WOMWorld/Nokia

E71 – ‘sturdiest business’ device

July 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am

Andy Hadfield, writing on the Tech Leader site in South Africa, has had his hands on an E71 and took a novel approach to his review. Noting down the salient points after just one hour with the device, he came back to them a week later to see if his mind had been changed by more prolonged usage.

He starts by saying it ‘fixes almost everything that was wrong with’ the E61, and the new device provides a ‘solid, high-performance business package’. But let’s start with the ‘cons’ in Andy’s list – the ‘smaller’ keys make for tougher typing for the large of thumb, yet Andy doesn’t know where the ‘perfect point’ for key size is. The screen is a touch smaller, and the Symbian interface redesign ‘didn’t work’. On the plus side, however, Andy thinks it is ‘sleeker and better looking’ than its predecessors and the keyboard gives ‘much better’ tactile feedback. The ‘instant’ device search and app finder is a ‘nice job’, and he is a fan of the fact that the web browser now remembers previously inputted names and passwords.

His conclusion is a thinly-veiled swipe at iPhone fanboys, but what do you think? Does the E71 cut it in a sphere loaded with high-end business devices? Get over to his pages and let him know your thoughts on the matter.