Nokia E71 and E66 online demos leak out

After spying those "in the wild" shots of Nokia's E71 and E66, we knew something had to be up -- and that does appear to be the case. A forum member over at Mobile-Review has stumbled upon user demos for both of the forthcoming devices, featuring in-depth Flash walkthroughs on how to master all the basic features of either phone. It seems likely that an announcement is due any day now (though we're thinking it won't be coming on Monday) -- but at least you can enjoy a bunch of new angles and animations while you wait.

[Via Cell Addict Blog]

Read - E71 Demo
Read - E66 Demo

[Raimo @ Jun 9th 2008 12:02AM]

surely that's an E66 instead of N66

[Bunson @ Jun 9th 2008 12:05AM]

Surely.

[John @ Jun 9th 2008 12:14AM]

well... the photo does have a pretty prominent 'E', after all

[Mark @ Jun 9th 2008 2:22AM]

.....and don't call me Shirley!

[E71 @ Jun 9th 2008 8:52AM]

....and stop stealing my alias!

[jbspeyer @ Jun 9th 2008 12:05AM]

Oh Nokia, why I pity the fool. For if thy waits until tomorrow at 10:00 PST, all shall be forgotten, and the iphone will take over! "But Wait!!! There's More!!!..."...

[Lamp @ Jun 9th 2008 12:13AM]

mac user to mac user:
shut up.
i think people know whats happening tomorrow.

[Minilap @ Jun 9th 2008 12:31AM]

Engadget editor's are the ones to blame, they mention iphone in about every cellphone post.

[Striker @ Jun 9th 2008 12:57AM]

Well the Apple fanboys are the ones to blame for making such a big deal about a iPhone revision that has new features that it should have had in the first place.

[Lamp @ Jun 9th 2008 1:08AM]

@Striker
apple fans like apple products.
Get over it.
And I'm sorry you feel the iphone wasn't up to par in pervious versions,
but maybe this one is.
And some people are excited.
If this wasn't an apple product I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be so eager to point fingers.

[Minilap @ Jun 9th 2008 1:11AM]

@LAMP, STFU Will you?

[chickenator @ Jun 9th 2008 1:40AM]

fanboys vs hateboys, popcorn time! nyum nyum...

[sheynk @ Jun 9th 2008 12:13AM]

@jbspeyer

No one is going to cross shop the two phones. Get it through your thick apple branded skull. The E series is not targeted towards the iphone user. It is a BB alternative for those that buy unlocked phones.

Check out the BGR site for the video review.

[Mr. H @ Jun 9th 2008 12:29AM]

I wouldn't be so quick to say that. The iPhone is as close to a non-smartphone I'll get anymore. I had an iPhone for awhile, and sold it a couple of weeks ago in preparation for the new one, and have owned countless S60 Nokia phones.

I'm definitely be cross shopping these phones. Really, the iPhone, and N and E series phones are the only thing I buy anymore. Maybe the HTC Diamond could change that, but I highly doubt it.

[Sheynk @ Jun 9th 2008 12:57AM]

I agree the e61 (and e61i) tends to lag a bit if you dont put everything on an external card. My point was that for those of us who travel, the iphone is not really a good solution price wise (unless you jailbreak it). Let us be honest here most iPhone users don't do that though.

E series gets BB connect too which is nice if you want to sub your BB for this (from videos/etc I like it better than the Bold, though I'll reserve that statement until I play with both).

If you company pays for your BB, the iphone could be a perfect "personal phone" to use (because... yes it is more fun, cool, etc). If you are looking for an all in one solution though, I think the E series wins out.

It really depends on what your needs are.. business, personal, or both.

[meatwad64 @ Jun 9th 2008 12:23AM]

I had a E61 for about a week then returned it. It wasn't a horrible phone but it was very slow.

I'm not the target audience for that kind of phone though of course because i need a phone that can play music as well as it can get my email.

[TareX @ Jun 9th 2008 12:54AM]

I love my E65. However I don't think the E66 is that much of an upgrade.

[john @ Jun 9th 2008 3:21AM]

Are you in the US? Because I was under the impression that the E66 will have US versions of WCDMA support, where the E65 did not. But I could be wrong.

[Johan S @ Jun 9th 2008 1:03AM]

Without decent resolution, these phones look like uber fail.

