Nokia E71: Three Years in Review

Even surrounded by numerous 3.5+ inch touchscreen smartphones, the Nokia E71 still stands out as one of the best QWERTY keyboard equipped phones for me.

The Good
I'm still using it and nothing inside the E71 has failed on me.  This phone is like a tank and I'm fairly confident it could last me a few more years of use.  My usage pattern has likely changed in the 3 years I've had the phone, but at this point I mainly use the phone for company e-mail through Mail for Exchange (improved a lot since I had the E71), Smartconnect, Garmin XT (one of the best navigation software for a smartphone and still better than most available for Android), notes, texting, and making phone calls.  I no longer use it for browsing the web after I got a Nokia N900 and most web pages don't render properly in the old S60 browser.

In the 3 years, I've dropped my E71 a lot of times and the most I've got is chipped corners.  Definitely a tank.

Its design is timeless.  I still get compliments on the elegant, thin design of the E71.  It's unfortunate that most will not consider getting a Nokia and S60/Symbian is not easy to configure compared to an iPhone.

The Bad
In the 2 years since I wrote my first year of use review of the E71, a few things have changed from wear and tear:

1. After 1.5 years of use, dust was getting under the display through the 2.5mm audio jack:

I had to seal the 2.5mm audio jack with scotch tape.  It looks ghetto but I'd rather have the tape there than more dust.

2. A little after the 2 year mark, the included BL-4L battery couldn't hold more than a day's charge and started to bulge like most old lithium polymer batteries so I got another battery and it's back to normal again.

3. I get the random "out of memory" issue so it requires a battery removal.

Going Forward
After 3 long years of travelling the world with it, I've retired the E71.  The E71 reminds me of the time when Nokia was on top of the world with some great designs and some great devices.  I'll miss the comfortable keyboard and robust design.  So long E71, you'll be missed.

If you're still carrying around a Nokia E71, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the phone.

Nokia Nseries and Eseries vs. iPhone: CPU and Battery Life

* Updated 09/09/2009 - Added iPhone 3GS, Nokia E72, N86, Nokia N900. Merged the many tables into one table.

* Updated 10/22/2008, 10/1/2008

After almost a year since the iPhone was announced and more than half a year since it was launched, the iPhone to some other phone comparisons have started to die down. So just to add some wood to the dying fire, I'm here to state:

Current Nokia smartphones can't match the general computing performance of the iPhone

CPU

Nokia N82/N95	Texas Instruments OMAP2420	330 MHz ARM1136 + 220 MHz TI TMS320C55xDSP + PowerVR MBX 2D/3D Graphics Accelerator + IVA
Nokia E71, E66, N79, N85	32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N96	32bit STMicroelectronics Nomadik STn8815A12	264 MHz ARM926EJ-S
Apple iPhone	Samsung S5L8900	620MHz ARM1176JZF (downclocked to 412MHz)
Apple iPhone 3G	Samsung S5L8900	835MHz (downclocked to 412MHz)
Nokia N86, N97	32bit Freescale MXC300	434 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia E72	32bit Freescale MXC300	600 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N900	Texas Instruments OMAP3430	600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 + PowerVR SGX graphics core + IVA 2+
Apple iPhone 3GS	Samsung S5PC100	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: Semiconductor insights, Engadget, PDAdb.net
BoingBoing, iPhone 3G FCC filing

More after the jump.

From the configuration we can see that Nokia has placed a higher importance in call performance (probably from the inclusion of 3G video calling) with the use of a dedicated Digital Signal Processing (DSP) unit, namely the Texas Instruments 220 MHz TMS320C55xDSP).

Does the iPhone lag behind because it lacks a DSP?

No, not really.

In the following chart you will see the ARM1176 perform almost as good as the C55x:


Moreover you can see the ARM1136, found in the Nokia phones, perform almost as good as the ARM1176 with a similar clock speed. Too bad the iPhone packs a ARM1176 with almost double the clock speed.

Two is always better than one right? It could be if you're using both CPUs at the same time. With the flexibility of the Symbian S60 operating system on Nokia phones, you can initiate a video call while editing Microsoft Word/Excel documents in QuickOffice and seamlessly switch between them. The Apple iPhone hides the multitasking from the user and you don't have video calling so you will likely have the iPhone to your ear where you can't really do anything else simultanously. And that's when you realize 1 CPU on the iPhone is good enough if it could handle both DSP operations and general CPU usage as you rarely get to do both at the same time.

So when you're only using the general computing CPU, say for watching a video, the iPhone can process more frames and provide a snappier interface than the Nokia phones.

Battery

So here comes a drawback to the two processor set up on Nokia phones. They're power hungry compared to the iPhone since it has to power two CPUs. Even though each of them uses less power than the high clocked iPhone CPU, putting them together in a package creates a higher power usage situation since one is powering the UI while the other is handling cellular operations.

Now to add the nail to the coffin, Nokia has equipped their phones will less powerful batteries:

N95 - 950mAh
N82 - 1100mAh
N95 8GB - 1200mAh
iPhone/iPhone 3G - 1400mAh

Conclusion

The Nokia phones are equipped with a dedicated DSP CPU and a general ARM CPU while the iPhone makes due with a higher clocked general ARM CPU. The iPhone user interface doesn't emphasize the multitasking capability by hiding it from the user so a single processor design works well enough for it. Nokia equips their phones with two CPUs with one focussed on heavy DSP tasks like 3G calling while the other handles all other CPU tasks. The preferred design is based on how you use your phone. But with a more powerful battery and a single chip design, the iPhone will win in the battery life competition.

