Preview: Nokia E71 Phone

Well, you knew it was coming, and now it’s official: the E71 will start shipping in July.

This sleek Eseries successor to the E61/E61i/E62 is Nokia’s latest attempt to crush the rampaging juggernaut known as the BlackBerry. Except behind the BlackBerry is a nice long line of competitors, ranging from Samsung’s Blackjack II, the Moto Q whatever, any of HTC’s devices, and of course, a little phone called the iPhone (3G).

So the first, real noticeable difference between the E71 and the E61i is the size. The E71 measures a thin 114 x 57 x 10 mm, compared to the E61i’s 117 x 70 x 13.9 mm. What you can’t quantify, however, is that the E71 looks about 100 times “better,” than the aforementioned E61i which I consider a rather ugly device. Either way, one consequence of making the entire device smaller is that the screen size has also shrunk considerably, down to 2.4″.

The E71 is also lighter by about 23 grams.

Other major upgrades are the inclusion of HSDPA 850/2100 or 850/1900 depending on version, an integrated GPS + A-GPS, a better camera (3.2 megapixel, autofocus, flash), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP supported, longer talk time (a whopping 10.5 hours with the same 1500 mAh battery), and more memory.

And just for the hell of it, Nokia’s also thrown in the ‘ol “orientation sensor,” which means you can silence your E71 by flipping it over.

Since it’s an Eseries phone, there are a number of enterprise apps preloaded on the phone, the first of which is Microsoft’s Mail for Exchange mobile client. You can also use Nokia’s Intellisync email as well as other third-party services. An onboard VPN client allows you to tunnel into your company’s intranet and “device lock and wipe to protect corporate information.” No messing around with this phone.

Expect the Nokia E71 phone to retail for about 350 euros ($541 USD).

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Nokia Phone News, Nokia Phone Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.