A weekend with the E71

The Nokia E71 is one of the most exciting phones to be released in 2008. With a long list of highly sought after features in a thin package, the E71 is going to change a lot of lives for business users who need a QWERTY keyboard.



I just got the Nokia E71 last week from WOM World and spent a full weekend with it:


Friday
3:00am
Wake up to the sound of the E71's alarm. I don't remember sleeping.

3:05pm
Check my flight status using the Nokia browser on my E71 over my apartment's WiFi network. It shows my flight is on time. No need to open a laptop.

3:15am
Use Nokia Maps with the E71's integrated GPS to provide me turn by turn voice navigation to the airport. No more printing directions from MapQuest!

4:00am
One of the freeways is closed for construction so I make a wrong turn into an industrial area. Thank goodness I have Nokia Maps on my E71. It does a quick recalculation and navigates me through the area to the airport.

5:50am
A quick check of the weather using the Nokia web browser connected through the airport's wireless internet saves me roaming charges and shows me the weather is going to be great this weekend.

6:20am
My flight is boarding so I take a quick photo with the built-in 3.2MP camera before I need to turn it off.


8:00am
My plane touches down and I'm immediately synchronized with my company's Exchange mail through Nokia's Mail for Exchange. My company is very focussed on security so they only allow Windows Mobile 6, Apple iPhones, and Nokia E-series devices to connect to their servers using ActiveSync. I receive an e-mail from my manager with an Excel spreadsheet and asked to update the status of each of the listed items. I open the spreadsheet using the E71's build-in Quickoffice spreadsheet make some updates, calculations are automatically updated, and I send it back to my manager.

8:45am
Onto another flight and another photo opportunity for me.


11:30am
I land again at another airport. I take some photos of the airport


11:45am
Catch up with news while I wanted for my pick up. Browsing is fast and more enjoyable over Rogers' 3.5G HSDPA network. With full HTML support, web pages look on Nokia's web browser as they do on Firefox or Internet Explorer. The added Adobe Flash support is icing on the cake when you're browsing YouTube or visit a web site that uses Flash for their navigation. You don't get Flash support on an Apple iPhone web browser.

1:00pm
Have Indian buffet for lunch and take some photos for my food blog.


4:00pm
My work day is over so I use the E71's Modes to switch from Work to Personal mode so I have my gmail connected instead of my work e-mail.

Saturday
11:30am
Wake up to my E71's alarm. With S60 3rd edition FP1, you can have multiple alarms.

11:45am
I'm expecting some work e-mail today so switch from Personal mode back to Work so I quickly see my Exchange mail on Active Standby.

12:00pm
Lunch photos look good with the macro and autofocus support on the 3.2 MP camera of the E71.


1:00pm
Receive an e-mail from work. I need to check some migrations logs. I ask my coworker to zip up the XML and HTML report and e-mail it to me. Using the built-in zip, I'm able to open the zip file and review the logs. I send back a reply to make some changes to the migration steps and to proceed with the migrations. I get an e-mail from my manager on his iPhone, "Show off". I'm loving it.

2:00pm
We didn't come prepared and didn't look up the address of the museum.
Using the E71, I look up the address using Nokia's web browser. They don't have an address since it's out in the middle of no where but provide very detailed GPS coordinates. I open Garmin XT and we're off.

3:00pm
At the museum and taking photos of the amazing dinosaurs and exhibits.


6:00pm
Take some more photos of the scenery on the drive back home. I'm travelling at 110km/h (about 68 miles/h) in the car so I'm amazed the E71's camera is so quick.



Sunday
1:30pm
Chat on the phone while I went for my flight.

5:00pm
Stream a few minutes of YouTube on Mobitubia over 3.5G HSDPA to pass the time. 3G is fast on the E71, approaching the speed I get on WiFi with the E71.

8:00pm
While on the plane, I switch the E71 to offline mode. I watch a few minutes of Disney's Cars encoded in MP4 on RealPlayer. The vibrant and bright screen looks great in landscape.

8:30pm
I'm typing out a review in Quickoffice. I'm loving the comfortable QWERTY keyboard on the E71.

11:00pm
I'm back on ground and need to find my way home. Out comes my E71 and GPS is there to help me again.

11:45pm
I found my way home. I start Fring on my E71 and make a call through Google Talk over my apartment's WiFi. No long distance charges apply :)

All this on one battery charge and with 3G turned on. That is amazing. The Nokia E71 has the flexibility and power to keep up. I love the E71's comfortable QWERTY keyboard, support for fast WiFi and HSDPA, and a 3.2MP autofocus camera to round out the package. Stay tuned for a full review of the E71!