Reference:
Use a Microprocessor, a DSP, or Both?, BDti, 2007/04/04
DSP Design Line

---

Update 10/1/2008
Nokia's latest S60 phones (E-series and N-series) have switched from the Texas Instrument dual core N82/N95 to a Freescale single core in the E66/E71/N79/N85. Oddly enough, a single chip design was used in the N96 like the iPhone. However, the Nokia N96 phone use an older ARMv5 instruction set architecture as opposed to the ARMv6 of the iPhone and other Nokia phones. The iPhone continues to overshadow the Nokias with a higher frequency.

Nokia E71, E66, N79, N85	32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N96	32bit STMicroelectronics Nomadik STn8815A12	264 MHz ARM926EJ-S
Apple iPhone	Samsung S5L8900	620MHz ARM1176JZF (downclocked to 412MHz)
Apple iPhone 3G	Samsung S5L8900	835MHz (downclocked to 600MHz) ARM1176JZF + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: iPhone 3G FCC filing

My original article wrote about the benefits of having a CPU with DSP combination and Nokia continues this with most of their latest phones except the N96. The latest Nokia phones do not have the 3D graphics accelerator as the N82/N95. It's too bad Nokia didn't outfit all their N-series devices with 3D graphics accelerators so N-gage games can stand out from standard Java games. Nokia's switch from a dual core to a single core design and leaving out graphics acceleration will improve battery life.

Nokia continues to outfit their phones with smaller batteries:
E66 - 1000mAh
E71 - 1500mAh
N79 - 1200mAh
N85 - 1200mAh
N96 - 950mAh

It is surprising that Nokia's next flagship phone, the N96, has such a low frequency and uses a single chip design compared to other Nokia devices. Out of all the Nokia phones, only the E71 has a larger battery (1500mAh) compared to the iPhone. I think it was a bad decision for Nokia to include low powered phones (like the N73) as being N-gage compatible when they could've differentiated their N-gage games from other games if 3D hardware acceleration was part of the N-gage platform.

Source:
MXC300-30: 3G Single Core Modem Platform
ARM1136JF-S - ARM Processor
ARM926EJ-S - ARM Processor
ARM1176JZ(F)-S - ARM Processor

---

Update 10/22/2008 notes: Revised clock speed for iPhone 3G, mentioned downclocking for iPhone, revised to refer to 3D hardware acceleration

Additional note: The Nokia N96 does support DSP and hardware video acceleration for 2D/3D with its STn8815A12 chipset. Read more at STMicroelectronics. Oddly enough, the JBenchmark scores for the N96 in the 3D category do not come close to the N82/N95 which feature a separate chip for 3D acceleration. The benchmarks more closely resemble the N85 that does not have 3D hardware acceleration.

Source: Mobile88, Mobile Arsenal

---

Update 09/09/2009
It's been almost a year since I updated this posting and things have only slightly changed with Nokia putting out Nseries and Eseries devices with a higher clock speed. Apple, not to let any competitor catch up, gave the iPhone 3GS a thorough updating with the new ARM Cortex A8.

Nokia N86, N97	32bit Freescale MXC300	434 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia E72	32bit Freescale MXC300	600 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP
Nokia N900	Texas Instruments OMAP3430	600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 + PowerVR SGX graphics core + IVA 2+
Apple iPhone 3GS	Samsung S5PC100	600MHz ARM Cortex A8 + 100MHz PowerVR SGX 530 graphics core + VPU

Source: PDADB.net, Nokia N900

As I had suspected, the 32bit Freescale MXC300 used by Nokia in their Nseries and Eseries phones for the last year and a half had more capability than Nokia was using which explains the jump from 369MHz to 600MHz.

Since this post is about CPU to battery life I decided to look up the battery life of the Nokia E71 and E72 because they both use the same Freescale solution and same battery but the E72 uses a higher clock frequency.

Phone	E71	E72
Battery	BP-4L 1500 mAh	BP-4L 1500 mAh
Talk (GSM/WCDMA)	10h 30min/4h 30min	12h 30min/5h 42min
Standby (GSM/WCDMA)	17 days/20 days	20 days/24 days

Source: Nokia E71 Specifications, Nokia E72 Specifications

Very oddly, even though the E72 has a higher clock speed and same battery as the E71, the E72 has a much better life so there is much more to battery life than just CPU and battery capacity. Influences could be better firmware and hardware design.

Unfortunately, 600Mhz is the upper limit to the Freescale solution so Nokia had better find a better solution to keep up with their high-end competitors. I suspect Nokia will continue to use the Freescale solutions in their mid-tier devices, for its good balance of speed and battery life, well into 2011.

This is where Nokia's latest smartphone, the N900, comes in. The N900 discards the pathetic Freescale solutions and returns to the more powerful Texas Instrument solutions to provide the necessary speed to run today's applications and rich multimedia. This extra power puts it inline to compete with Apple's iPhone 3GS. If you don't believe me about how pathetic the Freescale solution is, try comparing the playability of Vampent vBagX on a E71 to the older N95.

The Nokia N900 will be a very exciting product for Nokia. I'm hoping to see a performance comparison between the N900 and the iPhone 3GS to see which will take the crown as the most powerful consumer smart phone.

