| Mini-Review of the Nokia E61 |
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The Nokia E61 is a PDA-style phone that uses the Symbian operating system. This phone is not sold by any of the GSM providers in Canada, but it can be purchased at many of the online retailers, or (I’m told) at Bongo Wireless in the Toronto area. The E61 is a quad-band phone, which means that it supports both 1900 MHz and 850 MHz for North American use. Last Updated: 30-Jul-2006 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
RF Performance
RF Sensitivity: This was only a mini-review, and so
I didn’t really have the luxury of time to perform extensive tests of the E61’s
RF capabilities. Compared to my Nokia 6310i
(which supports only 1900 MHz) the E61 did quite well at the infamous Hall of
Shame over at Square One in Mississauga. The magnitude of the difference between
the two phones wasn’t all that great, and it might be explained by the support
of 850 on the E61. If I’d had the time I would have tested the phone against the
Siemens A56 as well, which does support 850 MHz.
Nonetheless, the E61 did extremely well in areas where I’ve previously tested
other 850-capable phones.
Over-the-road Performance: As this was a
mini-review, which was restricted to a 1-hour test of the phone while I was
inside of Square One, I did not have an opportunity to test this aspect of the
E61.
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
Audio Performance
Tonal Balance: Like many of the better Nokia phones,
the E61 exhibits excellent tonal balance, with a nice mix of highs and lows
that showed very little signs of boominess or shrillness. The phone could have
done with a bit more low-end, but other than that there was very little to
complain about.
Sound Reproduction: This was also a high point for
this phone, as the overall sound reproduction was very smooth and free from odd
distortions or colorizations. Again, this is typical for many of the
better-quality Nokia phones and the E61 is no exception. Along with the
excellent tonal balance, the sound quality of the E61 is about as good as it
gets, especially on PDA-style phones, that in my experience have always seemed
to have inferior audio qualities to their non-PDA brothers and sisters.
Outgoing sound quality was about average, but it really suffered when there was
abundant background noise present. I made test recordings to my voicemail using
the E61, my Motorola i580 (on Telus Mike), and
my Nokia 6310i at the same noisy location at the Square One food court. The
6310i picked up all of the background noise, but my voice remained dominant and
easy to understand. The i580 cut out the background noise to a very high degree
without causing any noticeably distortion to my own voice. Sadly the E61 picked
up the background noise so well that it seemed to drown out my own voice to a
surprisingly great extent. If I’d been talking with someone at that time I’m
sure they would have been saying “pardon” quite often.
In quieter areas the outgoing sound quality was quite good, but even the tiniest
background noises seemed to be amplified and to the caller it seemed as though
those noises were occurring right next to the E61 user. It was almost as though
the E61 had an inverse noise canceller (or a noise enhancer).
Earpiece Volume: Although the earpiece volume of
the E61 isn’t astonishing, the phone does support Nokia’s wonderful volume-booth
feature that automatically increases the earpiece volume (even when it’s at
maximum) when loud background noise is detected. When I tried the phone at a
very noisy location at the Square One food court I found that the earpiece
volume was more than loud enough to rise above the din.
Speakerphone: I have to admit to being a bit jaded
in this department after my purchase of the Motorola i580. The speakerphone on
that model is just so good that everything else seems inferior by comparison. To
be fair however, the E61’s speakerphone is useable in quiet environments, but it
becomes too difficult to hear once the background noises gets above minor. The
sound quality of the speaker is rather tinny however, and so you probably won’t
want to use it unless it’s necessary. It’s great for being put on hold however.
The same speaker is used to play various multimedia sources, such as MP3 files,
movies, and streamed audio by way of RealPlayer. Surprisingly it produces
noticeably more volume in this mode than when talking with callers, but the
maximum volume of the tiny little speaker is still insufficient to listen to it
when background noise is present.
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: Because the ringers use the same
speaker as the speakerphone, they are sadly rather faint. They sound great in
quiet or moderately noise environments, but in really noisy places like a
shopping mall or a busy street they just don’t cut it. I looked for various
ringtones that would best utilize the speaker, but none of them seemed to do a
particularly stellar job.
Keypad Design: Because this is a PDA-style phone it
has a full QWERTY keyboard crammed into the tiny space below the large screen.
Because of this the keys are quite closely spaced and they are difficult to
press accurately if you have big fingers. If you also happen to be a “thumber”,
then you may find the keys too small to actuate probably.
In addition there is
no separate numeric keypad, and so dialing the phone means using a group of keys
in the middle of the QWERTY keyboard. There is almost no way to tell the keys
apart without looking at them, and “0”, “*”, and “#” keys are in non-standard
locations. Other PDA models have touch-sensitive screens and can simulate a
numeric pad on the screen. The E61 does not have a touch-sensitive screen.
Those gripes aside, the keypad is actually well-built otherwise, with good
tactile feel and very good accuracy. The 4-way joystick is a joy to use (no pun
intended). It moves accurately and it does exactly what your fingers ask of it.
I never found myself pressing it down when I meant to move it side-to-side or
up-and-down.
Display: The display is a large 320 x 240 pixel
TFT/TFD display supporting 16.7 million colors (mounted in a landscape
orientation). The display seems to have the ability to reflect ambient light,
which makes it possible to see even without the backlight on. However, the
backlight isn’t anywhere near as bright as other phones I’ve tried, including my
own i580. This makes the colors less striking and the display more dim-looking.
I was unable to try the display outdoors, but with its ability to reflect light,
I would wager that it works well in direct sunlight.
Memory Expansion: The E61 supports a MiniSD card,
which allows you to add up to 2 GB of extra memory to the built-in 75 MB. My
only grip about the memory card slot was that you had to remove the battery door
to get at it, though you could remove and insert the card without having to pull
the battery.
Conclusions
Of all the PDA-style phones I’ve tested, the E61 comes off as the most capable
when used AS A PHONE. I’ve often found that the phones grafted onto other PDAs
were lackluster with poor sound quality. The E61 provides the same excellent
sound quality one comes to expect from properly-engineered Nokia products
(because let’s face it, there have been some REALLY BAD Nokia phones in the
past).
I can’t really comment on its usefulness as a PDA, since that isn’t what
I test it for. However, when it comes to being a phone first and foremost, the
E61 isn’t taking a back seat to anyone (with the exception of its rather iffy
outgoing sound quality in the face of loud background noise).
One final note, the E61 does not have a built-in camera, which seems to be
otherwise mandatory for
PDA-style phones these days. Depending upon our needs however, the lack of a
camera may not be a significant factor.
