Nokia E71 Cell Phone Review - Value & Comparisons

Value (4.0)
The Nokia E71 is available for $500 directly from Nokia as an unlocked device. This price will likely cause some sticker shock amongst U.S. consumers used to purchasing phones for quite a bit less with a contract, an option not available with the E71. We have to consider that the E71 will be competing directly with very capable business oriented smart phones like the BlackBerry Curve or the Samsung Blackjack, either of which can be had for less than $100. The E71 is a very capable device in its own right, but it doesn't stand head and shoulders above the competition. As such we can't consider it a great value for most users. That said it's not a terrible value either, especially if keeping yourself out of long term contracts with carriers is a consideration.

Comparisons

BlackBerry Curve 8320 - The E71 faces a lot of tough competition in the QWERTY business phone space, and the Curve is at the top of the list of its competitors. Slightly larger than the diminutive E71 the Curve is still one of the most capable smart phones we've ever seen, even after being on the market for quite awhile. It's QWERTY keyboard is more comfortable to use than the E71's, and the BlackBerry email interface is more capable, although the E71's Symbian S60 operating system is arguably more flexible. Some may look at the E71's 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera and call that the tie breaker, but our tests showed that Curve's camera actually captured better still photos. That leaves price, and the Curve can be had from any carrier for significantly less than the E71's $500 asking price.

Palm Centro - The Centro has redefined the low end of the smart phone market, forcing other manufacturers and carriers to lower prices to compete with the small, but powerful Centro. The price difference between the Centro and the Nokia E71 is probably the starkest indication of the challenge that Nokia faces in the U.S. market. The E71 is the better device, albeit by a smaller margin than you might imagine. Is that small margin worth the extra $400? We'd say no.

Nokia E66 - The E71 was launched with this slider form factor E-Series device, which mirrors all of the E71's software capabilities, but in a smaller form factor. The big differences between the two are battery life, the E71 is significantly better, and camera, the E66 takes the cake here. Both are very capable smart phones, and despite lacking a QWERTY keyboard the E66 actually put up a better words per minute score than the E71. Price is about the same here, we'd lean towards the E71 because battery life is the killer feature for us, but it's a close call.

Apple iPhone 3G - Apple has added several new features to their latest iPhone in an attempt to compete better with business oriented smart phones like the E71. In particular the addition of Exchange Server integration and push email to the iPhone means that one of its biggest deficits for business users has been addressed, although we should note that initial reports of the iPhone's Exchange functionality have been less than stellar. The other big feature that business users complained about was the lack of a QWERTY. Here the E71 still has the iPhone 3G beat, as Apple has stuck with their virtual keyboard. We should note, however, that in our tests the iPhone 3G's virtual keyboard produced a significantly higher words per minute score than the E71's "real" keyboard. We recommend you give both handsets a hands-on before committing to either.

Samsung Blackjack II - Like the Centro and Curve the Blackjack II is a very good, business oriented smart phone that matches the E71 on almost all fronts, and does it for significantly less. Here the big difference between the two is the imaging, with the Blackjack II's terrible camera significantly worse the E71's. Their messaging and organizer features are roughly equivalent, however, and the Blackjack II has the E71 beat out in call time, an important factor for business users. We'd lean towards the Blackjack II unless the camera is really important to you, and if it is you should be looking at another device altogether like the N82.