 
silver
Screen
  • 2.4-inch TFT
  • 320x240 pixels
  • 16000000 colours
Memory
  • 110 MB phone memory
  • microSD memory card (8 GB max)
Networks
  • Quad-band (GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)
  • EDGE
  • 3G (UMTS 2100 Mhz)
  • HSDPA (Max: 3.6 Mbps)
Battery Life
  • Talk time: 10.5 hours
  • Standby time: 402 hours
  • 3G talk time: 4.5 hours
  • 3G standby time: 480 hours
OS
Symbian OS 9.2, S60 3.1 Edition, Eseries

In The Box

Nokia E71, Nokia BP-4L battery (1500 mAh), charger, connectivity cable, headset, ESeries lanyard, Eseries Pouch, user guide, quick start guide, documentation, 2 GB microSD memory card

Connectivity

  • Wi-Fi
  • GPS
  • Infrared
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • USB 2.0
  • Video calling

Camera

  • 3.2 MP Camera

  • features: 2048 x 1536 pixels, CMOS sensor, auto-focus, digital zoom, 3.8mm focal length, macro mode, LED flash, flash modes, white balance, exposure compensation, capture modes, scene modes, viewfinder, active toolbar, share photos with Share on Ovi

  • QVGA video resolution
  • 15 FPS video capture
  • 0.1 MP front camera

Messaging

  • SMS, MMS
  • Push Email
  • Hardware QWERTY

Entertainment

  • FM radio
  • Visual Radio
  • Music Player
  • Video Player

Internet

  • Nokia Web browser
  • RSS Reader

Installed Applications

  • Nokia Maps
  • Document viewer
  • PIM: Advanced contacts database, clock, assign images to contacts, alarm clock, reminders, calculator, calendar, converter, active notes, to-do list,
  • Voice commands, voice recorder, voice dialling, text -to-speech

Prices

Prices coming soon.