E71Blog.com

Andrew Boxall, over at Dial-A-Phone, has reviewed the Nokia E71, looking at every feature and even how it fits in with Nokia’s lineup. Most of the review is also spent comparing the Nokia E71 to the recently launched Apple iPhone 3G, against which it actually fares rather well.

Despite the smaller screen and less intuitive web browsing, Andrew decides that the E71 bests the iPhone 3G in several areas, including the awesome QWERTY keyboard and GPS implementation. What do you think? Have you had a chance to compare directly with the iPhone 3G?

Yes, that’s right, Joel Spolsky is in love with his Nokia E71. Who’s Joel Spolsky? Well, he’s the author of ‘Joel on Software’, and he’s been playing with his Nokia E71 now for a while. Joel’s favorite features by far are the keyboard and overall build quality, which I would have to agree with.

To start out, Joel only had a shortlist of things he wanted in his next phone:

1. He wanted a phone with a decent MP3 player, so as not to have to carry two devices.
2. He wanted to be able to use the phone’s internet connection to get online with his laptop on the train out to the Hamptons (there’s tolerable 3G coverage on AT&T for the first two hours of the trip).
3. He needed great Exchange synchronization, not just an IMAP client. For the last few weeks he’s been desperately trying to get Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero concept working and you need a great Exchange client, not a 1.0 Exchange client.

It seems that the E71 was an excellent choice for Joel. Have you gotten your mitts on the Nokia E71 yet? What things do you love about it, and what drives you nuts? Don’t forget to click over to read Joel’s full thoughts, as he compares it directly to the iPhone 3G in a pretty honest little list.

One of the biggest ‘wow’ factors of the E71 is the new predictive text feature, the first of its kind on a QWERTY Nokia. I’ve been trying it out on my Nokia E71, and while I was first tempted to disable it, I’ve definitely gotten used to it, and now see it as a very valuable feature. Vaibhav over at The Symbian Blog has put together a great little walkthrough - with screenshots - showing the various aspects of this new feature, to give you an idea.

Also, he’s pitted the E71, with its predictive text, against the Nokia E90, former QWERTY Nokia champion, and the Nokia N78, with its standard numeric keypad and T9 predictive text. He’s done well in documenting the findings scientifically, and I was surprised to see the end results, that’s for sure.

Personally, I think that I’m able to type much faster on the E71 with its predictive text entry, what about you?

The MobileMinistryMagazine.com has gotten ahold of the E71 now, though unfortunately for them, it’s the Euro version, so no 3G goodness. The initial reactions post covers how small the device really is, while noting that the battery is a monstrous 1500mAh powerhouse.

Antoine handed his E71 over to a friend who’s used to the BlackBerry Curve, and the gut reaction from her was ’small yet powerful.’

Following up is his 2nd post, where he looks at the design, usage, and initial conclusions, after several days of usage. I couldn’t help but notice that Antoine used the term ‘impressive’ repeatedly, showing that Nokia has come from left field to hit the enterprise market head-on with the Nokia E71.

What do you think? Is the E71 just another Nokia, or could it do some real damage to the BlackBerry market share in the U.S. specifically?

The gang over at BoyGeniusReport.com have been reviewing the E71 since before most of us knew we loved it, and the latest installment offers quite a telling comparison. The Nokia E71 is quite possibly one of the hottest QWERTY smartphones to hit the market this year, right there next to the upcoming BlackBerry Bold. Of course, then, it only makes sense to pitch them against each other, to see who the best QWERTY smartphone really is.

Covering every aspect from the screen to the battery life to the keyboard to email, this is definitely one thorough head-to-head comparison. I won’t ruin the results for you, but I will say that the E71 is always the winner in my heart. You can find out the end result for yourself here.

Wow, I’ve seen a ton of E71 reviews thus far, but one thing I haven’t seen is a negative review. You can imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this review on SymbianInMotion.com titled ‘Nokia E71 - The Letdown’. Abul points out a few things that irk me on the E71, as well, such as the camera implementation and the 2.5mm audio jack.

The camera button….oh wait, there’s not one, strike one. Strike two comes when you want to use the autofocus, for which the ‘T’ button is used. Rather odd, since, other than physical location (and without any indicator on the button itself), this makes zero logical sense.

The 2.5mm headset port is less annoying, since you *are* supplied with a stereo headset courtesy of Nokia, but as Abul points out, these are seldom suitable for real music enjoyment. You could always swing down to your nearest Radio Shack to rummage for a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter, but why should you need to?

You’ll want to click through to read the rest of Abul’s complaints against this smartphone beauty. What other letdowns can you think of?

Jonathan Greene, over at the Atmaspheric Endeavors blog, has finally put together his thoughts on the Nokia E71 after a few weeks of usage. Jonathan seems to be a power user, with Mail for Exchange running constantly and a host of other battery-sucking activities rocking constantly.

Jonathan also has a BlackBerry Curve that he uses for work, and an iPhone that apparently sits dormant until called upon to be compared to something else. As a previous E61 and E61i user, Jonathan brings a new perspective to the E71 reviews we’ve covered here, and he’s even put together a nice little video for us.

Over at the aptly named TheNokiaBlog, Mark has taken his review E71 out on the mean streets of New York City on Apple day to see what the folks in line at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue are up to.

As you can see, the video quality is decent, definitely up there against the other QWERTY enabled smartphones on the market. At 640×480 resolution, but only 15 frames per second, the E71’s video looks great on YouTube, and you can upload directly to Share on Ovi or Flickr straight from the phone, which is definitely handy!

At some point, it’s going to be my turn to unbox this bad boy, but in the meantime, here’s another great little unboxing video from a guy named Trent. This is by far the most comprehensive unboxing that I’ve seen, complete with on-screen labels to tell you about the various items included in the box.

Trent gives a much more detailed look at the little leather sleeve included in the package, and I have to say, I really like the look of it. I do wish it had a belt clip or some other function, aside from simply protecting the handset, but I can’t really knock it too hard.

I’m looking forward to getting my own grey US 3G E71 in the next few weeks, so you’ll certainly want to stay tuned as I promise to do a series of in-depth videos looking at it.

Monadi at Phone-Rush has recently taken his Nokia E71 along with him for a weekend at Big Bear Lake, California. Normally, I wouldn’t think of taking a high-end handset such as the E71 into the great outdoors, but it seems to have done ok.

There are two videos showing off the lower-quality, but still acceptable video capture of the E71 (as compared to something like the N95). Personally, I think they’re OK, given the current recording capabilities of most business-minded smartphones. Not many businesspeople are out recording big videos with their smartphones, so the lower framerate doesn’t bother me at all. Here’s one of the videos:

Also, there are a handful of photos taken with the cell phone’s 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, and I think they turned out rather well. The far-off details seem to blend together, but mid-range to upclose turn out really well. You can flip through his photostream on Flickr here.