Nokia E71

Available now
16th June 2008
NEW! - Play / download MP3 podcast

The new Nokia E71 follows in the footsteps of the E61i messaging phone, one of only a very small number of Symbian handsets to come with a QWERTY keyboard.

It is significantly more compact and lighter than the E61i, it comes with faster networking, a better camera and GPS too. But on the negative side, the E71's display is smaller and the keyboard looks altogether more cramped.

Measuring 114 x 57 x 10mm and weighing 126 grams, the Nokia E71 is certainly larger than most contemporary 3G phones, but this is mainly due to the wide 2.4" 320 x 240 pixel display, keyboard and large 1500 mAh battery. At just 10mm thick, it will be easy to slip into a pocket, unlike its bulky predecessor.

On the back of the Nokia E71 is a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, and there is a secondary video calling camera on the front. We do hope that Nokia will make a camera-less version of this phone, as they did with the Nokia E51. Nokia's launch information is inconsistent about video capture resolution, but as far as we can tell it is 640 x 480 pixels at 22 frames per second, which is pretty good.

The keyboard is a full QWERTY arrangement plus some navigation keys, but they are bunched quite closely together where the E71 had spacing in between them to help prevent multiple keys being pressed down at the same time. Bear in mind though that the E71 is 57mm wide, and the E61i is 70mm wide, a whopping 13mm difference.

Built into the Nokia E71 is A-GPS with the Nokia Maps application, which is free for basic functionality but requires a fee for full satellite navigation. The 2.4" screen isn't particularly large, and the E71 will suffer because it lacks touchscreen capabilities.

This is an HSDPA capable device, with a maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps (where supported). The E71 will come in three  dual-band WCDMA variants, 850/2100 MHz [E71-3], 850/1900 MHz [E71-2] and 900/2100 MHz [E71-1] depending on region, plus quad-band GSM with GPRS and EDGE data. On top of that, the E71 has 802.11b and g WiFi.

Local connectivity is via a microUSB connector, Bluetooth or infra-red. The Nokia E71 also has a 2.5mm AV output for wired headphones.

The E71 has a pretty typical suite of enterprise-class applications, including a document viewer, push email support and the usual array of S60 functions. Nokia say that the E71 has "two home screens", presumably a "work" and a "home" one. Of course, the E71 also has a multimedia player.

Internal memory is 110MB, expandable to 8GB using microSD cards. The large 1500 mAh battery can drive the E71 for up to 4.5 hours talktime on 3G, 10 hours talktime on GSM and 18 hours of music playback.

Nokia say that the E71 should be available from July onwards in "grey steel" and "white steel" colour combinations for around €350 / £280 / $550 before tax and subsidy.