Handset lovers in some regions of the world not named North America have been enjoying the luxuries of Nokia's E71 for
some time now, but those of us waiting around for a version compatible with 3G here on this side of the planet have
just recently been able to indulge. Make no mistake, though -- this piece of QWERTY goodness ain't cheap. Ringing up at right around 500 bones, USers have the right to have some pretty high expectations, and we're here to ask if those expectations have been met. Are you satisfied with the ultrathin smartphone? Is the display up to snuff? How's that keyboard? Are you kosher with the white keys? What else would you do to improve upon the E71? Leave it all in comments below.
posted Aug 22nd 2008 6:30PM
1) 3.5mm headphone jack.
2) Full Blackberry support.
That's it.
Oh yeah, and drop the white handset. The steel one is much nicer.
What is this at least partially blackberry support you speak of? Did they lease out the servers or something?
No way am I dropping 500 if they don't have a standard headphone jack. I'm happy with my IPhone 3g anyway.
Sorry, I meant no Blackberry Connect service. At all.
Fix the keyboard.
Z goes under S.
Z GOES UNDER S!!!
Z Goes under S??? Not on any keyboard or phone I've ever seen... . Do you consider Shift to be under A?
"Z goes under S."
Ah, so now we know who worked for Dell and screwed up half the keyboards of their Vostro line in the whole world: http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/01/dells-vostro-keyboads-putting-the-hurt-on-uk-touch-typists/
Actually Z and X are both partially under S on my keyboard. I guess this is what he's saying..a trapezoid layout.
bold:
http://www.chillnite.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/300_blackberry_bold.jpg
blackjack:
http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/blackjack2/images/Samsung_BlackJack2_lp.jpg
MOTO Q9:
http://news.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/10381/467929.jpg
i could do this all day.
1) 3.5mm headphone jack
2) runs crysis
Double Post... The root of all evil...
Still better rankings than the inevitable: "Make it an iPhone!" comment....
1) I have never used one of these.
2) Nobody I know has ever even heard of it.
Then I believe your post serves even less of a purpose than mine.
My boss has one. It's awesome.
Yea....so....they don't sell the E71 ant Wal-Mart....maybe thats why you never heard of it.
Well if YOU'VE never heard of it, the rest of us don't need to bother cause it's obviously not popular and no good at all if you haven't seen one before. That was valuable information, thanks for sharing.
lol
Relax people. Just making a statement. I should have just said "iPhone."
Having owned this phone for 2 days I must admit to being very impressed by it. I've owned many Nokia before and this is something special. The battery life is extraordinary.
Pros (Lightly covered)
Remote lock - phone gets stolen, use mates phone to send a pre-defined code, phone locks, thief gets code wrong 3 times, phone get erased, Great!
Aesthetics - All metal, perfect build quality, feels indescribably 'right' (like the iphone 3g)
Speed - No waiting for apps to load, so refreshing for the impatient like me
Breathing status light - Thank you Nokia for getting rid of the mega strobe, smoothing white glows are the way to go, not 'emergency blue panic' strobes
Connect PC to web - Plug Phone via USB to (windows) PC and a small programme is installed that let you use the phone as a 3g modem. I can get about 2Mb/s with this. (A mac version would be totally sweet as well)
Standard features - Good syncing with mac (there is an isync plug-in - http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/global/phones/software/Nokia_E71_isync_plugin_1v1.dmg ), great email and messaging etc.
Camera isn't the best - Who cares, it's a business phone, heck many companies don't allow camera phones on their premises. It seems that they had to sacrifice the quality and size of the CCD or CMOS to get the phone so slim. Same goes for the headphone adapter- something had to go, but please ship with a mini to 3.5 adapter please.
Cons
Chat - Nokia, where did your excellent chat application go. You did it first, the iphone stole it, then you dropped it. It was so useful. Most SMS's are send as part of a 'txt conversation', a back and forth reciprocation of text as opposed to one off 'pings' Bring back chat!
