A Week In The Life of a Nokia E71 User - Enter The Social Media User's Dream Device
Written by Glenn Letham
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
It was back in June 2008
that the E71 was officially released to the public - the selling points
for the E71 were a sleek, stylish do-it-all device that came with Mail
for Exchange mobile email client - pre-loaded with the Nokia E71.
Actually, the device boasted much much more than these attributes as
you'll see below in my findings after having the pleasure of making the
E71 my main device for 3 weeks... enjoy the recap, the images and the
videos!
I had the cool Nokia E71 smartphone at my disposal for a couple of weeks and having said that, it simply wasn't long enough! This bad-boy runs on Symbian S60 3, sports a large screen, QWERTY keypad, Bluetooth, GPS, loads of memory, incredible apps, camera, video, and much more.
Did-U-Know... The Nokia E71 is the world's thinnest QWERTY handset and supports the latest Ovi services, including maps, music and media sharing.
A Social Media Experiment
In addition to simply using the device, I (along with 34 other E71 "beta" users at NokiaOpenLab 08) also had a chance to take part in a very interesting social networking test where a group of 35 people were introduced to each other, provided with a mobile device (Nokia E71 in this case) and told to have at er... setting us free in Helsinki to collaborate, socialize and communicate via whatever means we could. At the end of the day, the group Wiki, Twitter, Jaiku, Flickr, Qik, and Ovi proved invaluable in bringing us closer together and enabled us to have a much different experience had these mobille technologies not existed. I'm glad to say that a number of us OpenLab "graduates" are still actively communicating with each other via various social media outlets, and we're also connected via our mobiles (ala Jaiku, Twitter, Flickr, etc...). That in itself I think is a testament that this device far exceeded it's expectations.
In addition to staying in touch with my social media resources, I also ran a number of cool application on the E71 including: Shozu, zurfer, Boopsie, locr, zonetag, google maps mobile, Sports tracker, Twibble and many others - the list of supported S60 application is almost endless - perhaps the best thing about using an S60 device.
The E71 has a dual personality - it's the perfect mobile companion for the business user (think push email, messaging, office functionality etc... but it's also a cool device for the non-business user - 3MP camera, video, messaging, web browsing, MP3 etc... One of the really cool features I enjoyed with the device is listening to messages and email. A message to developers of location-aware apps, Nokia wants to encourage developers to create innovative LBS apps to run on the E71 or N95 smartphones (think LBS Challenge) . Nokia will provide qualifying contestants with handsets and software tools to enable the development of LBS applications based on multiple platforms including S60 for Symbian OS, Java ME, Python as well as the WHERE platform in the Americas region. Nokia will also provide qualifying contestants with their choice of the Nokia E71 or Nokia N85 handset to develop their location-enabled applications for the competition.
So, without further procrastination, the 10 coolest things about the Nokia e71
QWERTY keyboard. The large, comfortable keypad is a dream for anyone not familiar with the mobile QWERTY keypad. The keys are comfortable and convenient. With social media being THE thing for the mobile user this device will enable the user to Tweet, Jaiku, or text 5 times faster than before.
large screen - given that we access the mobile web so frequently now this screen size makes browsing the web so much more enjoyable. watching video and movies is little effort o strain on the eyes.
email - no doubt many uses are content with texting as a means of mobile communication, however, the large screen coupled with comfortable keyboard enables the user to read and compose email at lightning speed. Add in the new mobile email from Nokia and any novice can easily configure the device to receive and send email on the go. See more on Nokia's Email service (Beta) here
S60 3 UI + GPS - with an S60 device you have ample apps that ship on the device and even better, thousands moe at you disposal. Within 30 minutes of having the device I had already loaded myYahoo! mobile, Google mobile apps (maps, search, gmail docs), Qik, zonetag, locr, WHERE and several other loction aware apps designed to take advantage of the built-in GPS.
dual profiles - easily swap your profile from work mode to play with this handy feature. Changing profiles not only alters the look of your screen but also puts different apps at you fingertips on the homescreen. Likely a little known feature but highly usable - and fun!
