This was perhaps the most anticipated phone for us, and we couldn’t wait to get handson after seeing the images. The E71 is excellently crafted of steel and alloys, and the front is finished in satin polished steel that gives a glass-like feel. The rear cover is pure steel, with some sort of surface treatment to resist oxidisation and is dimpled for aesthetics as well as to retain a firmer grip. The keypad feels a couple of notches lower in terms build quality and although it’s a QWERTY it isn’t as well laid out, or as spacious as say the E61/E62.

The screen is clear and crisp and smaller at 2.36 inches. The menu icons seem to have taken a Jurassic step backwards from what we’re used to seeing on Symbian based phones. Another issue worthy of note is the pathetic keypad backlighting. On a positive note accessory quality is absolutely top notch. In terms of features the E71 has very few rivals—GPS, WiFi, and an excellent 3.2 camera with autofocus, all this in addition to its decent PMP capabilities and good music quality. But document creation support is still absent, as is the joy of MS Outlook— which itself may be reason enoughfor corporate users to shy away.

View Nokia E71 Video Below

The keypad is another g r i p e — a l t h o u g h we understand the need to keep the phone smaller than the gargantuan E61/E62, couldn’t Nokia have spenta little more time designing the keypad to achieve a workable compromise? At a price of Rs 22,949 the E71 is a beautiful looking cellphone that may appeal to college goers and SMS junkies more than serious business users. It’s well worth the dough you fork out, although it’s far from a perfect PDA phone.

This was perhaps the most anticipated phone for us, and we couldn’t wait to get handson after seeing the images. The E71 is excellently crafted of steel and alloys, and the front is...