Voice communication button - Located between the volume buttons this pretty button serves little purpose. Press and hold = voice activated features (the same thing that the top right blue button does) Am I missing something here? Was this designed for push to talk? If so, I'm on Vodafone UK and they seem so have removed the PTT/POC menu. For those interested, PTT/POC is available in the UK globalmobileradio dot com and http://www.intechnology.co.uk. It's a shame Vodafone don't offer it to the consumer market. They do offer it to their enterprise sector though.
No network manager - I have no reception at home but my E71 is set to auto-retrieve my emails. The only way I can get it to use my Wi-Fi instead of Cell is to dig deep into the email sub-menus and change the access point on both incoming and outgoing mail on both my email accounts. Annoying and time consuming.
What you should have is a smart network manager that checks the status of GSM 3g, WiFi, HSPDA (3.5g) and assigns the best one for the entire phone to use. E.g When I go to a location with no Cell reception the phone should AUTOMATICALLY fall back to WiFi to check emails, internet radio (not fully working on E71 yet but really great), remote sync (more to say about this).This is what the iphone does and although it's sometimes a little slow to fall back to wifi, it's totally transparent to the user and makes operation of that device much more smooth and graceful.
Perhaps a developer could build an app that does this and creates a virtual access point that all the other phone app can see and stay connected to by default. This virtual access point would then automatically switch between actual access point (mainly GPRS, WIFI, 3G) Steal this idea!
USB 1.1 - A joke right, sorry I don't get it
Give more power to the buttons - A certain half eaten fruit manufacturer released a phone with 1 main button (3 minor ones) replacing buttons with a big *ss screen, they sold millions of devices and caused a minor revolution. Suddenly buttons have become, like sooo last week. The E71 has loads of them, let us be able to take advantage of that. Give us more power to the buttons. E.g space bar should do something when pressed like light up the flash so we can find our keys, or like firefox, scroll down the page when browsing the internet. Allow the user to assign apps, bookmarks, macros to individual keys e.g In the standby screen, push and hold 'S' to start the Sports Tracker app and begin and new training routine. The keyboard can be so much more powerful.
Light/Flash - Perhaps the E71 drives the Xenon flash harder and brighter than it should. Would prolonged use kill it? If so what about PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). Basically make the light flash really quickly (50hz) to make it look like it is constantly on, only less bright and using less power. How about that, is it a hardware issue?
Unadvertised unsupported great features - Another comparison has to be made here between the E71 and iphone. Apple thoroughly advertise all the features of their phones and they SUPPORT them as well.
E.g Mobile Me - Not a new concept, in fact Nokia got their before they did ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SyncML)
Infrared - Give us a reason to use this, supply the phone with TV remote software.
I mean, who knew the E71 could be synced 'over the air'. This could be so useful. E.g A family of 3 each has an E71 (or Symbian phone). They all share a single public calender as well as their own private one. Instant access to each others holidays trips, meeting etc. I know for a fact that this would go down well in my household. There are a few third party solutions to this but who can be bothered researching, checking forums etc. Nokia, partner with and manage one of them,(or just employ a group of jobless graduates and let them work it out by themselves) then offer the service under the Nokia name to your users.(stick a leaflet in the packaging with the manuals, CD'd etc)
Calender app not perfect- It should be if you expect people to ditch their Filofax's and Blackberries (the latter I know you are trying for) I admit it's good (combined with iCal OS X I'm trialing a digital calender system for the next few months) but some settings need work to speed up data entry. I'm assume you are aiming for the same speed as pen and paper, you are half way there so far.
Wow, well what was meant to be a quick 10 line comment but it got a bit too passionate. I guess the above can be thought of as a open brainstorm directed at Nokia, heck I'm no where nearly finished, if you are reading this from Nokia I'd love to help you improve this, get in touch phatenterprise (at) gmail.com
@ E71 User
I have the E51 amazing features but no GPS or Keyboard to match
but for softwares you can add alot of applications
for chatting and VOIP, I use Fring www.fring.com , I access through it Skype, Yahoo, Googletalk, MSN, AOL,... as well as other features
for checking emails, i use Gmail for mobiles by google, and Yahoo Go!, I forward other emails to Gmails so i dont worry about different access points
for Web browsing, I just download Opera Mini...so far Amazing
"Perhaps a developer could build an app that does this and creates a virtual access point that all the other phone app can see and stay connected to by default. This virtual access point would then automatically switch between actual access point (mainly GPRS, WIFI, 3G) Steal this idea!"
