Nokia E71 Cell Phone Review - Hardware

We were able to type reasonably fast on the Nokia E71's QWERTY keyboard, but it was a bit uncomfortable due to its small size. The screen is pretty standard, and we do wish there was a 3.5mm headset jack on board.

Text Words Per Minute (9.14)
We were able to manage 45.7 words per minute (WPM) on the Nokia E71's keyboard. Although this is better than average, you can see below that it falls short of several of our comparison devices with QWERTY keyboards. In fact we were able to type faster on the Nokia E66 using the standard keypad and predictive text. Our biggest problem with the E71's keyboard is it's small size and how closely together the keys are packed together. This led to a lot of errors, which we had to slow down to avoid. And this isn't a fat finger problem, we let multiple people use the keyboard and they all reported the same problem. Even more annoying is that the keys are very sensitive, so often you'll think you hit a second surrounding button when in actually you didn't. This constant feel of thinking you made a mistake is almost more annoying than actually making mistakes.

Tactile feedback when keys are pressed isn't very good, and there's not a lot of key travel. The layout also causes some problems as the keys are aligned in a grid rather than being slightly offset from row to row as a QWERTY should be. Finally the space bar is particularly uncomfortable to use, it doesn't depress wholly when you hit it and you're often wondering if you actually pressed it. The Nokia E71's keyboard isn't terrible, but it's not particulary good either. If you're thinking that it's the key feature of the E71 you may want to look elsewhere. Devices like the BlackBerry Pearl 8320 and Blackjack II have significantly better keyboards. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Words Per Minute

T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
Lacking a standard keypad the Nokia E71 does not support T9 predictive text entry, it does support word completion, however. This features attempts to guess the word you're typing before your're done, showing the suggestion in slightly greyed out text. You can accept it simply by hitting the space bar. This is a nice feature that can speed up your typing.

One-Handed Typing (6.10)
As is typical of QWERTY handsets one-handed typing is nowhere near as fast as typing with two hands. We were only able to manage a rather anemic 30.5 words per minute. You can see below that other QWERTY handsets like the Blackjack II and Palm Centro also saw a significant drop-off form one to two handed typing. In contrast the E66, which has a standard keypad, saw only a minor drop-off. If you like to type one-handed we recommend you avoid QWERTY devices like the E71. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Words Per Minute

Keypad Backlighting (3.0)
The Nokia E71's keyboard is backlit in a dull grey light, which isn't distributed evenly. It's brighter at the top center of the keyboard than it is at the bottom or edges. There are no independant brightness controls, but it will follow the same timing you set for the screen backlight.

D-Pad/Joystick (8.0)
The D-Pad on the Nokia E71 sits just beneath the screen in the middle of the front of the phone. The D-Pad isn't huge, but it's large enough for most users. The outer edge of the D-pad is raised and you use this edge to control the four way functions. The center of the D-Pad is a single large button that's slightly domed and prominent without being so prominent that we hit it on accident. After seeing some of the terrible D-Pads we've seen on other Nokia phones lately we're glad to see a functional and comfortable D-pad on the E71.

Touch Screen (0.0)
The Nokia E71 does not have a touch screen.

Jog Dial (0.0)
There is no jog dial on the Nokia E71, and it doesn't support Nokia's Navi-Wheel technology that allows you to move up and down lists by running your finger along the edge of the D-pad.

Soft Buttons (6.0)
The soft buttons on the Nokia E71 are located at the outer edges of the phone above the send and end buttons. They are a bit on the small side, but they do protrude nicely along the top edge, which makes finding and pressing them by feel is comfortable. We also would have liked a bit more tactile feedback and key travel, but they do a decent job overall.

Volume Control (6.0)
The volume buttons on the Nokia E71 are located on the right side. Somewhat annoyingly, they are separated by the dedicated voice command button. We understand wanting to give this button a prominent spot, but we would have preferred to have the volume keys right next to each other to avoid any problems. As it is the buttons sit a bit above the surrounding and provide good tactile feedback and key travel when pressed, so that's our only concern.

Power and Standby (6.0)
The power button on the Nokia E71 sits on the top of the phone, a big red button that you can't miss. It sits flush with the surrounding plastic and isn't likely to be hit by accident, which is what you want from a power button.  When pressed once it brings up a quick menu that allows you to change the profile along with a couple of other shortcuts. A long press will turn the phone off, and then another long press will start it up again.

