My Nokia e71 review by an ex-iPhoner
About 6 months ago, when I needed to change my first gen iPhone, I was wondering if I should get the iPhone 3g or something else.
Bothered with all the annoyances and limitations of the iPhone OS, and being a gadget geek, I started looking for some other phone to blow the iPhone away. At the time the G1 was launching, the Blackberry Storm was a rumor, and the E71 was only sold unlocked in the US.
The contestants were the Nokia E71, the Blackberry Curve and the HTC Google G1. The latter two were cheaper but the Nokia was supposedly much better.
There was a deal at around $250 and I got it, so after 6 months I can now tell you what it means for me having a Nokia after owning an iPhone:
On the plus side:
- I love the form factor and keyboard. It is small but I can type very fast on it.
- By being unlocked I don’t have any nonsense limitations. It has a browser with Flash, copy and paste (which I don’t use that much), stereo bluetooth, background processing, etc. I can watch hulu while downloading my email and listening it on my wireless headset.
- It has expandable storage. There is a microsd slot on the side which is great since you can exchange it (I got an 8gb one and never taken out).
- It is very fast on the processing time so menus and apps open quickly.
On the negative side:
- This phone is UI / App hell. Everyday usage is horrible. If you want to connect to get the movie times you need to do 100 clicks telling which connection you want to use each time.
The messaging app has never properly worked for me. At any given time it will stop retrieving messages and I would be out of email for a huge amount of time.
- The OVI Store is not working yet. It is launched but it is not working for me. Not even my login is working.
- Apps for Symbian are horrible. I think app developers for symbian got used to a hideous interface so all the apps have 90’s aesthetics. The iPhone apps are much more pleasant to use.
- It has a 2.5 headphone jack but with the pins inverted so no adapter will work. I have expensive headphones to use in the plane but I am doomed. No bluetooth allowed and no adapter in sight.
- The 3.2 megapixel camera is useless. All the pictures I’ve taken were terrible. The flash is underpowered to help on the picture and the software makes it even worse.
Conclusion:
The E71 is a phone that could be great 4 years ago. Today is too outdated for me.
If you want a small smartphone with keyboard get a Blackberry Curve/Javelin, maybe the Pre will fit here. But please, if you can, get an iPhone. It is the most enjoyable phone that I had so far.
