So, I finally decided to get a smart phone. After a lot of research, I chose the Nokia E71. The decision was mainly based on the form factor and good reviews. Beyond that, I had never owned a Nokia product, nor even seen the Symbian S60 OS. So after using it a few days, what are my first impressions?  Honestly, I am impressed.  The build quality of the phone is great.  It actually feels substantial when you are holding it.  I have held a number of smart phones and few compare.  One thing that I was worried about was the keys.  They are quite small and tightly packed (as you can see in the photo above).  But, after using it for a few minutes, my worries subsided.  Each key actually is a bit rounded in the middle.  This makes it really easy to distinguish one from its neighbor.

So, what about the Symbian OS?  Honestly, I did not like the look of it a whole lot out of the box.  The icons were brightly colored and it looked like the designer tried to make a poor attempt at making the phone look consumer friendly.  However, I knew this going in and I quickly switched the theme to Noble Gray by Gabb.  This instantly gave the phone a more professional feel.  It is definitely made a world of difference.  As far as the pre-installed apps go, it is a mixed bag.  The built-in browser is surprisingly good.  So far, it renders all my regular destinations extremely well.  The email and messaging apps are decent.  And, the built-in maps app seems to be pretty good, but it looks like it requires a license to open most of the core functionality.  Because I rely heavily on GMail and other Google apps, I have primarily relied on the Google Mobile Apps suite for a lot of my email and maps needs.  Personally, I think the suite is a must-install for any E71 user.  Beyond the Google Apps suite, I have also installed Twibble as my default Twitter client.  It seems to work pretty well, so far.

One thing that was really important to me when making my smart phone decision was day-to-day usage of the phone.  And, this is really where the phone shines.  This phone was built around productivity.  If you want to send a text message or make a phone call, you simply start typing the name of your contact at the main screen.  This brings up a quick submenu of possible contacts.  From this submenu, you can send a new text or make a call.  There are also a number of shortcut keys built into the phone.  I have picked up a few already, and am learning new ones as I go.  Basically, this E71 makes it really easy to get common tasks done.

So overall, my first impressions of the phone are pretty positive.  Really, what I am most impressed with is the ability to customize the OS out-of-the-box.  So far, everything that I did not like about the device, I was able to change with little difficulty.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 8:47 am and is filed under Technology. 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.