Already exists, its called Psiloc Connect and does exactly what you describe, I use it on my E71 and it works perfectly.
If yanks haven't heard about it dosen't make it so for the rest of the world.
This has been selling like hot cakes here in Germany. Many parts of the world BB dosen't exist and many parts of the Europe Nokia's one qwerty device(E61i) is seen more than all BB phones together.
This is actually in response to "E71 User." I'm very late to the party, obviously, but hey, I just got my E71 3 days ago, so.
There used to be a feature called "Access Point Group" that was available on E60/E61/E65/others. It allows you to group multiple access points, ie. connections of any type, into a group. This in theory accomplishes what you described ("network manager") without much work. It more or less worked (see below) when I tried it on an old E65.
The problem was, not all application could use Access Point Group. If I recall correctly, the only application that was able to use it was the web browser. So, in an essence this feature was useless. I don't know why this feature was not exposed to developers, or why it's removed now. Nokia/Symbian certainly had the right idea for "network manager."
Perhaps that'd be one to E71 can be improved. That and bring back single-key lock. Why was this taken away in the first place?
I would make it an iPhone.
(Ok, I just had to do it... I answered that I'd make the iPhone a Nokia back when they did this for the iPhone.)
Awww, low ranked, really? It was obviously a joke. I'm a huge Nokia supporter. Use an N73 myself and absolutely love it.
Didn't make it funny.
lol! Make it run Crysis!
AWS support.
Bigger screen
1) better reception quality -- worst reception of any Nokia phone I've ever used
2) T-Mobile USA 3G support, with UMA
3) iSync plugin
4) Sync to Google (Calendar and Contacts) direct from phone, including on hosted google domains
5) Sync to Thunderbird and Sunbird (on Linux, Windows, and Mac)
(the rest are just me musing, not really realistic requests)
6) OpenSSH (not Putty) support, for port forwarding your VNC client sessions
7) Embedded SIP server for other devices to use it as a communication gateway
8) Embedded Jabber server for the same, only for SMS/MMS messaging
9) Able to share it's EDGE/HSPA feed via wifi, like Joikuspot, only built into the phone OS, and with better encryption/privacy than joikuspot offers
10) two SIM card slots, so you can send some traffic (voice and SMS/MMS) to one carrier and the other traffic (EDGE/HSPA) to another carrier
11) Maemo instead of Symbian
12) one model for the AT&T and T-Mobile support, not two separate models
It has an iSync plugin. You have to get it from Nokia's European web site. For whatever reason they don't have it on their US site.
I just got the phone a couple days ago. Its great but the screen on mine is a little messed up. The backlight is weird at the top so there are a couple of dark spots at the very top of the screen. Not a deal breaker, just mildly annoying. Software on it seems a bit buggy. The browser has locked up on my phone a couple times and once yesterday I lost my data connection until I rebooted.
3) http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/global/phones/software/Nokia_E71_isync_plugin_1v1.dmg
For Google Calendar synchronization use GooSync. You need to pay to sync contacts but calendar has a free limited mode (it's limited to 30days ahead and before the current date if I'm not mistaken).
My Euro E71 used in the UK has outstanding call quality and battery life.
The only thing I would change is to upgrade a video recordng to the E90 level (DVD quality @ 30fps)
No symbian, android perhaps?
I love my E61. What I would chage with the E61 and E71 is:
- VGA-Resolution - because reading PDF with a 320 Pixels-wide only is a pain
- Prozessor fast enought to run at least 500x300px DivX-Videos (the e61 can't - can the e71?)
Would be nice:
- TV out
I like the smaler case (even I have not seen it in real life) - but the improoved things are not enought for me. The bad receiption quality - I already have difficulties at my parents summer house just at the gates of berlin. It seems it stands directly between 2 UMTS-Antennas...
Thinking of getting HTC Touch Pro instead...
Why Android? What does Android bring to the table that Symbian doesn't have?
If the E71 ran Android, it wouldn't even be out yet.
