Nokia's E61i, up close and shiny
Not a whole lot more info than we had last time around -- in fact, zero more info for anyone keeping track -- but we haven't managed to get close to the E61i before now. No real surprises here, and this is just a dummy unit, so we don't even have any screen brightness to assess, but hey, beggers can't be choosers, and those additional smart buttons and spiced up d-pad look promising, even if the phone for the most part seems relatively unchanged. Peep the back of the phone (including camera hawterness) after the break.
[Via Ring Nokia]
[Via Ring Nokia]




















I want to beat the jobs suck boys
man that is no iphone, it looks so retro
I like the new D-Pad (not the stubby joystick). I got rid of my E61 because I didn't like not having a camera (have the N73 now) & didn't really need wifi or the QWERTY (though I did use them).
Though I almost agree: the phone looks retro. & being all metal it feels as much. Something about that was appealing to me too, however.
Earth to every corporate industrial design department outside of Cupertino: Go back to the drawing board and don't come out until you have something that's not suck.
This can do way more stuff than the crappy apple iphone, and voice quality probly better too.
Looks very last century. Almost looks retro.
The main problem with this phone in competing with the Q and Blackjack and now the new iphone is it's thickness and it does not do anything new that distinguishes it from every other phone like it. Nokia needs a new strategy for this year and the next, if they plan to stay on top.
What does it do that the Q and/or Blackjack doesn't? How about UMTS, Mac-syncing out of the box, Blackberry Connect, WiFi, Office software, a *decent* web-browser...
The Nokia E61 has the European one-handed QWERTY smartphone market sewn up. The Samsung i320 (aka the Blackjack's brother) doesn't sell in high volumes and the Q is no-where to be seen.
Remember - the US cell phone market only makes up 10% of the global market and only 3.8% of the US market is made up of smartphones. Europe and Asia means a lot more to Nokia.
perhaps those commenting should have some idea of how the phone actually works, rather than comparing it to the i-phone, which is utterly ridiculous.
apple fan-boys take note- Nokia was actually first to implement the safari browser KHTML engine (with series 60), not apple, and its one of the many strong points of this phone.
fanboys alao note, the e61 was one of the first phones to ship with wi-fi and 3g WCDMA support...whats that? i couldn't hear you- the sidekick, ahem, i mean i-phone has EDGE? wow...thats like dial up speed right? the e-series also supports EVERY push email solution known to man, including Good, blackberry, activesync, and push imap.
having owned an e61, and a cingular crippled e62 (cingular, through their own greed and stupidity, has crippled that java JVM's on most new smartphones, including the blackjack, meaning 3rd party apps like google maps, gmail, will not work.), the build quality, screen, and feature set are fantastic, making the e-series some of the best smartphone values out there.
Wow, does it come with a free dinosaur?
...and I thought only adults read engadget.
- Nokia Marketing Guy -
"Oh man, someone's gonna lose their job over this one."
This is a lot better for business applications than the uber-cool-looking iPhone... It looks like what it is, a down-and-dirty workhorse phone for business, which is exactly what it should be. I love the E62, but I can't afford it... maybe a couple more of these coming out will drive prices down enough to let me get one. :D
dude, the e62 is an infectiously neuterized version of the e61... i think you want to buy the e61 unless you'd like a full stop to your genes right now. i know the numbers are kind of counterintuitive skewed but that 'dem crazy nekkid europen chix for you!
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e62-1708.php
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e61-1322.php
the whole this is no "iPhone" or "it looks last century" comments have a valid point. All of these phones look the same... just because you have a full qwerty keyboard doesn't mean that you can't come up with a more thought full design. is not even an issue of function rather than form. This wide make it a pain to hold as normal phone to carry in your pockets without forming a huge bulge. These phones should almost come with a sport coat included so you have a place to keep them rather than always have them out, what seems most people do.
Speaking of huge...the iPhone is nothing if not huge....
I will eventually get an iPhone (not the first generation), but I love my Nokia E61 and I WILL get this model for it's few upgrades....
Nokia fanboys (that's you, andresalazar) take note. Don't kid yourself too much. This phone looks ancient, and any people with eyes can tell that. So Nokia is the first to implement this or that, who cares. It looks uninspiring and last century, well almost every other phone looks bland compared with iPhone. If that's what you want to have, enjoy, but you can't stop other people from desiring the iPhone.
if desiring the iPhone is all you want to do, go right ahead. But here me now, there is no way on earth that gimmicked out contraption will be able to do anything other than be used as an iPod that can make 10 second emergency calls with that limited, non-replaceable battery.
Multi-touch screen? sure, go for it, clean fingerprints till the screen cracks from pressure.
Mini OSX? Big deal, I give you PocketPC circa 2000, and Windows Mobile, but it all started with WinCE circa 1996.
email? Hell my Cingular SYNC phone can do that, it has hotmail, AOL, and I just got gmail working on it too.
What's left? Oh, it plays music, but wait, so does my SYNC phone, with 2 GB of it stored at that, which is perfect for a playlist to work out with.
It looks last century? Guess what, I don't think I spend a whole lot of time looking at my phone when I am using it, because I am talking on it, or its in my pocket with features like voice dialing and bluetooth. Sure, it's a clever design, and you can stare at your iPhone all day since you'll probably be redialing it for dropped calls, poor call quality, and recharging.
