more on My review of the Nokia E61 cell phone

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ibd com>
Date: November 28, 2006 1:22:31 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: Re: [IP] My review of the Nokia E61 cell phone

I also have had the E61 (not the crippled E62 from Cingular WARNING  
THE CINGULAR E62 DOES NOT HAVE WIFI and who knows what else Cingular  
forced Nokia to take out)

It is the best smart phone I've had so far and makes all the Windows  
based devices look like toys.

That being said, it shows that the "smart phone" catagory has a way  
to go. I am a super sophisticated (technically at least :-) geek and  
I still have problems navigating the UI if I want to do something  
more than the basics. The setup of WiFi is not intuitive or  
consistant unless you want to seek for an AP each time you access wifi.

Its not optimal for those who are past the point where their eyes  
can't see fine detail up close. The fonts of the numbers in the  
contact list are tiny, the numbers on the keypad are not clear in the  
dark even though the keypad is backlit, the numbers (and only the  
numbers) are in reverse contrast and at least I can't see them  
without putting on reading glasses.

Also the layout of the numbers is not the phone standard (it could be  
that I have a German keyboard and I'm an English typist, make sure  
you get a phone from an English country if you are an english typist!)

But all my complaints (except for the keypad numbers) can be fixed in  
firmware upgrades. I've already had one and it fixed several previous  
problems (like slow contact list access). Plus there are open source  
SDKs including one in Ruby (that I hope to play with when I ever get  
some time). So its really available for development.

The form factor is pretty good (for a smart phone). It doesn't have a  
touch screen which I kind of miss.

It does sync with my Mac via bluetooth (had to do a tiny hack to get  
it to be recognized, its well published on the net). Also got it to  
act as a high speed modem over bluetooth for my Mac for when I don't  
have any other connectivity.

Google Maps ap and Google reader work great on it.

So I do highly recommend it as the best current business / geek  
oriented smart phone, but its not yet Phone Nirvana.

Rob

On Nov 28, 2006, at 9:12 AM, David Farber wrote:

> I have had the phone for maybe four months and wanted to give it a  
> good set of tests prior to a report on it.
>
> Bottom line .. one of the best smart cell phones I have used yet.
>
> The E61 is a thinnish phone somewhat the size of the Motorola Q  
> (see photo and specs at http://europe.nokia.com/phones/e61).  No  
> camera (I find that an advantage)
>
> It handles a quad GSM bands and WCDMA and Edge. It has a wifi  
> capability. Mostly all one could ask for. The battery life is  
> fantastci. I have yet to drain the battery down with extensive use  
> of email etc.
>
> I run Mail for Exchange on it and the push mail works very very  
> well. There are a set of apps that come with it that are handy and  
> there are a lot f apps out there for the S60 3 software.
>
> I have used it successfully in Europe and JAPAN!!!! on the 3G and  
> GSM networks.
>
>
> The stability is fine with only very infrequent freezes (compared  
> to MS Mobile software).
>
>
> All in all a great phone that often replaces my Mac as the unit I  
> travel with.
>
> I use T-Mobile in the USA and their international roaming is  
> reasonably priced (well unreasonable but good compared to others)
>
>
> Dave
>
>
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Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
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