I agree 3.5mm headphone jack and blackberry support, update the U/I, and lastly improve the camera. BTW you can get this phone for $389 on Newegg.com. A whole lot cheaper than what Nokia is selling it for!
jetpack support
850/1900/2100 Tri-band HSUPA for international roaming.
little bit bigger (screen at least as big as the Curve's), ditch the white version (ugly), fix the not so great camera, more N-series features, better reception, 3.5mm headphone jack, better video playback, and yea.
people say 3.55mm jack, better camera, but Nokia for some reason wont give it all. They put more business associated things on the E series and the multimedia associated features on the N series.
Why cant we have both surely Nokia does not expect us to carry two phones?
Why sell one phone when you can sell two?
Capitalism at its finest....
It might also be because while everyone wants more features, everyone also wants units to be cheap.
Pretty much everytime a smartphone is mentioned on engadget, most of the comments (ignoring fruity flamewars) is either about the price being too high, or some "vital" features missing. There's a connection here folks!
thats what nokia does. floods the market with its handsets. i love nokia but that's how it's got the highest market share. besides, as they said above me, why sell a phone that does it all? no one would buy your other phones!
bought E71 in Netherlands. Works well with AT&T in the states. I miss the seamless "push" of Blackberry email. The user interface is cumbersome at best. I find the screen resolution to be good. I've not had a problem with the camera. I have average reception, usually better than my wife's iphone. I REALLY miss the performance of my Blackberry for email.
there are 3rd party push services like SEVEN and emozes
1) 3.5mm headphone jack
2) Shortcut keys moved to the bottom of the QWERTY keyboard.
3) Black model (?)
The Z button shouldn't be directly below the A button. Shift the bottom row over one, and them perhaps put the comma or period on the left side of the keyboard. But I'm just being picky, and then I'd just be complaining that the period/comma buttons are separated.
Good device, though.
isync plugin right here:
http://europe.nokia.com/A4299040
TMOBILE 3G SUPPORT!
I ain't got no white keys. Just buy the good looking one in steel gray.
TOUCH SCREEN. Hey, why not.
3.5mm jack
Better camera
Better video
As for the 3g, I think Nokia will sort out a version with the relevant frequency (like the N95 NAM versions).
I agree with you on the 3.5mm jack... This is wonderful on the N95 & N82, why did they not put this on _all_ their phones.
As for the touch screen, I think that goes outside the development of the platform not to mention the additional price. That said, IMHO it would be nice to see the ipod like touch sensitive "Navi Wheel" around the joystick (as seen on the N81). This would be cool for things like scrolling through the gallery or zipping through contacts etc.
As for a better camera, the 5MP unit in some other nokia phones is physically larger and more expensive, the samsung units are longer and also more expensive. I doubt that would be feasable.
As for better video, If you're referring to codec support I agree with you - it would be nice to support divX out of the box and the new flash v6 standard.
As for hardware, I think the screen on the nokia is a good compromise between readability, speed and price. Nokia have tried 352 x 416 however this type of screen is more expensive and harder to control (loss of UI speed compared to 240x320).
The gadget already costs 500 $ I wouldn't want to pay more...
How about reliable e-mail connection.......I have to reboot my E71 at least 3 times a day from it not properly retrieving or sending emails. Drives me NUTS.
Use the program SEVEN. Google search. I use it with T-Mobile and it's awesome, plus it's free. It supports real time Push email as well as more than one email account unlike the Nokia Email Service.
to properly retrieve emails menu > communications> messaging > choose the email address you want to adjust and hit "options" > scroll down to settings > email> again select the proper email address (if more then one) >automatic retrieval > Email notification should be "off" email retrieval should be enabled, every day,all day, and i have put for every 5 minutes...... and thats it.... i have both my aol and gmail addresses and they retrieve right away.
let me know if you need anything else
thanks boosted, trying out SEVEN .. seems very decent so far...
1) Touchscreen
2) Android Support
3) 3.5mm Jack
This phone is one of the best phones hands down. It's sleek, sexy, effective. However, I would like better email managing (no HTML -- what the heck), and the push service. Other than that. This is one lovely phone.
ProfiMail FTW: http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=profimail
Colorscheme's kinda weird, but it's awesome, IMAP, POP multiple accounts, aliases, html, attachments, etc. etc.
