Design
The E61 is branded by Nokia under the
tagline of "Nokia For Business", and the business in this case
appears to be mimicking the BlackBerry
model, adding a few interesting features along the way.
From a design standpoint, that means that the E61 looks and more or less feels like any other BlackBerry-styled handset that you've seen before. Weighing in at 144g with the battery installed and measuring 117mm x 69.7mm x 14mm, this is hardly a tiny unit by mobile standards, although it's lithe by BlackBerry standards. A business-like silver finish gives the E61 a nice professional look and avoids the scuffed/grubby look that some black phones pick up all too easily. The keyboard on the E61 is backlit with a function key to switch between dialling and alphabet entries, although for the most part that's handled quite well in a context-sensitive way. A five-way joystick sits at the top of the reasonably-sized (for a phone) keyboard, flanked by the E61's dedicated menu and email buttons. Volume and voice recorder buttons sit on the left hand side, although the right hand side is left clear of buttons. If you're a BlackBerry afficionado used to a scroll wheel and back buttons, you may find the E61 takes some getting used to. The E61's 320 x 240 TFT display screen is bright and clear for pretty much every application you could think of to use on the phone -- both business and non-business related.
Features
It's pretty clear which route Nokia's
designers chose to take when deciding which technologies to
implement on the E61. It basically chucked them all in. The end
result is a phone with (deep breath) support for GSM
850/900/1800/1900, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, Infrared, VoIP, Push To
Talk, and Mini SD storage cards. On the software side, you can
add to that list support for Symbian OS 9.1 compatible
applications, Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, as
well as Zip files and PDF files via Adobe reader. The E61's
screen can be sent out to compatible projectors via the E61's
screen export package, making it a potential replacement for some
ultraportable notebooks, depending on your usage patterns.
Naturally as a competitor in the BlackBerry
space, the E61 has full support for POP3, IMAP, SMTP and
Microsoft Exchange Server email. In an odd, and decidedly
non-corporate way, it also supports instant messaging clients
from Yahoo and AOL, MP3 and AAC music playback and RealPlayer
video support. Just don't let the IT department know about those
features and you should be fine.
One feature that's normally de rigeur with 3G phones that the E61 omits is any kind of camera, so if your business life also includes the odd video call, this isn't the phone for you. The flipside of this is presumably that it'll be easier to convince your IT department to buy one if it doesn't look like a consumer phone in any way whatsoever.
Performance
Where the E61 impressed us the most
was in the breadth of its scope, especially given the inbuilt
support for WiFi. The inclusion of WiFi makes it a true option
for work within the office and outside of it, as it's capable of
using whatever data connection is to hand for incoming messages
and other data transmissions. The mobile carriers may not be
happy with this -- data rates over 3G and GPRS are typically very
high -- but it's a good argument in the E61's favour that you'll
be able to use wireless services for data transmission when
you're in a compatible hotspot or in the office. The same also
holds true for voice calls, where you can use VoIP clients for
calling purposes. Naturally, it's a good idea to make sure you
are connected properly to your WiFi connection before initiating
a VoIP call, otherwise you'll find your VoIP savings evaporate
when your carrier charges you data rates for your call.
The one caveat we'd attach to the E61 is that a lot of its menu choices aren't as clear as they could otherwise be, and you'll sometimes find yourself trekking through multiple screens to achieve a desired result. As an example, you can scan for nearby wireless access points in the phone's connection manager, but only connect to insecure points that way -- if you need to classify wireless security settings for an access point, that's in an entirely different menu and sub-menu structure.
Like most BlackBerry-style devices, the E61 is technically capable of making phone calls, although it's arguably a somewhat secondary consideration; like most phones in this form factor it feels a little daft holding up a small brick to your ear, and the phone dialling buttons are on the small side. Presumably Nokia figures that the business market the E61 is pitched towards will all go down the Bluetooth headset/voice dialling route. While we're on the physical problems page, we also found that the navigation joystick on our review sample was a little twitchy when it came to differentiating between a downwards push and a selection click, which made some online navigating and menu selections a touch trickier than they needed to be.
Nokia rates the E61 as being capable of up to 9.5 hours talk time and up to 17 days standby time. Given the wide range of battery-sapping applications that you can have enabled -- Bluetooth and WiFi alone can bring even the biggest and meanest battery to its sobbing knees -- we expected to hit the lower sides of those estimations, and were pleasantly suprised to hit them almost exactly with moderate use of the phone in 3G and WiFi modes.
innocent boy
14/04/2008, 08:46 AM
rating
10/10
I love it. I used almost all imate, nokia and all etc famous models but the power, connectivity and performance of e61 is matchless without compromising on design.