Nokia E71: A Year in Review

This was the phone I didn't think I'd love. Compared to its predecessor, it has a small screen and a small tight keyboard. But it went on to become one of Nokia's bestselling phones. After a year of use, I agree with everyone else and make the E71 one of my favorite phones.


Looking and functioning like new after one year of use


My E71 has travelled with me all over the world.Two main selling points of the E71 for me are its stylish design and highly demanded qwerty keyboard. The E71 is still one of the thinnest available QWERTY keyboard equipped phones. It's one of the first QWERTY phones to use metal accents which was quickly followed by the Blackberry Bold. More important than looks is the E71's great keyboard. The raised keys make it easy to distinguish keys and the narrow design makes it possible to use the phone in one hand. The keyboard is positioned well away from the sides of the phone so reaching for the keys at the edge of the keyboard, like the letter A, are not a chore. The weight of the phone lies just a bit below the center around the keyboard giving it good stability while typing. I actually use my E71 to write my reviews while I'm commuting because it's much more convenient than pulling out my laptop.

More after the jump!

It is not without its weakness. First thing i did when i got my phone was to replace the theme. The original theme had horribly bland icons. I would never use the original theme. The 3.2MP camera is the worst 3.2MP I've used. It doesn't even match the quality of 2MP photos from the 3 year old sony ericsson w810i. Unlike the thousands of photos I've taken with my N82, I've taken under a hundred photos with the E71. I just installed the latest firmware and it only slightly improves the magenta tint. Although the metal frame is nice, my E71 attracts fingerprints.

Handling Enterprise E-mail

E-mail looks very basic on the E71 through Mail for Exchange.It's no Blackberry. Carriers and companies have often set up Blackberries for their owners to fetch personal email or connect them to the company network. With the E71, you're on your own. Although Nokia has tried to make it a lot easier with their Nokia Mail offered on their E75 and wizards on the E71, users still need to know all the settings when trying to set up their E71 to their corporate mail server. At least Nokia offers a free Mail for Exchange client to sychronize your e-mail with a Microsoft Exchange mail server, which I actively use. Mail for Exchange leverages Nokia's basic included S60 mail client so doesn't look really good with no inline HTML support. I listed a number of limitations compared to the E71 competitors such as the Blackberry platform and the Windows Mobile in a previous blog post so I won't go into too much detail. Although it's functionality is limited, I do appreciate what it can do for me which is synchronize my e-mail, calendar (saved me on many occasions when I forgot I had a meeting to attend), and to-do. The screen will blink or even play an alert when a meeting is coming up within 15 minutes. Unlike the Blackberry, you have a lot more control of how you synchronize such as turning it off when you're travelling in another country to avoid roaming charges or only having the E71 check every hour on weekends to save battery. You can even set up the E71 to switch between Wifi and using your carrier's network using SmartConnect. I travel a lot so the flexibility is a strong selling point for me to keep using the E71 as my e-mail device.

S60 has saved my life
That might be an exaggeration but it has saved my work life on numerous occasions when I didn't have access to a laptop.
The ability to multi-task on a business phone is critical.
Here's a situation I frequently find myself in: I'm out on a business event and have to attend a project conference call. The call organizer only sent the powerpoint or spreadsheet file, which is the central discussion of the call, a few minutes before the call while i was out of the office. With my E71 on the call over speakerphone, i quickly sync my mail over 3G or wifi, open up the file, and follow along. A few times i've had to update a spreadsheet to send back too. The ability to multi-task on a business phone is critical. Doing all this without crashing is a testiment to the stability and maturity of Nokia's S60 platform.

Standing the test of time

Each of the E71s had a different problem.In a year of daily use, creaking has developed around the letter A of my keyboard. The firmware has been impressively stable since the phone came out. I did get the dreaded "Out of Memory" message before and had to remove the battery to restart the phone. The E71 had a number of initial manufacturing issues. I have gone thru 3 E71s and each had its own issues such as poor reception, photo capture delays, and weak GPS. But E71s manufactured after week 42 have seem to resolved these issues.

Battery life has been amazing and doesn't seem like it's lost any of its charge. I still never worry about running out of juice after using the GPS and WiFi.

The killer apps for me on this phone are Mail for Exchange, Garmin XT, Smartconnect, Fring, QuickOffice, Mobitubia, and the included Notes and web browser.

Long live the E71
The E71 has been my main data device since I got it. I would have a hard time going back to a number pad for my web browsing and note taking. I totally rely on my E71 to keep me synchronized with my work through e-mail and calendar freeing me from the shackles of my laptop. With such a long lasting battery, I rarely worry about using the GPS and WiFi. It has been a good compliment to my photo-centric N82. I don't think i'll be replacing my E71 anytime soon... maybe with the E72.

Vampent vBagX Review: Gameboy Advance on your S60

http://www.vampent.com

While Nokia is trying to build creditibility to their N-gage mobile gaming platform, much of the portable gaming market was and continues to be held by dedicated gaming systems like Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP. Just the number of top rate games available on one of these systems far outweigh all the games available on the S60. One way to quickly increase the number of top quality titles is bringing it onto the S60 through emulation.