I've had one of these for a week now on Three (in the UK), and to be honest, I bloody love it. I know the multi-media features aren't amazing, but I have an iPod Touch for those things, I choose this over an iPhone, and to be honest, I haven't regretted it once. Granted, the E-Mail isn't the best, but, if you want amazing E-Mail, obviously get a BB. Btw, I got one of these in white... Why all the hate? ^_^
The screen really needs to be bigger and the browser just isn't much fun. The iPhone has ruined my taste in phones, I know.
Best Nokia ever - use it every day, anyone up for my old iPhone?
No I just need folder support in mailforexchange but it should be around the corner.
The maps 2.0 is excellent, they just added Lonley Planet city guides - EXCELLENT and all maps are free - 150+ countries and you can preload those maps via your pc. Hey... and it does multitasking - iPhone sucks BIG time regarding multitasking, but could sure use the browser from iPhone - pretty nice.... actually the best ever for a small device.
I just got mine from newegg.com and its up and running great. So much better than my E70 (damn joystick broke on it and it was out of warranty :( )
Mine did too, fixed it with a piece of the inktube from a ballpoint pen. Now it works better than it did before.
Hey. Has anyone with the E71 tried out the better email service that Nokia has released? It's at email.nokia.com and it's free... for now! Why can't the phone just have the better email client preinstalled instead of having us download it ourselves?
See my comment under George's post.
~380 on newegg*
I'd give it a better Exchange-compatible email client. The current version is horrible. Here's a comparison between sending an email from the E71 vs. the iPhone. The E71 is has great hardware but is completely let down by poor Exchange support.
E71
1. Press the Mail button
2. Press Options
3. Press twice on the down arrow to Create Message
4. Press the right arrow
5. Press the down arrow three times to highlight the email option
6. Press the selection button
7. With the new message open, press Options
8. Press twice on the down arrow to highlight the Company Directory option
9. Press the selection button
10. Type in "Jonathan" (for example)
11. Click the Ok button
12. When the search is complete, press the selection button on Jonathan's name
13. Click down twice to the subject, enter it; click down once to the body, enter it.
14. Press Options
15. Select Send
On the iPhone, the same thing requires:
1. Press the Home button
2. Tap the Mail icon
3. Tap the New Message icon
4. Type "Jonathan" (or just "jont")
5. Tap Jonathan's name from the list that's returned
6. Tap on the subject line and enter it; tap in the body and enter it
7. Tap the send button
Or you could simply click on the mail icon, new message, email, exchange and type your email and hit send?
or you could do your 25 step process which ever works best for you.
That's a lot of work to send an e-mail. You can't do the same thing you can do with an IMAP or POP3 account?
Type name in home screen, tap right, send e-mail, type your e-mail and send?
I am pretty sure that if you hold down the email key it takes you straight to creating a new message. (you may need to configure which mailbox to use in the settings).
For those of you who are not aware of the other short cuts;
Hold down the contacts button to create a new contact.
Hold down the calendar button to create a new appointment.
Hold down the home key to bring up all running tasks and press again to switch between open programs.
To switch between general and silent profile hold the # key
To launch the browser hold the 0 key
To turn Bluetooth on and off hold the * key
In the browser '1' gets the bookmarks, '2' finds text and '9' gives the option to enter a web address. press * or # to zoom in and out of the page
Hold down the left soft key to have your unopen text messages read out aloud.
I bought the E71 for both my daughter and my son - I am really tempted to get one myself but am held back only by the camera (i use an N95 8GB). The media playing function is fine if you use coreplayer.
I had the E62 a little over a year ago, and I liked the phone, however, the interface was so slow. Did they speed up the interface in this model?
I hated the sluggishness of my E61i too, but this thing is from another planet, trust me :) It was possible for the photo gallery to load 40 seconds with the E61i, but this thing takes barely 5. Also, with the ample RAM you won't be seeing those "out of memory" errors anymore. I often forget 10-20 applications running in the background, and the performance hardly drops at all.
E61i is from a another planet compared to E62 let alone E71 to E62. So no worries there.
AT&T subsidized price. on ANY decent nokia phone.
The usa has it, i got my at newegg for 389.99 and it works with 3g att
No.