Other Buttons (11.0)
In addition to the buttons discussed above the Nokia E71 offers several additional buttons to help you get around the interface. We mentioned the dedicated voice command key on the right side of the phone, a long press on this button anywhere in the interface will launch voice command. To the left of the D-Pad are two shortcut keys, the Home button, which takes you to the home screen with a single press, the menu with another press and shows the currently running programs with a long press. To the right of that is the Calendar key, which takes you to the calendar with a short press or a new appointment interface with a long press.

To the right of the D-Pad are two additional buttons for contacts and messaging. A single press on the contacts button will take you to your address book while a long press will take you to a new contact interface. The messaging key will take you to the primary email account with a single press and a new email message with a long press. The great thing about the calendar, contacts and messaging keys are that they are all user customizable, so if you prefer they do something else you can reassign them.

Finally we will award a point for the backspace key on the keyboard as this fulfills many functions in the interface. Basically you can delete almost any selected item just by hitting the backspace. There's also a dedicated camera key on the Nokia E71.

Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.0)
The Nokia E71's display has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA). This is a standard resolution for a cell phone, not up to the higher resolution screens we see on some devices like the iPhone 3G, but good enough for most uses.

Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (8.48)
Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measure of screen density. The higher the screen density the richer the colors and the sharper the images. Lower screen density can lead to washed out images and pixelation ont he display. The Nokia E71's pixel density is 169.5 PPI. You can see below that this is about average and amongst our comparison phones is only beat out significantly by the Palm Centro. It should not cause you any problems, we only start to worry when pixel density gets down around 150 PPI or less.

Pixels Per Inch

Screen Physical Size (5.90)
The Nokia E71's display measures 2.36 inches diagonal, just slightly smaller than the 2.4 inch displays we see on most of Nokia's smart phones. The difference is to fit the screen into the rather small form factor of the E71, and most users won't notice it at all. Certainly it's no iPhone 3G display, but it is bigger than many phones.

Screen Size Diagonal (inches)

Screen Brightness (6.25)
We measured the Nokia E71's screen brightness at 60 lux. You can see below that this is below average for a phone, in fact only the Palm Centro amongst our comparison phones performed worse. The Nokia E71 does adjust brightness automatically, and offers five manual settings for users. You can also set the length of time before the screen turns itself off.

Screen Brightness (lux)

Screen Bright Light Performance (6.0)
The Nokia E71's display wasn't great under bright lights, but it wasn't terrible either. We could make out what was on the screen and icons could be identified, however we did have trouble making out text and there was certainly glare. It wasn't as good as the Nokia E66 or the BlackBerry Curve 8320, but it performed much better than the Palm Centro or Blackjack II, where the glare was overwhelming.

Color Depth (10.0)
The Nokia E71's screen is capable of displaying sixteen million colors. You can see below that this is amongst the best we've seen from any phone, it's only matched by the Nokia E66 amongst our comparison phones. This means that photos and other color rich items on the screen will look very accurate in terms of color.

Power & Data Ports (4.0)
The Nokia E71 has Micro USB port on the left side of the phone for Data. This is a standardized port and is what we like to see. What isn't as good is the proprietary Nokia charging port on the bottom of the device. Micro USB is quite capable of handling the charging duties as well and we don't understandy why Nokia keeps on putting proprietary charging ports on their devices.

Headphone Compatibility (6.0)
The Nokia E71 supports a standard 2.5mm headset jack. Although not quite as good as the 3.5mm jacks we're seeing become more popular on phones, it's still fairly easy to find headphones or an adaptor for this jack. The E71 also supports wireless stereo Bluetooth headphones.

Internal Storage (1.0)
The Nokia E71 has 100MB of internal memory available, which should be quite sufficient for all your conatcts, email, calendar appointments and other associated PIM data. If you want to use the phone for multimedia, however, you'll need to invest in more storage via a memory card.

Expansion Slot & Format (6.5)
The Nokia E71 supports Micro SD cards, including high capacity cards that are currently available up to 8GB in size. This should allow you to get enough storage to load the phone up with all the music, videos and photos you want. The Micro SD card slot on the E71 is located on the left side and is protected by a rather flimsy rubber cover that we're sure will break off quickly. Why they went with a cheap bit here on what is otherwise a well constructed device we don't know.

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