The power of S60 phones have dramatically increased in the past few months and software like vBag make emulation of yesterday's dedicated portable gaming systems like the hugely popular Nintendo Gameboy Advance possible. With vBag your phone can play any number of games from the GBA's huge library of portable games. Imagine classic like Super Mario Advance 2, Super Mario Kart, and the Legend of Zelda on your phone:


It may sound impressive so find out if the claims are true that you can really get the GBA experience on your S60 phone by following the jump to read the full review...

For this post I will be reviewing vBagX x1.20 S60v3 on the most common Nokia S60 architectures:

Architecture	Details	Phones
32bit Freescale MXC300	369 MHz ARM1136JF-S + 220MHz StarCore SC140 DSP	E63, E66, E71, N78, N79, N81, N85
Texas Instruments OMAP2420	330 MHz ARM1136 + 220 MHz TI TMS320C55xDSP + PowerVR MBX 2D/3D Graphics Accelerator + IVA	N82, N95

I don't have all of these phones so I'll be testing on both a N82 and a E71 to cover both of these architectures on vBag 's performance. A SanDisk 8GB microSDHC class 4 on the N82 and a Nokia 2GB microSD on the E71 memory card were used during this review. vBag was installed on the memory card in both cases because all GBA ROMS (.gba) must be placed in \Data\Others\vBag\

Graphics
vBagX gives you the option to use Bitmap (software rendered) or Direct (hardware rendered) but Direct has never worked for me on either the N82, E71, or even other Vampent products on my 6682.

From my experiences, the E71 renders games exactly as they are on the GBA but some games do run into issues with sprites not appearing in the right spot (see compatibility).

Super Mario Kart Advance runs smoothly with all image layers on the Nokia N82

vBagX comfortably handles the portrait layout found on most S60 phones like the N82 and the landscape layout like the E71. It can also handle screen rotations but the rotation must be done before starting a game otherwise the rotation will cause a screen problem. You can also manually change the screen orientation under Graph > Size (you can rotate the screen 90 degrees left or right, keep it at original reolution or expand to fill the screen).

You do encounter some frame drops here and there even on the higher powered N82/N95. The E71 is more choppy. You can adjust how much frames (0-9) you're OK with vBagX skipping to keep a consistent game speed.

Sounds
vBagX supports full stereo audio on the GBA. However there is a very very minor lag in audio on the N82 but the audio was very out of sync on the E71 by about 0.5 seconds.

Performance
This is highly dependent on the model and firmware of your phone.

My E71 encountered choppy frame rate and lagged audio. There was no way I could play Street Fighter II the same way as I did on a GBA.

I didn't experience any of the lag with the dual core architecture of the N82. But there were a few dropped frames here and there in high speed games like Super Mario Kart. It was very playable but not as smooth as playing on a real Gameboy Advance.

Compatibility
There is currently a running thread of compatible games on Vampent's forum. Here is a list of games I've tested and played:
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Advance 4 (Super Mario 3)
Super Mario Advance 2 (Super Mario World)
Contra Advance (Contra 3)
The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cup
Final Fantasy Advance Tactics
Mario Pinball Land
Super Street Fighter II

All of them worked for me running on compatibilty mode 1. That's the scary but powerful thing. Vampent thought to add a compatibilty setting that goes from 1 to 3 (where 3 is slowest but closest compatibility with GBA) in vBagX so some games work in one setting but not others.

The single core architecture used in the Nokia E71 lends itself better to RPG games like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Phone keypads for gaming
You're playing games designed for the GBA's keypad. First off you're losing out on the left (L) and right (R) buttons at the top of the GBA since no S60 phone features these. Secondly, the ring D-pad of most S60 phones don't lend themselves well to diagonal (ie. left-right) presses. Similar to the keyboard on computers, a certain combination of simulataneous key presses can register an error on the phone and thus ignoring the key press. It's annoying when you have to hold one key while tapping another like flying in Super Mario Advance 4.

If you can get past all those physical limitations, vBagX allows you to map any GBA key to almost any phone key. Unfortunately only the volume up/down media keys are currently supported for N95/N96.

I've frequently referred to vBag, vNes, or vBoy under the keypad sections in my reviews as these games were designed for the highly comfortable, high quality, and dedicated to gaming keypad of the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. More often than not, the keypads of a phone aren't built with gaming in mind so button placement is compromised and button quality isn't high on the priority of phone manufacturers. If you plan to game a lot on the road then I highly recommend bringing along a Wii-mote and downloading Mobipad so you can use the better Wii-mote controller for gaming.

Playing GBA games with a Wii-mote paired to your S60 phone via Bluetooth is a lot more enjoyable and comfortable

Overall
vBagX delivers high quality gaming to the S60 platform by giving users access to Gameboy Advance's library of games. Most of my Gameboy Advance games ran fine on vBag with an acceptable framerate, little to no graphical errors, and mostly synchronized audio playback. Since most games require quick reflexes and timing, you need to get either a N82 or any flavor of the N95 to fully enjoy vBagX. I highly recommend downloading the trial vBagX to your phone to test before purchasing it to ensure it runs your favorite games smoothly and you're confortable with the keypad on your phone. If you do decide to purchase vBagX, Vampent offers lifetime upgrades of the vBagX product and I've heard their customer service is really good.

Software rating: Highly Recommend

Which uses more power? WiFi or 3G?