Grow the fuck up and go back to jerking off to pictures of women, like guys were meant to do.
What makes you think it will have short battery life or poor call quality? What's that you say? You're just making this shit up? Oh, okay, well in that case, go fuck yourself.
The phone of 1994's future, Today! (Proposed marketing slogan)
I hope that this means that they finally fix the various and sundry problems with the E61. Problems include reboots during long phone calls, totally broken imap implementation, mail app going haywire after running too long, random dropping of bluetooth headsets, contact app that crawls with more than few dozen entries, etc.
Sure, the web browser is great. The phone is great hardware. But much of the functionality needs to be finished or refined if they want to compete with Apple.
retro...
it copied the back of the iphone (upside down)
just like Windows!
:D
(this could go on forever..)
what make people think iphone is great? it could have crappy reception and bad voice quality.
If it wasn't so wide tall and thick the look would work very well as a nice modern minimalist design. However, the fact that it's that big and runs Symbian is a major turnoff. I'm very much over the whole proprietary nokia thing. Windows Mobile phones have better keyboards too (HTC Wizard). Does this thing even support Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP)?
I hope the post by disciple83 does not represent the general intelligence and maturity level of people who can not appreciate the iPhone. If you really like your Nokia and Samsung, good for you. But to pull a bunch of crap out of your mouth not knowing why people love Apple products and why iPhone is revolutionary is a sign of low IQ at best, mentally retarded at worst.
Haha. I like how people compare this with the iPHONE or say that Nokia is copying designs etc. Aside from the Blackberrys, the E61 was the first smartphone to carry a widescreen. Moto and Samsung jus copied em. The iPHONE? You cant even buy an iPHONE or an older iPHONE. The E61 and E62(no wifi) are real and the E61i will come out soon!
Being a e61 owner and Blackberry 8700 user, I must say the e61 had so much potential on paper.
Metal construction, slim build, light, great screen, lots of connectivity options, but it's too damn slow, and buggy. The s60 UI is underpowered in the e61. The blackberry felt snappy, not blazing, but typical RIM snappy, jumping from screen to screen. Nokia engineers, forgot to add the NOS kit to the e61. Keyboard is a 7/10, 8700r keyboard is a 9/10 in terms of typing speed, and tactile feedback.
Upgrading the firmware to the latest version, was a tedious process, it fixed the battery life a bit, but the UI is still too slow.
Speaking of the UI, after using for the last 2 months, i've realized that it's a phone first, other functions second. Too many damn options to do simple task, like creating a SMS compared to the blackberry. The connection switching, or trying to find a connection menu is terrible. If the unit has a wifi connection, every app who needs a data connection, will prompt to seek another wifi connection. Making SIP wifi calls, took me a day to setup, it should have at least given it a setup wizard.
Hopefully they will be out with some real firmware updates and a faster processor with the e61i, because it'll get buried by the new blackberry, samsung units and of course iphone.
I'm a major Apple fan and have evangelized the Mac and other Apple products since the 80s. Heck I still own a Newton. The iPhone will have an impact on the mobile device market...eventually. In it's June release version of what we know right now, it just lacks features I need/use. I currently have an E70. Short of being an actual IPod and physically syncing with ITunes, I can't think of a thing the IPhone does my E70 can't do that I need. I can think of a nice list of things though that my E70 does and the IPhone can't. The IPhone, like the Mac, is not then end all/be all for every one. It will have its place and change things, but it's not the messiah of phones/PDAs/MP3 devices.
I personally much more excited about the E61i than any iPhone.
Looks promising. I did not buy the E62, because I missed the camera. I want to have a common sense phone, not a "cool" phone. And global audience likes Nokia phones, in spite of the fact that they are not that popular with U.S. pubers.
The E61 is a phone with more features than any other phone on the market in respect to its price. Sure it doesn't have the features of the imate jasjar, but it doesn't come with the hefty price tag either. Thanks to the folks at www.truphone.com I now use my E61 over VOIP calling and the clarity is fantastic. A true high quality phone that doesn't let me down. I travel all over the world and am constantly connected whether over wifi or worldwide carriers, i never miss an e-mail and the applications are fantastic also. Top notch! I have tried other phones and always find myself coming back to Nokia. Sometimes, the dinosaur phones are better than the new stuff because of the proven technologies.
Well... disciple83, if you hadn't written this precise comment, I guess I would have done it myself!
Pretty funny isn't it? nothing much more to add, other than I've had my E61 for about 6 months, and it seriously just keeps amazing me! It packed with user-friendly features and is just so easy to use! To my eyes, it (same as the E61i) really looks nice, but ok I understand some don't agree... then go spend a couple hundred bucks on a flashy cute looking gadget, and don't come whine when you realize it only does half of what the E series phone can do! BUT IT LOOKS COOL THOUGH!!!! Isn't that the point right?
Hi guys,lemme tell you this,ive been reading all your squables over iphone and nokia stuffs over my e61i unit.to be not so biased,ive had wifi network at my house and this fone is the future of mobile internet...ive had so many works done on my fone,i appreciate what its done to my life.its been more productive,simple and connected.....everywhere. So,if u say that you'll give me an iphone for free to trade for my e61i... Dont bother asking coz you know that iphone dont have yet anything to prove....and lastly...can u do this on ur iphone?