After eyeing the phone for more than a month, I finally succumbed to the temptation and got myself the Nokia E71. The latest in the Nokia E-series, the E71 has garnered enough favourable reviews and opinions for it to easily become the most popular smart phone of the year (if not the best). 

The Nokia E71 - Source FlickR Ho0n

What catches the eyes is its sleek chrome, metal finish, the impeccably laid out QWERTY keypad and the attention to details. Visual innovations include a diffused strobe light around the D-pad (navigation key) when you have a missed call or message.

I’ve yet to see such an elegant, smart and contemporary looking mobile phone. The E71 comes in three color variants, the white-steel (white keypad, and chrome metal covering), grey-steel and all black. 

Drool! - the Nokia E71 - Courtesy FlickR Bilderheld

I’ve gone for the white-steel, as it looks the sleekest of the lot, and breaks the convention. The grey-steel color variant would have been my second choice.

Keypad of the Nokia E71 - Source FlickR Andrew Currie

Looks aside, the Nokia E71 comes packed with features and utilities that could out-do any contemporary smart-phone. 

Sample this, a full host of connectivity options and tools, the ability to view and edit Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) with the Quickoffice suite, a full fledged web browser based on the Nokia web-kit with support for flash, Internet Telephony, Barcode reader, Multiscanner (business card, text scanner), GPS receiver with Nokia Maps preloaded, and a plethora of software and applications. 

As for e-mailing, the Nokia E71 has a native e-mail application that supports IMAP/POP3, Microsoft Exchange and push e-mail; definitely a competition to the Blackberry in this department. 

The E71 in perspective - Source FlickR Bilderheld

Beneath the hood is the power packed, ARM11 Freescale CPU that churns 369 Mhz of processing power. The E71 is based on the S60 platform v3.1 that runs on the Symbian OS v9.2. The phone comes with 110 MB of internal memory with support for up to 8 GB of external memory.

Last, but certainly not the least, is the amazing stamina this phone exudes. The 1500 mAh battery gives you 10.5 hours of talk time and 17 days of standby time (GSM); 18 hours of music playback time!

The Nokia E71 1500 mAh battery vs 950 mAh battery of the Nokia N95 - Source FlickR kikuyumoja

But the Nokia E71 isn’t without its negatives, albeit a few of them. To me the most glaring drawback is the camera, which delivers poor quality images. Like the Apple iPhone, the E71’s camera is there for posterity’s sake and not an enhancement.

Overall, the E71 is a winner all the way, and kudos to Nokia for getting back firmly in the lead with this stunner of a phone.