Dominic

The Nokia E61i Doesn't Deliver On Its Promises

I have an e61i and can understand some of the points made in this article. Most notably, it's not always the most coherent operating system to navigate and some advanced functions can be tricky to find and configure.

I've read a few reviews of the phone elsewhere and the unhappy crowd (a minority I think) seems to trend towards working in office environments and having difficulties configuring the phone to seamlessly integrate with their IT infrastructure. I'm not entirely sure the phone is targeted at such users, especially now given the new models inclusion of a camera (which are banned in many buildings).

I can speak as someone who doesn't need to go through such hoops. I'm out in Perth, Australia and I use mine out and about in the city and at home. We have 3G out here for fast data transmission (and cheap data plans because I can choose the provider! ;) so between that, and the seamless integration with my home office network's wifi, I have access to everything I need all the time. And it's an absolute joy.

Yes, I needed to tweak and play with the settings considerably to get everything working just how I liked. Because of that, I'd whole heartedly recommend this phone to the techies. And perhaps less so to the average consumer. Those that know how and actually enjoy playing with all the settings and setting things up will love this phone. Those that don't know or care are probably better going with an iPhone. But I think to some degree they'll be missing out.

I'd just like to point out two more points. There's some very neat 3rd party software for the e61i that takes it even further. For instance, out of box I'd have to agree the media (well video anyway) player is lacking. Well the answer to that is to grab a copy of DivX Mobile Player. Then you can play all those rips/recordings wherever you are. And without going through iTunes and DRM-hell (that's another argument altogether though). Again, this illustrates that THOSE THAT KNOW HOW will benefit from this phone and overall get a better experience (and I'd say better-than-iPhone).

Other 3rd party software of note is "fring". Possibly one of the most killer-apps out there right now. It lets me call out across wifi using Skype and bypass the cell provider altogether. This is cheaper locally and ridiculously cheaper internationally. I can comfortably call the UK from the middle of Perth city for an hour without worrying for a minute about the cost of the call. I can't see AT&T being too fond of that idea :)

So overall, I think it just comes down to what kind of user you are. I can entirely understand why the e61i owners are crazy for this phone. To us, it's an incredible bit of kit... by far the best phone, perhaps best gadget I've ever owned. And the whole iPhone phenomenon is a bit irritating sometimes because we've been enjoying many of its features, some better, some worse for quite some time.

I really feel like I'm carrying a full computer around in my pants all day and that's something I've never been able to say about any other phone or PDA.

My 2cents anyway Carl :)