I had that same question on my mind after Ziostilon posted that question on HowardForums. Fellow HoFo member jessi3k3 showed that WiFi consumes a little more energy than EDGE. Another HoFo member, RogerPodacter, brought up some good points to suggest that WiFi should consume less power than 3G because the cell towers are further away and it'd require more energy to move the same amount of data in longer distances. But an argument against that is WiFi was developed without mobile devices in mind so power consumption wasn't of the highest concern which is why Bluetooth was developed and that 3G is designed with mobile devices in mind so it should be optimized for limited power consumption.

So we ran Nokia Internet Radio at 128kbps and used Nokia Energy Profiler just to see for ourselves what really consumed more power...

802.11G with WPA-PSK (WiFi):

Test #1


Test #3

AT&T 3G:

Test #2


Test #4

From my test with Nokia Energy Profiler, it shows that 3G does consume more power than WiFi in streaming the 128kbps.

This is how I tested (so you can try it too):
I'm using the same Nokia E71-2 running firmware 100.07.76 for all the tests. I used a Linksys WRT54G with 802.11G WPA-PSK. According to this map of AT&T's 3G network from this summer, I'm in the blue area so I have strong 3G support. I wish I knew where the tower is so I could write a better post.

Software used:
Nokia Energy Profiler 1.1 (1-May-08)
Nokia Internet Radio 1.06 (or get it through Download! on your device)
Screenshot for Symbian OS (S60) 3.01 (just to take those pretty screenshots)

1. Open Energy Profiler
2. Turn on Internet Radio
3. Options > Settings
4. Set access point (if you change this value, you need to restart Internet Radio for the change to take effect)
5. Set all the bitrate to Best Quality (128kbps)
6. Choose a radio station and wait for it to finish buffering
7. Go to Energy Profiler and click Options > Start

I alternated tests between WiFi and 3G (which is why the screenshots go from Test 1, 3, 2, 4) to rule out the case that earlier runs might produce more favorable results than later tests and tested each connection more than once because one test is never enough.

This test really changed my perception that WiFi is a power hog. Even with the burden of WPA-PSK, WiFi consumed less power for me. HoFo member oddsocks gives a pretty good explanation on why 3G consumes just by the specs. I guess this explains why Steve Jobs of Apple added WiFi to the iPhone and complained about 3G chipsets not being ready for mobile devices.

Birdstep SmartConnect for S60

http://www.birdstep.com

11/28/2008 Updated: Version 1.2.61 is now available on Download! which fixes a bug that can crash the phone when SmartConnect can't connect to any access points in its list. So go download it now unless you like crashes.

07/21/2009 Updated: SmartConnect is now free for select E-series and N-series phones.
Nokia Eseries: E50, E51, E51(no camera), E52, E55, E60, E61, E61i, E61i China variant, E62, E63, E65, E66, E70, E71, E75, E90
Nokia Nseries: N76, N78, N79, N81, N82, N85, N86 (8MP), N95, N95 (8GB), N96
You can download BirdStep SmartConnect 1.3.6 directly from BirdStep.

Birdstep's SmartConnect for S60 helps you manage your access points so you can seamlessly move from high speed limited range WiFi access points to highly accessible data packet access points to keep you always connected. Now you can have all your applications connect via one access point and not think twice about choosing the access point.

And now it's free for Nokia E-series devices on Nokia's Download! service.

For a full review and rating follow the jump...

Built-in access point management is not included in S60 FP1 and lower. Nokia had tried to address this in their earlier E-series devices with Access Point Groups but the feature lacked the ability to prioritize access points and many applications didn't support it like Nokia's own Mail for Exchange. A few software vendors tried to address this issue with Psiloc Connect and Birdstep SmartConnect. Thankfully Nokia is providing SmartConnect to E-series users through a free download - and it's definitely worth the download. So in this blog entry I'll be reviewing Birdstep SmartConnect for Symbian OS Standard Edition 1.2.5.4.

By using a SmartConnect access point, it let's you workaround that annoying bug in newer versions of Fring where it won't let you select a hidden WiFi access point!

If you're like me, then you want some proof that this application is worth installing before you clog your highly optimized smartphone. Here's a little walkthrough of features in SmartConnect:

The connection groups created in SmartConnect resemble a data packet access point so you can use it in any application:

For each group you can also control whether SmartConnect will stay connected to the access point it's currently using or switch to a better one when available. By default it's set to Stay connected which I recommend.

You can select any number of access points:

If you're wondering, you can't select another SmartConnect access point to be in a SmartConnect access point to create an infinite loop.

You can reorganize the priority of the access points in the SmartConnect access point:

If you like fast access then you'll want WiFi access points at the top

Settings:

Control the number of notifications given by SmartConnect, allows SmartConnect to prompt you to add the new access point, and disable roaming so SmartConnect won't use data packet access points when you're outside your carrier's network

You can even add hotspots that support WISPr like Boingo and have SmartConnect automatically authenticate:

Add the hotspot like you would a WiFi access point then highlight and select options > Connection Settings > Hotspot settings

Adding a new access point will prompt you if you want to add it to an existing SmartConnect access point:

You can disable the automatic prompt in Options > Advanced > Settings > Prompt on new conn.

During my week of using SmartConnect I've only encountered one hang where I was using a SmartConnect access point and I tried to edit it. I tried reproducing the problem but it didn't hang again.

