Nokia may not be officially taking part in CommunicAsia 2008, but the Finnish mobile giant is in Singapore during the same week to show off a duo of new E-series business smartphones, the E66 and the E71.
On paper these new E-series phones may not seem to differ too greatly from their predecessors or indeed from one another. Both devices feature HSDPA data (3.6Mbps), Wi-Fi and A-GPS, and they both run on Nokia's S60 Symbian operating platform with support for Microsoft Exchange servers.
In person these phones strike a very different impression. The E66 is a compact slider with a numeric keypad under the slide, and the slightly wider E71 features a full QWERTY keyboard with an astoundingly slim 10mm thickness — sure to make BlackBerry addicts look twice. Both phones feature 2.4-inch QVGA displays, however, the E66 has a vertically aligned screen while the E71's screen lays in a landscape position.
In a brief hands-on with the E66 at Nokia's Connection event, we were mildly disappointed to see some of the lag issues which plagued the E65 were still evident. The software now features a sleek fading transition when switching applications which almost gives the impression that the pause is more spectacle than lag, but not enough to be convincing. Hopefully we were looking at pre-release software which will see optimisation before its release — slated for the end of July in Australia.
Joseph Hanlon travelled to CommunicAsia as a guest of Samsung.
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Joey Jojo
17/06/2008 11:44 AM
Why do Nokia have to release 100 different models every year? They should focus on one! Look at (sorry to bing it up Nokia lovers) the iPhone, one phone. A year after it's release they only add 3G (which it should have had in the first place) and A-GPS, yet this phone makes the front page of the paper and all over the news. Apple don't need to make 100 different models to stay fresh. It's branding, soon we'll be saying "do you have an iPhone", happend with Sony and the "Walkman", it'll happen with Apple.
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man.dovvn
17/06/2008 04:28 PM
It's difficult if not impossible to satisfy all areas of the mobile market with one handset, regardless of the amount of work put into it. The iPhone failed to satisfy some areas of the market [i.e. business, technophiles]. Take Apple off that damn pedestal. I agree that Nokia release too many models, but people keep buying em, and that says something.
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John
17/06/2008 04:32 PM
Nokia release lots of phones to keep up with trends and appeal to all demographics. In comparison to the iphone u dont c grandpas using them only younger people. Well i quiet like the new e66 as i am a e65 owner and typing this comment on it right now over wifi. i say nokia bring on the new designs and updating the firmware to get rid of lag problems. The new e-series phones look sexy =]
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Testaros_20
07/08/2008 02:06 AM
It will be disastrous if not only mobile phones but everything come only as one type. There will be no variety nor any picks to choose from. I'm sorry to say but Joey joey is absolutely wrong beyond reasonable doubt. Nokia make phones that a wide spectrum of people can use. Where as apple "Market" phones to people, preferably young audiences, as a mean of revenue. There is a clear difference between company values and I think almost all people acquire the knowledge by now. The series are great if not the best business phones in combination with its features and price. I wish apple fanboys would stop jabbering about the iPhone. It's not as good as a phone as people hype it to be.
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