[TareX @ Jun 9th 2008 1:47AM]

exactly, the E71 is an improvement, however the E66 is an abysmal. Where's the hi-res screen? The front camera? It almost adds nothing.

[L @ Jun 9th 2008 2:20AM]

Wow - the two biggest whiners in the known internet team up...

Team Annoying, hmm?

[TareX @ Jun 9th 2008 4:22AM]

I retract everything I said :) This phone is amazing. It has the front cam, bigger screen, and basically everything the already excellent E65 lacked!

Highly recommended.... for those who need a highly functional, excellent form slider, with a wealth of S60v3 apps, look no further.

Sorry I didn't check the specs on the demo. That front cam was really small! :)

[Ser @ Jun 9th 2008 1:26AM]

Don't know if anybody cares with all this iPhone hysteria, but announcement date of this phones liked out as well: June 16 (it appeared in Mobile-Review's podcast). JFYI :)

[Anthony @ Jun 9th 2008 1:27AM]

What's w/ the E71's big butt? Seriously it's got 1/2 inch after they QWERTY. Maybe it's intentional ergonomics, but to me it look funny.

Truthfully, I had an E61 & didn't care for it. The guy who said it was slow was right on. I did like the metal casing, which this one retains.

N96 or N78 will likely be my next phone. N95 8gb is hard to beat, but I really like the new, slick N style.

[Sarig @ Jun 9th 2008 2:40AM]

Maybe it's so it doesn't topple over and fall out of your hands as your thumtyping on it; giving you a bit more to hold on to.

Yeah, I'm guessing wildly here... (:

[swiss @ Jun 9th 2008 2:51AM]

this is old news.. i mean there is a video walk through of the E71 from boygenious so this is no comparison!

btw, i'm really pissed at nokia for dragging this out this long! i mean this phone should have came out a year or two ago when the iphone came out at least! so its been over a year since the iphone came out AND there is still no response to it from nokia. Now they come out with this E71 without storage!!! no 8GB no 16GB I actually was hoping to find a 32GB plate in there just to take some of the heat the iphone 2 i about to get!!! But no, just a microASS SD card! sigh!!!

although i'm a fan of nokia i'm really starting to realize that they are not a competitive company and just hope their customers are dumb and look past their lack of competitiveness!

no no no.. i expected this phone to have touchscreen&keyboard, to have S60 FP2 NOT FP1!!!, to have 32GB storage with dedicated media player, a superb min 5MP camera with flash, open GPS for 3rd party software.

I'm disappointed!!!! Just looking for an alternative so I dont have to buy this.

[Sheynk @ Jun 9th 2008 3:03AM]

E = biz
N = consumer


I really don't understand why people are confused by Nokia's clear division of product lines.

[willstay @ Jun 9th 2008 10:02AM]

I wonder why people are comparing Nokia E series with iPhone.

[john @ Jun 9th 2008 3:20AM]

*swoon*

I want the E71-3 (WCDMA-1700MHz). Yup. No doubt about it.

[swiss @ Jun 9th 2008 3:38AM]

i dont care what they call it whether it be E/N or X, i need a phone with QWERTY keyboard that has the latest technology built in.

I'm so disappointed at Nokia right now that I will look to buy any other phone but Nokia.

I'm an E61 user and this phone is barely any improvement from it!!! I have it since 2005.. what have they done for the past 3years??? Shame!!!

[L @ Jun 9th 2008 3:55AM]

*Barely* any improvement? Are you kidding?

Much faster CPU, much more RAM, HSDPA, GPS, lots and lots and lots of new software features, much better camera...

And all that in a much smaller and MUCH slimmer device, while retaining old advantages like the huge battery.

So, in which way is this *barely* any improvement?

[Jaws @ Jun 9th 2008 4:03AM]

he wanted a touch screen, and more RAM.... it could have a microwave that cooks burritos in 10 seconds, and he wouldn't be impressed. ;)

I have a N82 which is going to be on par with the speed of these two models, and it is pretty darn fast at doing what it needs to do. If I wanted to move from it... I'd probably go to the QWERTY e71 (a couple of HTC's might lure me that way though).

For me... touchscreen would be ok... but it doesn't sell me on a phone. If I want to play with a touchscreen... my Samsung T2 lets me do that. whoop whoop.

