Nokia E71: Nokia's Blackberry Killer

It seems that phones dubbed "iPhone Killers" are all the rage right now, with nearly every major phone manufacturer cranking out something, anything, with a similar look and feel as Apple's ubiquitous little device. Fortunately, Nokia's E71 is nowhere even remotely similar to the iPhone. Instead, it's a Blackberry Killer - or, a larger than average candy bar armed with a full keyboard. To be honest, only Research in Motion has really managed to perfect the kind of form factor, although lesser offerings from Samsung and Motorola took the spotlight for a short while.

Nokia's first foray into the Blackberry-ish series was the ill-fated E61, a large, plastic piece of work that might have been better suited as a child's toy than a professional smartphone.

Fast forward several years and a couple incarnations of the E61, to the present E71. The look has changed radically - it not only looks like a business phone, it means some serious business.

The E71's connectivity options are well-rounded, with quad-band + HSDPA 850/1900 (or HSDPA 900/2100 for the international version), wi-fi/WLAN 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, infrared, and of course support for more legacy options (GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD). An integrated GPS and Assisted-GPS ensures that you won't be getting lost any time soon.

Generally, Nokia's Eseries suffers from poor imaging features, but the E71 does a decent job in this field. It's armed with a 3.2 megapixel camera that is equipped with autofocus and a flash. Video could be much better, with a maximum QVGA resolution @ 15 fps. Still, it's a small tradeoff considering many of the first Eseries devices lacked cameras completely.

And quite unlike many of Nokia's phones, the E71 shines in the battery life department. The included 1500 mAh lithium-polymer lets you bang out up to 10.5 hours of calls, a number that has got to break some kind of record somewhere.

Of course, the Nokia E71 is all about efficiency - and the keyboard, fairly robust operating system, 369 mhz processor, and its various connectivity options all seem to take care of that issue quite well. We're impressed.

Find the lowest prices on the Nokia E71 phone.