Nokia E71

Although the Microsoft Exchange support that’s part of Apple's new 2.0 firmware now makes the iPhone and iPhone 3G a more plausible choice for business users looking for a sleek and shiny smartphone, the lack of a keyboard is still a deterrent for some savvy users. One alternative obvioulsy lies with Windows Mobile handsets, but now Nokia has another.

Wafer-thin and clad sleek stainless steel, the E71 looks every bit as stylish as Apple’s latest effort and while it may not have the same large, lush touch-screen, it does have that vital business smartphone ingredient – a keyboard.

The value of a physical keyboard is not to be under-estimated if you spend large chunks of your day (and night) tapping out emails and as good as the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is, some people are far more comfortable with the real thing.

Although it’s quite compact with very closely spaced keys, the E71’s keyboard is actually rather pleasant to use. The hard plastic keys are taller than they are wide and their ample travel ends with a palpable click. Their steeply curved profile makes each key distinct under a fingertip, through this type of keyboard is more comfortable to use with two thumbs.

A 4x4 group of keys in the middle double-up as the number pad, but the number legends could stand to be a little more obvious, since their pale grey background doesn’t really stand out against the dark grey keys.

You’ll need to press the Function key at bottom left of the keyboard to type numbers on anything other than the Home screen, as you do to type the smattering of punctuation symbols on the right of the keyboard. For some reason though, Nokia has relegated some frequently-used symbols to a separate pop-up panel, activated with the ‘Chr’ key at the bottom-right of the keyboard.

So, this means that five key-presses are required to type the ‘@’ symbol, and seven to type an underscore – which is very annoying for such frequently used characters. The pop-up panel does also show your most recently typed symbols in a row for speedier access, but we can’t understand why Nokia didn’t just put these symbols elsewhere on the keyboard for Function key access – just like the sensible arrangement on its predecessor, in fact. 

Ah yes, we probably should mention that the E71 is the nominal successor to Nokia’s first attempt to muscle in the on the Qwerty keyboard-equipped business smartphone market. Its first model, the E61, certainly had its plus points, but it was a little on the chunky side. The E71 is a good deal smaller and considerably thinner too – the main case is just 10mm thick, though the buttons add a little to this if you want to be picky.

This reduced size does mean that the E71’s screen is also a bit smaller than its predecessor’s, but the step down from 2.8in to 2.36in isn’t too detrimental. The screen is crisp and clear, but it isn’t the brightest we’ve seen, though that’s not to say it’s particularly murky. That said, we were initially foxed by the lack of screen backlight when the E71’s keypad is locked – the on-screen label for the soft ‘unlock’ key is all but invisible in this mode, though this isn’t something that will catch you (or us) out twice.

Despite the reduced dimensions, Nokia has also managed to cram in a few more buttons on the E71’s face. Along with the pair of soft keys and call start/end keys, there are also four quick-launch keys for the Home screen, and email, address book and diary applications. Nokia has also ditched the mini joystick used on the E61 and the E71 has a traditional four-way control pad instead, albeit with a twist – its outside edge now blinks with a cool white glow by way of a handset status alert.

The Symbian S60 operating system comes with the 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and it clips along at a fair old pace. Feature Pack 1 doesn’t introduce much in the way of new features, but the web browser is a notable improvement and it does a great job of rendering pages on the comparatively low resolution screen. It doesn’t make any attempt to repackage pages to fit their whole width on-screen, but if you scroll more than a short distance using the four-way pad and a whole-page overview pops up as a page overlay so you can see where you’re going.

The S60 FP1 browser still isn’t quite in the same league as Safari on the iPhone or Opera Mobile 9.5, but it’s streets ahead of Pocket Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile. As on the E61, the four-way pad moves an on-screen mouse pointer around, so selecting links and clicking buttons is much more intuitive than on other non-touch-screen smartphones.

We had cause to be very impressed with Apple’s implementation of Microsoft Exchange support in the new iPhone 2.0 firmware, since it takes just a few seconds to get push email and over-the-air syncing configured. Not to be outdone, Nokia provides an equally simple set-up on the E71 and we had our address book, diary and inbox synced with our server with ease.

The E71’s implementation isn’t quite as complete as the iPhone’s – the iPhone shows the full Inbox folder structure, subfolders and all; the E71 just shows the main inbox folder – and the Exchange inbox isn’t formatted to make best use of the low screen resolution. Still, if only Windows Mobile smartphones we as easy to set up…

As a further nod to its business leanings, the E71 has a hand dual-mode option that lets you switch between two Home screens. The idea is that you have one for work-related use and one for personal use, and each can have its own theme and application shortcuts, though both modes share the same personal data (email accounts, contacts, and so on). It’s a gimmick more than a useful feature, though we suppose it’s one way to keep games and questionable wallpaper out of your boss’s sight.

Take a look at the E71’s feature list and you’ll see that Nokia has crammed in pretty much everything available at the moment – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, assisted GPS, infrared and even an FM Tuner. It’s a pity that Nokia has opted for 2.5mm headset and Micro-USB ports, but we’ll forgive the latter thanks to the E71’s clever connectivity features. Plug it into a PC and not only does the smartphone appear as a mass storage device, but it also offers the option to work as a 3G modem and automatically installs the necessary software. Which is pretty nifty, if you ask us.

So, is the E71 the BlackBerry killer that Nokia intends? It certainly has the design panache to lure discerning business users away from RIM’s shiny handsets, but the BlackBerry OS still has the edge in terms of user-friendliness and easy access to its many features (though that’s also due in part to its intuitive scroll wheel/trackball navigation device).

Of course the E71’s spec list is overflowing too, but there’s on important omission that prevents it from taking on RIM in the enterprise space – support for push email via BlackBerry Connect. Now the E71’s Microsoft Exchange support is just as good, but this it little comfort for an organisation that uses BlackBerry Enterprise Server and is unwilling – or unable – to turn on ActiveSync for Exchange Server.

Nokia’s official (and somewhat bizarre, considering it supports BlackBerry connect on other devices) line on this is:

Blackberry Connect software is not supported in the Nokia E66 and E71. Nokia has not ceased offering Blackberry Connect on its devices. Except for the Nokia E51 (with and without camera), all other Nokia E-Series devices that are already in the hands of consumers or that are still being sold will have the Blackberry Connect client pre-installed, pre-loaded or available via Download!, and also via www.businesssoftware.nokia.com. For the Nokia E51, the Blackberry Connect client is available for certain operator variants.

So, while the Nokia E71 is an excellent smartphone and a commendable effort to compete with RIM and the BlackBerry, its one software shortcoming puts it out of reach of many enterprise users.