[TareX @ Jun 9th 2008 4:33AM]

The E71

[TareX @ Jun 9th 2008 4:37AM]

The E71 is an excellent phone. Before buying my E65 last year, i kept holding the E61i, putting it in my pocket, holding it up to my ears. It was TOO WIDE. I mean it was funny how wide it was.

Now every flaw in the E61i has been corrected and the CPU is miles faster too. This is an excellent phone. Even though I love the E66's silder form factor (tres chique btw), if I were to buy one it would be the E71. Simply to enjoy the widescreen when playing GBA games, and watching TV shows :)

But since I already have had the E65 for a year now, the only phone I'm upgrading to would be the HTC Dream running Android. It's time to move on to a new generation. iPhone 3G isn't a bad choice either.

[Bad Beaver @ Jun 9th 2008 4:21AM]

Those links are dead.

Yeah well, those look fine. I assume that spot on the E66 is the frontal camera that was not featured on the E51. Not that anyone actually missed it. Hope they improved on the main camera, that's the E51's only major weak spot.

Also hope Nokia sells a ton of these so they might be able to treat their employees better.

[swiss @ Jun 9th 2008 4:38AM]

i say barely an improvement because these specs are already outdated before this device is even out yet!

CPU speed = not impressive! i expected it to be much higher, min 500+
RAM = not impressive! i expected double that
GPS = not impressive! should have been already included on E61i update
3.2 cam = not impressive! i expected min 5MP w/flash (same as in N82)
storage = not impressive! because its none existing!!!


this phone is outdated and its not even out yet! that from a leading phone company is a shame!

It's not even that they dont have the technology, because they do, they just have to release incomplete phones so they can come after 1year and do a little update to sell it as a new device, same as they did with E61/E61i.. As a long term strategy this method is going to hunt them because they try to maximize profits on the basis that consumers are dumb and they dont notice the lack of features.

But hold on, we do and I'm gonna look hard so I dont have to give Nokia my money for such outdated crap in a shiny shell!

[Pdexter @ Jun 9th 2008 7:06AM]

Oh my. So every phone Nokia releases should have at least 5mp camera and at least N95 features... You know it's not like everybody want those features + features--> costs more.
Thank god your not running world biggest mobile phone manufacturer or they would be bankrupt.
GPS is still rare in many phones not to even talk about the time E61i was released.
There's absolutely no need of more ram. Old N and E series phones had problems with ram(like E61i), but now with all the new S60 phones 128 MB you can run as many apps you ever want on the background with no problems.
With storage i can't see any problems with 16gb memory cards....

Thought only thing i can find to be true to some point is cpu and i dont expect them to be upgraded(exept it might happen with the coming N85) before Nokia's S60 5th generation phones start shipping.

Swiss if you would really would have ever used Nokia phone you would know as we all that Nokia wont be doing WM like TS phones and S60 TS havent even been released so please try harder.

This aint ment to affect any sales of iphone 2 or nore will iphone 2 sales do anything to E71 if the same trend continues with iphones.
Nokia releases tons of phones to all kind of different segments with all kind of different features to satisfy some sgements need with different price range.

[tekdroid @ Jun 9th 2008 9:50AM]

swiss:

RAM & CPU concerns
----------
BoyGeniusReport's review of the E71 (after playing with it for 2 days), said that it was fast with no slowdowns and that the battery life was good. Now granted, it was only a short playtime, but maybe Nokia did the right balance between batt life and CPU speed (and ram).

Check out their hands-on to see it in action.

Storage concerns
-------------------------------
I don't know about storage specs on this device but I prefer devices with no or very little internal flash memory because flash memory gets weaker the more you write to it, until one day... BAM. No workee. With the all-time low prices on flash memory (and they will only get cheaper as time goes on), I don't see this as a big issue, in fact I see it as a big advantage to have more external and less embedded.

Obsolete concerns
--------------------------
Photography isn't the primary purpose behind a device like this so 5megapixel cam... sure they could do it, but they are in the business of selling phones and making profit, not offering "the best in everything" devices so that it kills sales of their other lines and costs far more than the core market for this device are willing to pay.

Which device are you comparing it to when you say 'obsolete'? How much does the device cost? Does it have similar functionality?

