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As much as it wants to be known for uberhip lifestyle smartphones, Nokia covets business users as well—in particular the BlackBerry crowd, or those keen to become part of it. Nokia attempted to woo this group about this time last year with the E62, and although very reasonably priced, the phone got an unenthusiastic marketplace reception largely owing to a lack of key features like 3G and Wi-Fi support. (The E62 was initially carried by AT&T, but dropped back in June). Nokia hopes to have better luck with a follow-on product, the E61i, which in spite of the backwards-sounding nomenclature is actually derived from the same platform (the original E61) that spawned the less-capable E62. The E61's a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) GSM phone that supports EDGE for data connections as well as 3G data networks, but unfortunately only WCDMA 2100—which isn't available on this side of the Atlantic. Those looking for a speedier data connection can take advantage of the E61i's 802.11 g/b Wi-Fi. Physically speaking, the E61i shares many similarities with its lesser sibling. The E61i is a flat, broad slab of a phone, measuring 4.6 x 2.75 x .54 inches, (making it about a quarter-inch taller and wider than a T-Mobile Dash, for example) and a reasonable, if not exactly featherweight, 5.3 ounces.
Design & Features The phone's full QWERTY keyboard compares very favorably to those of most other smartphones we've used. It's made up of relatively large and well-spaced keys, which makes typing much more comfortable and less error-prone than on narrower devices (such as the aforementioned Dash). The E61i carries over the E62's convenient unshifted ampersand (@) key, which greatly simplifies entering mail addresses. The E61i eschews its predecessor's directional thumbstick for a more conventional D-pad and center button, which is flanked by the customary Nokia application and soft keys. The embedded numeric dialpad, takes some getting used to, however, since it puts the zero button in an unconventional location—adjacent to the nine, rather than on the row beneath it. Small volume controls and a voice recorder button sit on the E61's left edge.
Available memory on the E61i is about 60MB, and you can add another 2GB via a microSD card slot, which is unfortunately located inside the battery compartment (but at least not under the battery).
Removing the E61i's battery cover takes a fair bit of elbow grease, and should be done with care: the cover is made of stainless steel and has some disturbingly sharp edges. Nokia rates the E61i's battery for up to 5 hours talk time and 13-17 days on standby (in GSM mode). After four days of frequent use, our unit's battery life indicator still showed 50% remaining.
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 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.
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