I saw the phone with a friend first and the first thing I asked was’why are you carrying a calculator?:p’
Then later realised it was the earlier E61 version she had(the fat elder brother of this phone with no camera) This one is stunningly slim and beautiful.
I had a real hard time deciding between Nokia E61i - Sony Ericsson P900i - Sony Ericsson P1i.A little bit of this and that and this and that.and got E61i.Now I will share the points which made me buy this phone and then the experience with the phone so far-
PROS-
1) Full alphabetic(QWERTY/Z) keypad.(This is a major pro. you have to have it to know it).
2) Large 2.8 inch color screen in 320x240(QVGA) resolution. The best screen you will ever see and will love watching movies on, and be able to see in sunlight too.
3) Wi-Fi connectivity for 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networks. This essentially means it supports the newer 802.11g which the whole world uses, unlike P900i which had only 802.11a/b which is the older version.
4) Beautiful styling, with unmatched body fitting and the one peice body feel rock solid, with the rear steel cover is completely awesome.
5) Quick office- Edit docs, MS-excel-Word, Powerpoint, read PDF’s(real cool.no buying required.u can edit the docs since its not just a reader).
6) Bluetooth, Infrared. & the new addition of a 2.0 megapixel camera which was missing from the E61
7) Superb battery life - 3-4 days(maybe uses a power efficient processor)
8) Symbian OS - which meant I can have access to loads of freeware from the net.as against the M’soft windows mobile
9) Unlimited phonebook
10) Wide range of connectivity protocols and options - 2G:GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G:UMTS 2100, WLAN: Wi-Fi. WCDMA, EGPRS, GPRS, HSCSD, CSD, VoIP etc etc.
11) Wi-Fi scanner keeps scanning for Wi-Fi networks every 5-10 minutes
12) New mail/sms/missed call notifier(blinking light) is a superb feature saving you a lot of trouble
13) 5 way navigation pad
14) Light sensor that automatically adjusts the backlight and keyboard lighting to suit your surrounding
15) Sound/voice quality
16) placement of loudspeaker at the side makes sure the sound doesnt get muffled when the phone is on the bed
CONS-
1) No FM(None E series have FM)
2) No Flash for camera(Its a no nonsense enterprise phone)
3) High price as against features offered(But still low as compared to the Blackberries)
4) Bad memory management - leads to frequent error- "Close some programs"
5) Quite slow(You can actually complete a yawn)
6) No touch screen makes navigation a little painful
7) The camera is nearly useless at times since the picture is captured 3 seconds after pressing the button, maybe since it was added on later(SE beats it in this dept), but again an enterprise phone cannot be a multimedia(N series) phone.
8) No HSDPA - This allows faster downloads
9) GPS absent:(
Pros 1, 2, 3, 4 7 & 8 were the deciding factors for buying the phone
Although the phone looks wide but its a breeze to hold the phone in one hand and type a message with the thumb. The picture quality is decent enough, attached is a picture I had clicked at 7:00 pm under low light at the sea shore. The keypad is quite a charm. The big screen size and screen resolution, build quality, battery life, connectivity options are some features which have kept Nokia’s cash counters ringing. But I would like nokia to add some more spice to the phone to make it value for money and give it the wow factor!
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Update:- Have forgotten to write about Fring and E61i, It was ultimately unstable on the phone, Wi-Fi couldnt have been the reason since it happened at multiple places, Fring would keep signing in and out once in 10 seconds, and then the contacts started dissapearing and the phone started crumbling to peices when I uninstalled Fring.and I had a real tough time uninstalling it. Want to try it again coz that is one reason I had got this phone:( to make/get calls from skype