If you have no data plan or a limited data plan and frequently visit the same places with WiFi access points then SmartConnect is a no brainer. SmartConnect removes the need for setting all your applications to "Always Prompt" in the connection settings. For those of you using Mail for Exchange this is a must have so your mail seamlessly gets sync'ed no matter which WiFi point you're at. For those of you that do have unlimited 3G data plans, WiFi is still faster and SmartConnect will help you get that extra speed without any extra work.

Software rating: Highly Recommend

The Nokia E71 Eseries Pouch

I personally love my E71. It looks amazing with its thin profile and classy use of chrome, very good build quality with little to no creaks, and a flexible robust S60 operating system.

Here is my E71 with the included OEM pouch:

In case you don't have a E71, a thin ring around the D-pad serves as the LED notifcation when you miss a message

But like most of Nokia's line of phones, the E71 is not without its flaws like weak e-mail program with no HTML support. But I want to bring to your attention a simple straightforward flaw in the design of the E71 that reminds me that Nokia still needs a lot of work.


Being designed by Nokia for the E71 and included with the E71 retail package, the case is exactly the right size for the E71:


The exposed stitching definitely looks nice so here's a close up:

A classy Nokia Eseries logo is etched onto the outside. The outside material is soft to touch and feels like leather.

The Nokia E71 easily slides into the case with its soft red fabric interior:


The bumps of the phone like the D-pad ring and the camera will slowly make an imprint on the case:


Now you might be thinking, what is this whole blog entry about and what's wrong with the case? Well just look at that last photo of the E71 in the case. If the LED message indicator is around the D-pad, how can I tell I missed a message when the case covers the D-pad?

It's sad that RIM got this right in every single Blackberry they've ever put out:

Look at that huge exposed notification LED at the top right of that Blackberry.

Yes, it's pretty to see the D-pad blink, sort of like the Blackberry's glowing trackball, but the practical usage tradeoff is ridiculous. If I have the E71 in my pocket or in a belt holster, I can only see the top of the phone so a notification LED should be at the top not on the face of the phone.

The good thing is that Nokia really shows a willingness to listen to consumers and the changes from the E61 to the E71 reflect that. I'm hoping Nokia's next QWERTY keyboard phone will show an improvement in this area.

Nokia E71 Review

While the business community is clamouring for the Blackberry Bold with its smooth styling, 3G, more powerful processor, and, finally, a full HTML browser, the Nokia community has been enjoying much of those features in the N-series and E-series of phones. If business users knew about the smooth, powerful, and flexible Nokia E71, they would pick this up in a heart beat. The firmware on my E71-2 is V 100.07.76 08-06-2008 (the initial production firmware). The box contains the phone, AC-5U charger, CA-101 USB data cable, HS-47 Stereo Music Headset, Nokia E-series carrying case, and Nokia CD with utilities and programs.

I must admit, I didn't think I'd get the chance to review the E71-2 NAM so soon. Thanks to WOM World for supplying me the E71-2 in this review.




Quick facts:
Name: Nokia E71-2 NAM (RM-357)
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 WCDMA 850/1900
Weight: 126 g
Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm
Battery life (stand by): 480 hours (WCDMA)
Battery life (talk): 270 minutes (WCDMA)
CPU: 32bit Freescale MXC300, 369 MHz ARM1136JF-S
RAM: 128 MB (accessible: 71 MB)

My phone was manufactured in: (your phone's country of manufacture could vary) Finland.



The phone doesn't stand well on its sides so here are the side profiles:

Top of the phone

The speaker and red power button. It may look odd being colored red but you won't notice it on a daily basis.

Left of the phone

The microUSB, microSD slot, and infrared port. The slots have a slight bump for your finger to nudge open.

Right of the phone

The recorder, volume rocker, and 2.5mm headset jack. The volume rocker is a lighted and sturdy unlike a number of other Nokia phones (like the N95).

Aesthetics
Contrasting greatly against the calculator-like E61, the E71 brings beauty and high built quality long enjoyed by 88xx owners to the E-series of phones. The etched stainless steel battery cover and chrome finishing give the E71 a luxurious feel. Chrome and metal also mean you'll have lots of finger prints. The E71 exhibited no creaking.


A little more than 2 years separate these two phones and Nokia's design has come a long way to improve the E-series' appearance dramatically.

Unlike the E61, Nokia has included rubber padding under the battery cover to prevent annoying battery cover creaking i had mentioned in my E61 review.


The battery cover has an etched pattern which increases grip and feels very good to touch. However, with a metal battery cover, it gets very warm after calls.


The status LED lies right under the d-pad so the ring between the center key and navigation ring will blink when an e-mail arrives. Unfortunately the LED doesn't blink frequent enough and not bright enough to notice. I couldn't tell the differnce between the normal blink and the email notification blink.

The keypad light is relatively weak. As with most phones these days, lighting is controlled by a light sensor.


The SIM mechanism is similar to the E61 but even worst. I have a hard time sliding out the SIM card from its holder.


The Nokia E71 beside an Apple iPhone - it's here just because I know somebody will compare the two:

Quite a contrast in design. One is loaded with buttons while the other is a minimalist.

Display
On my E71 preview I was criticizing the E71 for dropping the wonderfully large 2.8 inch screen from the E61 to a dimuitive 2.36 inch. But once I started using the E71, I totally forgot the screen size was small. The faster CPU, 3G support, pocketable size, and beauty make this screen size just perfect for the E71. The E71 perfomed well under direct sunlight with emails readable without having to tilt the screen.

