e61 Nokia

e61 Nokia Review

The E6li stands out from other Nokia phones with its fresh new look and super slim profile.

After years of churning out functional but mostly chunky and staid-looking cellphones, the designers at Nokia have finally caught on to the trend of going super slim with their latest smartphone - the E61i.

The E6li joins the likes of Samsung's i600 and the BlackBerry 8800 with its trim profile, landscape screen and qwerty keyboard, but it is easily the best looker among the lot: a mocha-cum-stainless steel casing spells chic.

Measuring 13.9mm at the top and just 11.5mm at its slimmest end, the E61i looks way better than its boring-looking predecessor launched over a year ago, the all-silver E61. But don't expect major improvements in features - the two phones are mostly similar, except for the addition of a 2-megapixel camera in the E6li.

The E6li is also mostly similar to its competitors when it comes to other features, such as 3G and Wi-Fi capabilities, a 2.8-inch landscape QVGA screen, a built-in memory of 60MB and microSD memory card support of up to 2GB.

What's missing, though, is 3.5G connectivity, which some phones, such as the Samsung i600, already offer.

Like the Samsung i600, the E61i's screen isn't a touch-sensitive one. Fortunately, I had no problems with navigation, as the four-way button is easy to use.

The qwerty keyboard is of a decent enough size, but I found the keys lacking in tactile response. I liked the large 2.8-inch screen, but the onscreen icons are unnecessarily small, given the generous amount of real estate available.

The E6li runs on the proprietary S60 Platform 3rd Edition operating system, and I'm happy to report that this version is much more responsive compared to previous Symbian-based models.

What matters most to people who purchase smartphones is probably the suite of business features, and the E61i does not disappoint. For e-mail, the phone supports e-mail protocols such as POP/Imap and SMTP, Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email 8.0 and a variety of third-party e-mail clients like BlackBerry Connect v2.1.

For browsing, the Nokia Web browser comes with a mini-map feature that shows you which part of the webpage you are at.

There's also Quickword for editing Word documents, Quicksheet for editing Excel spreadsheets, Quickpoint for viewing PowerPoint presentations and Adobe Reader for PDF files.

Look out, too, for a fancy application that reads aloud your SMS messages in a rather robotic voice.

The MP3 player holds its own against any standalone MP3 player in playback quality.

Photos taken on the E61i were barely passable, though. Make sure you have good lighting conditions when using the camera, and even so, use it strictly for impromptu or urgent situations.

Voice quality does not disappoint, and the speakerphone is one of the loudest I've tested.

As for battery life, it is decent. With minimal multimedia and Wi-Fi usage, the E61i lasted just over two days before I had to recharge it. That's slightly better than other smartphones that I've tested recently.

- By Melvin Seah, who works in the IT industry.

FINAL SAY
Highly recommended. The E6li is not only a good looker, it has substance, and is relatively affordable.