stylish - there's no question that this device is hot looking! A shinny case, large screen, full keypad, slender design. It also fits nicely into your pockets and really does function and look like one of the hottest devices you could have - simply put, it will turn heads!
battery power - not once while i was traveling did I run out of power even though i was gabbing loads of video, photos, and even using the GPS quite a bit. Surprisingly, the device seems to chug along on the last bar for quite a long time. A quick 15 or 20 minute charge and you have plenty of power to get you where you need to be - this was also one of the nice hidden qualities
accessing my social media - given that I have access to the cool Nokia email service, texting via full qwerty keypad and loads of apps on the device like twibble, jaiku, ping.fm, and shozu for my media, updating my social networks is a breeze and fast ala e71... this device is a dream for anyone wanting/needing to keep up with their social networks... perhaps the hottest thing about this device
my traveling office - what do you get when you combine email access with full office functionality?? Once again, the design and form factor make this device ideal for staying in synch with the office... toss in a Bluetooth keyboard and who needs a PC!
my mobile music - not to be outdone, the E71 sports a fine music player coupled with loads of memory (and memory card slot) enabling users to have access to a huge collection of tunes.. a must have! Throw in mobblr (last.fm mobile client for S60) and you'll have a mobile music dream companion!
Bonus Feature that I really dig! Listen to your email!
The slideshow below shows a few images of the device which is an ideal personal and business companion... Blackberry has nothing on this one!
Now, don't get me wrong, the E71 also has a few short comings, however, they don't come close to off-setting all the great features! Most notably, the prominent disappointments are likely: The camera - we've heard from many blogs that the camera simply doesn't cut it. Well, at 3.2 megapixels, along with integrated video it does the job - almost! Where users will run into issues is by simply opening the camera app and clicking away. Under "normal" outdoor conditions it seems that a purplish haze comes along with your shot. However, if you mess a little with the settings you can easily come up with a great looking shot with nice color. I found the most notable poor quality photos came in low light, indoors when using the flash - the photos are simply sooo grainy that you really can't do much with them. See this flickr slide-show where I compare images captured via E71 alongside the same shots grabbed with a Nokia N95 8GB.
And don't worry, it's not all work and no play with the E71... see below this demo of a gaming app that we tested on the E71 - thanks to WhatleyDude for guiding us through the demo!
The video camera was also a little buggy at times, frequently shutting down in mid data capture after about a minute of use... I've noticed others comment on this feature as well - perhaps a firmware update is needed? Finding apps and tools - this is no surprise as it seems with every different Nokia device I use and every change in version of the S60 UI the apps are stored in different places. I found myself clicking around a fair bit trying to locate apps where I thought they might be... most notably is the disappearance of the "Application" folder - strange! A surprise... the biggest surprise for me was the strong battery power - if you turn over the E71 and open up the cover you'll see that its all battery inside! After several weeks of use I don't think I ran out of juice once! Although I was on one bar a couple of times but the E71 just kept on running.
The E71 is indeed a powerhouse, a workhorse, and it fit beautifully with my lifestyle and suited my needs, both as a business user, social media afficianado, and for my casual, entertainment needs. This being the first E-series device I've had the pleasure of using, I have to say I am hooked on the QWERTY keypad, likely because of my affinity for keeping in touch with my social networks. I'm back to the grind now with the my N95 8GB (and a loaner N82) and I have to admit I simply can't get used to trying to input text sans QWERTY. Seem that my friend CT Moore (aka Gypsybandito) agrees (see his farewell to his Nokia E71 video below) and is missing his E71 almost as much as I am! Perhaps one will fall out of the sky one day and we'll be reunited... if not, Christmas is coming and I can only hope!
Interesting to note that just this week, Nokia has announced the release of yet another e-series device, the E63... much similar to thh E71, the company is also touting the business device as a social media companion, the company promotes it as "a messaging device where people will be just as involved in their social network as they are in their business network." It seems that the E-series of devices are rapidly becoming the social media user's dream device of choice... I know it is for me!
Detailed specs on the E71 are available for you to see Here. See also this first look, E71 unboxing video... enjoy!
If you're interested in hearing what others had to say about the E71 I suggest you also check out:
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