The E71 display has a higher contrast compared to the E61. It looks similar to the N82 but brighter

To help conserve battery power, the E71 has a power saver timeout that blanks the entire screen and blinks the LED under the D-pad. To turn on the status indicator and time screensaver when the phone is idle, go to Profile > Breathing Light > Off:


Keypad
It's small, no doubt about that. But the keys are highly domed so they're easy to pick out. The tactile feedback is better than the stiff E61 keys. I have an Asian E61 so I have a number of characters on my E61 that I don't often use like Yen but the E71-2 is better optimized for the North American market. There is 1 less Shift key and CTRL and CHR now share one key on the E71. This improves text input a lot.



Space bar has at least two sensor and feedback points so when you hit it at the center, it feels ackward to get two separate tactile feedbacks.
Unlike the older E61, there are less alt/shift/ctrl keys on the phone. The typing software has been much improved with a lot better capitalization handling.

I've typed this review on the E71 using Quickoffice (the E71 comes with a full version with edit capabilities) and find it very comfortable typing long messages or documents on it. I would have gotten tired typing the same thing on the E61 since its keys are too stiff.

Software

The E71 is a snappy phone with very fast response throughout the menu.

As you may have heard, or not, that the E71 runs S60 FP1 but with some modifications. I'll go over some of the more common additions/changes:

The much talked about Modes:


With modes you can switch between two modes. Each mode controls:
* home screen application short cuts
* Enabled home screen plug-ins
* Active mailbox and preview style
* Theme
* Wallpaper

Typing on the standby screen will now match first and last names in your contacts. Unfortunately, the Contacts no longer matches contact names separated by ; as stored by Sony Ericsson phones.


The old E61 use to display a huge lock but the new phone locked screen displays a bit more information:


Notifications such as incoming text messages and voice messages are now displayed as small bubbles at the standby screen bottom:


As mentioned by almost everyone, the home key no longer brings you into the menu but into the active standby screen (unless you're already at the standby screen so it'll take you to the menu).

Deleting access points is instanteous and no longer displays a 'deleting' dialogue.

Calendar

The calendar has been revamped but displays the same amount of information. The meetings use to appear as a popup but now appear to the right of the calendar.

Encryption
To the delight of corporations, the E71 now supports encryption on both the phone and memory card so if a device is lost then data from it can't be stolen when phone lock is enabled. You can turn this feature on at: Tools > Encryption. Be aware that enabling encryption on the memory card will prevent it from being used on other devices.

File Manager
The E71 has better file extension support allowing you to open a FLV Flash movie straight from the file manager.

Ugly icons
High contrast straight forward icons help business users easily identify applications.

It looks like a step back from the usual colorful icons in other S60 devices but you'll quickly get use to it and enjoy their no nonsense look. Thankfully you can replace them with themes that include icons.

Browser
The Nokia web browser supports full HTML support and renders pages to look like browsing from a computer. The browser also supports embedded Flash for handling web site that rely on flash for navigation or content like YouTube. Eat your hearts out iPhone and Blackberry users. Nokia has further refined the browser. An example change is the browser now prompts to ask if you want your password saved.

Unfortunately the browser crashes more often than my other S60 phone like on pulse24.com.


Note that some software don't work with the E71 so be sure to test out all your applications. This is what I've observed:
- Best torch doesn't work but S60SpotOn works
- Panoman doesn't work. Complains that 'camera in use'.

Additional Software included with the E71 not included with other typical S60 devices are:
- Active Notes
- Dictionary
- full version of QuickOffice (with edit capabilities)

Although Nokia does not offer a central application store for S60 devices yet, they do offer Nokia Mosh for finding free software. I found software that turns my camera LED into a flashlight, called S60SpotOn, on Mosh.

Mail
A weak spot in the E71. The iPhone uses webkit for their browser and so does Nokia on their S60 phones so why does the iPhone support HTML in emails while the S60 doesn't? The recently released Blackberry Bold supports it so it's a good feature to add soon if Nokia is listening.
Email allows you to highlight the sender and recipients but you still can't copy or email them individually.
Unlike the Blackberry, the E71 will continue to display a wallpaper behind emails messages instead of a flat color as it does when scrolling down the contacts page. This can make reading emails difficult if the background has similar colors to the text.

Blackberry
Much to the bemoan of a few users, the Nokia E71 no longer supports Blackberry Connect unlike its predecessor, the E61 and E61i, which do. The E71 supports Microsoft's Exchange Active Sync through their Mail for Exchange software. E71 users don't have to worry about outages when RIM upgrades the Blackberry network. Two strong functionality in Blackberry lost in the E71 are PIN and chat. Both of these functions bypass the costly sms and data usage. The older Blackberry Connect for Nokia supported receiving PIN but not sending. I'm hoping Nokia addresses this functionality gap by hosting a chat server for their included IM software and put some marketing dollars to educate the public.

Stability
During my time with the E71, I only recall two reboots in the three weeks I've had the phone. One just happened while I was writing this review.

Multimedia
Those who say S60 is designed mainly for creating and not geared as much to consume multimedia must not fully use their phone. Out of the box the E71 supports H.264 video, the same video format used by the iPhone. With some added third party software like Coreplayer and MobiTubia, the E71 can open DiVX movies and stream YouTube videos. With the included 2.5mm stereo headsets (or get yourself a pair of AD2P stereo Bluetooth headsets) and music player supporting album art, you can easily have your favorite MP3s blasting in your ears. If you're an audiophile then you can install OggPlayer. S60 gives you more flexibility than both the locked down iPhone and the "lacking in software" Blackberry.

