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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 E61i feels a bit awkward to hold to your ear with one hand - at least initially - because of its broad shape. That said, the E61i uses its size to great advantage. The phone's face is dominated by a spacious and easy to read 2.8-inch QVGA display with a landscape (320 x 240), rather than portrait orientation.

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.