..I got mine..
Had mine a day: Well, we're only supposed to dwell on the negatives, but I'll start by saying that this phone is a guaranteed head turner. I have had TWO people slip my phone into their top shirt pocket and ask if they can keep it and can I claim on my theft insurance! (No kidding!) The build quality and usability is top notch, lots of invaluable short cuts and other conveniences that the intuitive but 'dumb' iPhone lacks. OK, now onto the negatives: a) Light sensor for the keypad backlight is not sensitive enough, so backlight needs almost total darkness to be activated. b) Image viewer is too slow (phone lacks a graphics processor, unlike the N95. Why do they think business people will not want to speedily zip through pictures of products or their kids? c) Screen resolution is ok for day to day tasks, but not enough for to view PDFs, tube/underground maps etc. d) Camera images suffer noise in dark coloured areas, not just in low light. e) Lack of 3.5mm audio out jack. f) Some people complain of muffled sound (and it can sound that way at my end too), but that may just be a difference from my prior phones. f) Am unable to SEND email using any of my email accounts. g) Browser while excellent, locks up once in a while.
Best Nokia I have ever used. Best phone I have ever used. It's so damn sexy and thin! You really have to hold one in person to fully appreciate the compactness and build quality. Looking at pics online does not do it justice at all.
Things I'll change:
1) Better Cam
2) 3.5mm jack
3) VGA Screen
........But then it'll be called N71 instead. There is no perfect phone, but this e71 is MY perfect phone!
I've had mine for about 3 weeks now and I love it! I have the Nokia 8801, 8801 Luna, E61, E61i, 6500 Classic, N76, Razr Luxury Edition and iPhone. This is by far the best and easiest to use phone I have ever owned. Sound quality is excellent and with a 8gb micro sd card, it can hold as much music as my iPhone. With my E61s, I had to buy a separate GPS receiver and map software. I also bought Advanced Call Manager. Both are now included. Great looking, sleek and feels great in your hands!
1) Better camera, especially in low light. The camera is HORRIBLE for a 3.1mp. Oh yes, and what's with having to press T to autofocus?
2) 3.5mm jack, like everyone else says, this was just a stupid decision but classic Nokia E-series vs N-series positioning
3) The multimedia apps from the N-series phone, but again, see #2
4) Flatter keys. I'm thinking along the lines of the Motorola Q9's, which work great despite being next to each other. The keyboard is surprisingly good for how small it is, but the fact that the keys are so bubblish makes it easy for your fingers to slip to adjacent ones.
All of my other gripes have to do with S60, so I wouldn't call them E71-specific. Oh yes, Access Point Lists from FP2 would've been a nice addition. I get so tired of being asked which connection to use...
No comments on the white keys because I went for the gray version. Seems like a no-brainer to me ... the white just don't look right.
Final comment - the dual homescreens thing is the most useless feature ever. I played with it a little when I first got it, and this is my one and only biz/personal phone, so supposedly I'm the target audience for this, but I just don't get it.
3 things:
1) Hi-res screen
2) No lower "hump"
3) More attractive GUI
= super phone.
four letters C D M A
i love this phone, i threw my 2g iphone for this one!!!
it needs:
3.5mm jack
better camera with auto focus
faster processor
make it lighter, its kinda heavy
get rid of the chin
bigger screen without changing the devices size
better battery life, 3G usage kills the battery so fast
...lol... US users only have access to the black/grey edition. funny the post asks about those 'white keys'. ;p
i love this phone, i threw my 2g iphone for this one!!!
it needs:
3.5mm jack
better camera with auto focus
faster processor
make it lighter, its kinda heavy
get rid of the chin
bigger screen without changing the devices size
better battery life, 3G usage kills the battery so fast
about the auto focus;
To make it work, in camera mode simply press the "T" key and you will see that the camera make her magics..