Camera
The E71 includes a 3.2 MP camera with autofocus and macro mode.

The E71 sports a LED for flash and a mirror for self portraits

The E71 uses the same camera software as the N-series line of devices.


Camera uses the center key for taking photos so the menu is hidden by default unlike other s60 devices with a dedicate shutter button. Since the center key takes photos and makes menu selections, you can't take a photo with the menu displayed. press the left soft key or right on the dpad to show menu and hit left on the dpad to hide the menu.
You can silent the camera but the led will automatically flash
As mentioned on most reviews, the T key is used for autofocussing. Focussing is quick taking half the time of the N82 but the focussing is not as accurate as the N82.

N82 macro mode without flash:


E71 macro mode with auto flash (yep, it fired):


E71 macro mode without flash:


Outdoor auto:


Overall, the E71 produced grainy photos even under direct sunlight. Colors reproduction was not accurate with photos coming out bluish or reddish. Hopefully Nokia improves this in their next firmware update. I tried to use the E71 to take some photos for my food blog, but the outcome was disappointing.

I have taken a number of photos with the E71 on a recent road trip that you can see here.

Video
The maximum video recording resolution supported by the E71 is 320 x 240 pixels which is perfect for uploading to YouTube.

These are the available quality settings:
High: MP4, 320 x 240 pixels, 394 kbit/s
Normal: 3GPP, 176 x 144 pixels, 184 kbit/s
Sharing: 3GPP, 176 x 144 pixels, 82 kbit/s

Reception
The E71 had about 2 bars less than the N82 when reception was not perfect. Although bars isn't an accurate measurement of a phone's reception, when the N82 had 2 bars and the E71 had 0 bars and couldn't make or receive calls, the bars make a difference. There are a number of threads on Howard Forums complaining of reception issues. However, within a call i never encountered drop calls unlike my iPhone 3G friends.

Speakerphone
The audio was not as loud as the N82 but good in a quiet setting.

Headset
I didn't have a chance to test this.

Connectivity
Unlike the Blackberry and iPhone, the e71 offers a wealth of Bluetooth profiles that allows you to share files with other devices, listen to music over a wireless stereo bluetooth headset, or sync data to your home computer.
As with all E-series devices, infrared is included to share data with older devices or laptops without Bluetooth.
connecting the E71 to a computer using a USV cable will automatically keypad unlock the phone (but not phone unlock) allowing you to select the connection type (mass storage, nokia suite, etc.)

WiFi
The WiFi sensitivity is similar to the Nokia N82. As usual, the sensitivity is weaker than the standard Centrino package from Intel for laptops.

Global Positioning (GPS)
The E71 has an integrated GPS chip to get an accurate position of the phone.

Here is a comparison of the N82 to the E71 GPS status screen:

Both phones had their GPS started at the same time from cold boot

The N82 was consistently faster at locking a position and much more sensitive. The N82 usually took half the time to lock compared to the E71.

TIme to lock is dependent on your location and weather conditions. Turning on assisted GPS in Tools > Settings > General > Positioning > Positioning Methods will reduce lock time but requires a data connection.

External Memory
Unlike most other S60 Nokia handsets, the E71-2 NAM does not include a memory card with the retail package. However it easily supported the 2GB microSD and 8GB microSDHC cards I had on hand. The small slot and rubber cover make inserting the memory card very tricky. Make sure you don't insert the card upside down because it's really hard to take out. The memory card goes gold connector side facing up.



Battery
The E71 uses Nokia's longest lasting phone battery, the BL5L, with 1500mAH. The E71 consistently lasted at least 2.5 days of usage before needing a charge. I spent a whole weekend without a charge and this included having the phone on dual mode (3G and GSM), e-mail synching throughout the business day, browsing the web for about 10MB of data, and occasional phone calls for about 30 minutes total. A great battery where i didn't need to think about charging as i do on my N82.

Conclusion
After 3 weeks of testing the E71, I had a hard time letting it go. With a beautiful compact design, the E71 is quite a looker. The E71 supports Rogers and AT&T highspeed 3G HSDPA networks and 802.11b/g wifi giving users a variety of connection methods. Nokia's open nature with software ensures a wealth of third party software is available for the S60 platform. If you're a business user who doesn't need Blackberry support or a frequent text message sender looking for a phone with a QWERTY keyboard and multimedia capabilities, I highly recommend taking a look at the Nokia E71.

Ratings:
Performance...........9
Build quality...........10
Keypad...................8
Connectivity...............9
Features for $.........8
Software................8
Camera..................6
Battery life.............10

Overall.....................9.5


PROS:
*elegant compact design
*lots of memory to run apps simultaneously
*WiFi
*Great build quality
*Great incoming sound
*Amazing phonebook organization
*fast navigating menus
*lots of existing S60 games/apps
*great built in web browser
*landscape screen
*long lasting battery
*good tactile keyboard feedback

CONS:
*slow locking GPS
*no support for HTML in e-mails
*relatively weak RF
*grainy camera
*Paying for navigation in Nokia Maps
*small screen
*buggy software
*tight keyboard
*smudges easily