3 posts tagged “review”

Great Profile video from the guys over on Moblie Industry Review.  Anyone who knows Stefan, or has followed him from his blogging days at ringnokia.com, and IntoMobile will love this.

Welcome to my review of the Nokia E71 which I have completed solely  on the device.

 

First up, some actual keypad tests.....

 

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

 

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.

 

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

 

Testing key pad out on the Nokia E71

 

Keys get easier to use the more you use them.

 

Aabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

 

The above were some typing tests I learnt whilst completing my RSA 1 & 2 in typing many moons ago.

 

Holding down the keys numbered 1 to 9 displays the number of the corresponding key, which is handy.  The numbered keys, although shared, are differentiated with a grey area, and are located in the central area of the QWERTY keypad.

 

Any key with a secondary icon, or symbol, chooses the lower printed figure, pressing, and holding a key will display the secondary icon, or symbol. 

 

Now i will try to spell check what i type to see if it’s easy enough.

 

Ok, in options there is the option to switch on predictive text, which is off by default.  Also in options i noticed a setting for auto complete words, and although this is activated, I have not yet found how this works.

 

Right, I will now check in options again to see if I have missed something.

 

I have now switched to predictive text. As your typing now, you get both a small pop up which suggests a spelling, and also the word auto completes in the form of a ghost word, to select the correct ghost word you can either press the down button of the navigation key which lists several words to choose from, or press space to accept the suggested ghost word.

 

I have brought the E71 with me today to our summer cottage to get a series of photos, and to add to this document.   I'm now sitting in front of our wood burner typing this out as you read.  I'm getting used to the keys now, and finding my typing much faster than yesterday, I will, mention though, if you have cold hands and fingers the key presses become cumbersome. 

 

Back to the photos I have taken, I have taken some using close up mode, which if you press key T while in camera mode this will assist auto focus.  I have also taken shots with and without the built in flash.

 

The E71 screen is easy enough to see is direct sunlight which makes using the device outdoors a breeze; I'm actually now sitting by the lake outside our summer cottage and having no problems typing this at all.

 

The choice of default icons that are used in the menus are quite different from any I have seen before in an s60 3rd edition device, they look kind of childish, similar to a cartoon, with many colours. Check out the screenshots I have added below.

 

I'm sure many owners will soon change these for a more professional looking icon pack.

V100.07.76 is currently the only firmware available for the E71-1 as can be seen in the image below, however, Im sure the next new firmware update won't be too far away now.  If you look at the photos taken by the device, you will see a purple tint to them, which I hope would be fixed in the new firmware.

The construction of the E71 is superb, very solid, consisting of a mixture of mirror finished stainless steel and solid non flimsy plastic. The back battery cover is also stainless steel, with two foam strips stuck to the inside to keep everything nice and snug, keeping the battery from being loose, while the outside of the back has a kind of effect engraved on it, of which reminds me of those old type cigarette cases from the 1960s, also nokia e series is also present.

 

while I’m talking about the back I will mention the main camera, which is located to the upper part of the rear casing, it’s a 3.2mp camera with single led flash next to it and they are sitting nice and flush in the white plastic, which in sunlight gives off a pearl effect which is quite nice.

 

Removing, and inserting the memory card can be a little fliddly if you have short fingernails...

 

The on board car racing game is surprisingly impressive, will smooth running graphics.

 

Using the built in gps it took a couple of minutes to get a lock at first launch, and when done so, in order to zoom in, you have to use the key with the upward pointing arrow, which sits to the left of the space bar, between the bottom left key, and the @ key.  To zoom out you use the delete key.  If you’re like me, and only look through the manual as a last resort, you will be a little confused here, as it’s a strange choice of keys.  Second launch got a GPS lock in less than a minute.

 

While I'm talking about the keys, I would like to tell you about some of the short cut keys. The home key if pressed briefly takes you to the first menu, and when you press, and hold this key it shows any active applications that are running in the background, which makes multitasking a breeze.  To close any applications is the shown list of running applications, just highlight the application you wish to close, and press the delete key, you will then be asked to confirm this action.

 

The calendar key which is to the right of the home key takes you to the very well presented calendar, which is quite impressive with nice graphics, and smooth scrolling navigation through the months.  Now this is what impressed me most, is when you press, and hold the calendar key, you are taken to an option to enter details for a new meeting, which allows a multitude of options to enter.

 

The contact key to the immediate right of the d pad, when pressed takes you to your stored contacts, and when held down allows you to add a new contact. Also just entering a phone number from the standby screen allows you to do this also.

 

The message key when pressed takes you to new message, while if held takes you to your email.

 

The keys on the right hand side of the E71  are the volume up and down toggle keys, with the voice tag key inbetween them.  These keys are very easy to press, and positively click per press.

 

When the E71 is in standby mode, the d pad is illuminated periodically with a soft pulsing white glow around the circumference of the select key, which is a welcoming sight.

 

The battery so far following a full charge has lasted 46 hours, and still show three bars.

Im now working, and typing this on my laptop, with all of the above completed on the E71.!  QuickOffice documents are compatible with Microsoft Windows Office 2007 (WORD).

PC Suite 7, with the E71 connected.

I hope you enjoyed my onboard review, I have taken some close up photos of the device for your viewing pleasure.  You will also see some side by side comparison photos, with the N81 8GB, and N95-1 & 2.