Remove the keyboard to make the screen bigger and install Apple 2.0.2 OS, then I'll buy it.
http://europe.nokia.com/A41146122
from what I've been hearing from various sources (and the main reasons I didn't buy it) it's:
1) got bad reception
2) has below-average voice quality / speakerphone
3) has slow unassisted gps lock-ons (tho A-GPS is fine, I won't be using that)
4) has poor international language support
The form-factor, battery life...the rest of it (besides reflective metal / faux metal, which I don't like) completely appeals to me. Perhaps Nokia can take some feedback and remember the basics (call quality, speakerphone, reception quality) in its future E series device. That said, it's understandable some sacrifices were made to get the size down, but they're not sacrifices I can particularly tolerate.
It's a shame because I had high hopes of this device being the near-perfect device in the form-factor I love (bar with tactile qwerty).
The bad reception issue was with a limited number of handsets. Most work great as you would expect from Nokia. Voice quality is better than any other phone I have used. I read probably 15 reviews of the e71 before deciding to buy it and I didn't see a complaint about voice quality. They all said it was superb. GPS works great. Here in Japan I get a lock in about 15-20 seconds(with AGPS disabled).
I forgot to mention that when you use the camera press the "t" key to autofocus before taking the picture - it gives much better results.
I have the US 3G version.
Things that I love about it, aside from the keyboard, looks and all that stuff...
-reception is excellent
-native SIP support which works flawlessly. Can make call via my company's PBX at any wi-fi hotspot.
-tethers to my macbook via BT like a champ
-when I'm on a call, I can take notes, surf the web etc..
-When I'm on a call I get a very faint beep/click when i receive email or an SMS. Handy when I'm waiting to hear from someone via text.
-some interesting 3rd party support (Bluephone Elite, which allows me to respond to SMS messages via my macbook without taking the phone out of my pocket. Also give me a screen pop-up to let me know who's calling.)
Things that need to be improved:
IMAP client is very buggy compared to the E61/62
No access point group like in FP2. Although 3rd party like Psiloc works great, it should be built in.
Needs native threaded SMS
Browser sometimes gives "No Gateway Reply" errors like older Nokia products
S60 should be better organized, some sort of a launcher would be nice.
The thing you mentioned about the IMAP client seems sadly true. Configuring my GMail account automatically works great, but if I configure it manually using IMAP it works a few times but then the client stops doing anything when told to sync e-mail. It doesn't hang, but just stays idle.
Bigger screen.
Less-shiny screen cover and body. The whole phone is like an 500-buck mirror in the sun.
bigger keys.
You know what would be really cool, is if they'd, like, take it and made it so it had, like, a hinge on it, and then, put, like, a regular phone keypad on it, then when you opened it and stuff (you know with the hinge thingy I said before), it had a full keyboard. You would have to make the screen rotate when you opened it, but I guess, like even if they had to run a script on top of the phone OS to get that to work, they could just, like, put enough extra memory in to handle it, right?
BIGGER screen.
Less-shiny screen cover and body. The whole phone is like a 500-buck-worth mirror in the sun!
BIGGER keys.
Joystick instead of the arrow keys.
Sorry, I posted this twice by mistake. Haven't got used to the new "Add your comments" interface yet. By the way, can we have the old interface back please? The new one isn't compatible with my password-saver software (which is AI RoboForm).
Had this phone about 2 weeks now only thing I wish it had would be a 3.5mm audio jack instead of the 2.5mm otherwise this phone is rock solid! Already dropped it about 5 ft drop on concert and its still kickin' just fine.
I'd make it run Maemo (like the n810) instead of whatever garbage they have on it.
On the email topic. Nokia has a Beta of their own email offering to replace BB push mail and contacts. It also seems to be going towards an online document storage. Replacing Google/MobileMe/Exchange offerings with a Nokia "version" of this kind of service/experience can only enhance the brand(if it works!) and I think the E71's processor and battery life makes it their first (except maybe the E51-awesome slim phone also!) hardware capable of keeping up....maybe the E90 with a little firmware love is also ready for all this and a re-design in the style and intent of the E71/E51 would make the "E91" awesome. BTW, the email beta caused kernel errors when using GPS on my E90 so I had to remove it, so this is all a work in progress but a good effort.
I have Skype, MSN and Google talk running on min, in the background using Fring ( Eat that Apple ) I have Gmail MS exchange server
running and still pop3 support if I wanted
Best phone ever in my book,
Get a "normal" USB plug
Drop Headphone and Real media