[J.M @ Jun 9th 2008 4:41AM]

Seem good. Cant find any reason why this wouldnt be a major hit like E61 and especially E65 was. Btw about the speed no need to compare E61i speed to these they are just as fast as N95 8GB and so on.
I'm probally going for E66(fingers crossed it has fp2!).
I do love engadget and it's Nokia posts thought it's so evident what kind of Apple love is running in this blog from the editors and bets part was that N78 review where he didnt know how to use it while there are over 100 million N and E series users out there =D
Well that's what you get with USA based blog i guess.

[45 @ Jun 9th 2008 6:52AM]

Nokia, isn't it time you jumped on the iPhone copying bandwagon or prepared for bankruptcy?

[Mark Anderson @ Jun 9th 2008 6:36AM]

Yup. They need to jump ship because they only have 40% of the entire planet's phone market.

*facepalm*

[Pdexter @ Jun 9th 2008 6:40AM]

Aye and they made record profits last quarter. Future seems horrible indeed..... =D

[Rich @ Jun 9th 2008 6:45AM]

Oh god, where do we start?

1) Nokia *is* jumping on the iPhone copying wagon. See all of the S60 v5.0 announcements.

2) Just because they're jumping on the iPhone bandwagon, doesn't mean *every* phone they release has to be an iPhone clone. There's plenty of people on this planet who *don't* want an iPhone. Nokia is the world's most successful mobile device manufacturer because they target *all* sectors of the market.

3) As pointed out by Mark, Nokia sells in 10 days what Apple sells in a year. They're in absolutely no danger of going bankrupt at the moment.

[john @ Jun 9th 2008 7:23AM]

Looks like Nokia took down the content (I just looked, got a page not found from nokia's web servers).

I was just realizing in the next 2 months I'm getting 2 different bonus checks... a retroactive raise at work, and the "economic ruin...er...incentive" check from the govt...

So, Nokia .... if you beat Android to market with a WCDMA-1700 Qwerty phone, I'm yours. But if the E71 doesn't support T-Mo USA 3G before T-Mo USA has a 3G Qwerty Android phone... I'm going Android.

[tekdroid @ Jun 9th 2008 7:37AM]

I liked the BoyGeniusReport video walkthrough on the E71 others hinted on.
Pretty comprehensive.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/05/28/nokia-e71-video-walkthrough/

Seems like a really nice phone. I am not a fan of the insistence for chrome trim, but all in all excellent battery life, no slowdowns...GPS works well, removable batt (of course), stable browser, keyboard looks usable. Seems like a winner.

[swiss @ Jun 9th 2008 8:10AM]

to Pdexter

i guess they haven't released a phone in my segment for my needs!

do not tell me that they put their latest technology in this phone! those are the same specs phones had a year ago with a rebuffed software and btw way the E71 is NOT S60 FP2!!!!!!!!!! what a disappointment!!! I do use Nokia and they're slow, some of their flagship phones (n95, n82 etc) are ugly and dont ever want someone to see that i own such an ugly big ass brick.

if they take all the best features from n82 + n96 16gb along with a touch screen and cramp it into the E71 form factor then i'll buy it.

[Pdexter @ Jun 9th 2008 10:56AM]

I'm not saying that. I said Nokia makes many phones and all of them are ment to be for different segments(you could say that N95 is the have it all, but then it has nice price tag too). It would be wierd to have E series device(E=business orientated) to have 5mp camera and it wouldnt make sense to Nokia to do something like that. It would be eating it's other products.
What comes to us consumers i wouldnt mind that 5mp if Nokia could keep the device as thin as it's now.
What i mean this device isnt ment to be cutting edge of technology. It's E90(minus the uuber screen) in super slim package...i wouldnt mind that.
Aye it's missing fp2, but it got packported features from fp2. It's just missing those interface bling bling stuff.

[swiss @ Jun 9th 2008 8:42AM]

maybe i should add that despite the lack of some important features and enhancements that Nokia has, they are still the leader in making the most powerful phones! i just wish they would use that nice technology they already have depleting because without question they know how to make phones. I was one of the first ones to get the E61 and at that time it was revolutionary! It still works fine, never had issues. It just has gotten outdated and my needs for a multi-tasking phone have increased. I need them to just use what they already have! I would even favor a Dell strategy where you can customize based on your needs.

[giancarlovonz @ Jun 9th 2008 10:42AM]

I believe the links for demos are down.