Pros: qwert keyboard, powerfull wifi, battery life, uniqueness
Cons: looks like calculator, no cam
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shima
08/03/2008, 04:27 AM
rating
10/10
My company gave me a Blackberry Pearl, but later replaced it with the E61 because of a new rule that only Managers could have blackberry's. At first I was upset because I really liked the Pearl, But when i realized that the E61 did everything that the BB did and more, I was shocked and amazed.
Pros: Strong, dependable phone.
Cons: Only able to use Real Player sucks.
No Camera
Not able to close all applications at once without turning the phone off.
Frequently locks up the bluetooth connection with the headset.
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Forbiddon
19/01/2008, 01:31 PM
rating
3/10
I have had mine for 6 months now and every day this phone costs me money due to the business I am losing. It is lacking in processor power and has had so many glitches and issues I think the only real use it has for me now is a door stop.
I count the days until I get an upgrade 117 to go.
WORSE BIT OF TECHNOLOGY (i use that word loosely) I HAVE EVER OWNED
Pros: It fits the inside of my coat pocket lovely. Its hard to loose.
Cons: 1) The phone will power down and up again of its own accord.
2) It takes about 60 seconds from switching it on to it bringing up the pin....way too long.
3)Try to do two things at the same time and the phone lags terribly.
4)locating files I transfer onto this phone is like finding a needle in a haystack..it seems to be a labrynth at times.
5) text messages take forever to go
6) multimedia messages struggle to get through
7)Reception is awful even though I have had 2 nokia's previously on same network with no real (reception)problems.
8) I have to do a factory restore on average every 3 weeks because of different problems that randomly occur.
9)Joystick is now struggling and becoming harder to use.
10)It is neither a good phone or a good PDA...its a half breed of the two and fails miserably.
If I went into all the error messages I received in the first few months it would be too long of my life gone so here's the top 5.
1) Failed to connect, too many applications open try closing some applications first and retry (how many items is too many...1 and it could be just my recent call list)
2) Insufficient memory, close applications try again....open, 1 item same as above....a nightmare if you like me have mobile mail (a constant connection needed) and the phone feels this is too much.
3)unable to download multimedia item, please try again later.
4) unable to install application, please go to settings and try again (do so and it still wont install or even uninstall the same app and it auto tries every single time I turn on the phone (and fails) and demands another 30 seconds of time to fail...then the phone is ok to use)..so it takes 2 minuts from power on to phone being accessible (but then another 1 minute for the contacts to be accessible)
5) random sim message pops up (not so often now since it was sent back from factory) sim registration failed, please remove sim and try again...etc...I never touch the sim, it
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kkay
20/10/2007, 06:27 AM
rating
7/10
i have e61 for a week now. it cannot connect to a public network WLAN.
Pros: sleek design,
Cons: reset frequently, navigation key no good
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bruce Hack
07/10/2007, 10:51 PM
rating
4/10
can the nokia E61 work on Verizon
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Bidouz
14/09/2007, 12:04 AM
rating
9/10
The Best Phone I've had so far !!!
Pros: Connectivity is fabulous
Quick office is handy
Voice recognition is very good
Cons: Stereo headphones woud've been nice.
A bit Slow, Faster Processor and maybe more RAM needed.
Integrated GPS missing
Power button and led in akward position
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Jet
10/09/2007, 04:18 PM
rating
10/10
This Phone Rocks..It basically provides me with all the connectivity that i need..though I had a problem with the joystick recently but nokia center replaced the joystick right away..
Pros: Connectivity, Speed and Display Quality.
Cons: No Camera..but if you have a phone like this you wont miss your camera phone.
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djoxy
29/06/2007, 09:08 PM
rating
10/10
I brought it yesterday and it has stunung quality and many options
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Cutler
14/06/2007, 02:51 PM
rating
3/10
I had this phone for 12 months and although I initially loved it - the quality turned out to be very poor and I've recently got rid of it. Rather disappointing. :-(
Pros: Screen, battery, keyboard
Cons: After 6 months the joystick key failed and would no longer scroll down (So I had to scroll up through menus.
It started to lock up often and took ages to send SMS (up to 1 minute during which time it was frozen).
My initial E61 would not charge and had to be exchanged.
It would not connect to any PC using the sync software provided.
Last month the power button failed and it started turning itself off all the time.
I gave up and it's now in my bottom draw as a spare.
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Brett
23/03/2007, 03:12 PM
rating
10/10
i had an o2 xda and gave it away. this has all those features but actually works as a phone!
Pros: screen, phone
Cons: size - thickness
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