We used the E61i on T-Mobile's network in the Naples/Ft. Meyers area, and found the call audio quality to be good, though the speakerphone may not be loud enough to be heard in environments with lots of background noise.

As is befitting of a phone designed for the corporate set, the E61i includes an abundance of mobile productivity applications, including PIM tools and QuickOffice 3.8 for viewing, editing, or creating new Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files.

The E61i also comes with Nokia's Team Suite application, a utility which can help mobile workers keep in touch with groups of colleagues by letting you define custom teams from your contact list. You can then apply various actions to the entire team, such as sending text or e-mail messages or setting up a multi-party call through the mobile carrier. (TeamSuite can also automate access to outside conference call services by letting you enter dial-in numbers, IDs, PINs, etc in advance.)

An Adobe PDF reader, ZIP file utility, and an application that does conversions with weights and measures or currencies are also included.

Most road warriors will want the E61 for keeping up with e-mail, and the E61i offers a number of ways to do that starting by letting you access POP/SMTP or IMAP accounts. Although not installed by default, you can download BlackBerry Connect or Mail For Exchange software to get push e-mail capabilities, assuming your carrier or corporate IT department supports it.

On the upper left of the E61 sits an indicator light which can be configured to illuminate when a new e-mail (or text/MMS) message is waiting.

The size and shape of the E61i's display makes viewing Web sites a bit easier than on devices with smaller and/or landscape-oriented screens. The E61's four-way D-pad may be a liability for browsing, however, as its thin directional ring around a large action button requires constant thumb repositioning-- the E62's thumbstick would have been welcome here.

Multimedia Features & Camera
You won't mistake the E61i for one of Nokia's NSeries multimedia phones, but the phone does come with several built-in multimedia applications. The e61i can play MP3 and AAC audio, along with Real and 3GPP video files.

The E61i's includes only a simply monaural earbud with an inline mike for hands-free calling, so if you plan to do any serious music listening you'll want to by your own earphones. Your options for doing so are limited, however, as they connect to the E61i via Nokia's multipurpose Pop-Port connector rather than a standard audio jack. The E61i's Bluetooth support doesn't include support the AD2P profile, so getting stereo over wireless isn't an option.

The E61i also includes a 2 megapixel camera that lacks a flash or any advanced image editing tools. It produces passable though fairly mediocre images—our test shots looked muted and almost washed out. You can also use the camera to record video clips.

While the E62's carrier subsidy made it available for a bargain price of as little as $99, the same isn't true for the more potent E61i, which isn't currently offered by any stateside carrier. You can buy one direct from Nokia for the unit's $500 list price, or save roughly 20-25 percent by picking one up from a third-party retailer. That's pricey, but it will buy you a very capable and (relatively) exclusive smartphone.