Nokia E71: How I use mine & thoughts in general

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details-images-main01 I have had a Nokia E71 device for several months and thought I would share what apps I am using on it and experiences so far.  All the applications mentioned in here were freely available for download.

I previously had an Okta Touch (aka HTC Touch) which was a touch screen device so I wasn’t how I would find the E71.  After one day with the E71 I was however pleasantly surprised to find that I was really enjoying the E71 and was not missing the touch screen much at all.  This still holds today although I must say I am tempted to get an iPhone.

Connections

One of the best applications I installed early on was Birdstep SmartConnect.  This enabled me to create connection groups and to then put a number of my connections (e.g. HomeWifi, WorkWifi, Telecom Data) into a group and prioritise them.  This group is then treated as a standard connection for any of my applications.  This enables me to then be using Wifi if I am in range of one of my known Wifi spots or if not to use standard Mobile Data.

It is also worth mentioning that the Nokia E71 works excellently with my BlueAnt Supertooth 3 bluetooth handsfree kit.

Profiles & Similar Settings

The E71 enables me to have different profiles for Work and Personal.  I decided not to bother with having two and knowing whether if I was changing a setting that was global or for a single profile. 

I configured my screen to also have applications that I regularly use, including the camera at the top right so that it is quick to get to (unlock, move left, click).

Applications

For a Web browser, I have tried the pre-installed Web browser and Opera Mini and can’t say I’ve really enjoyed any of them, but do tend to keep going back to the pre-installed Web browser which is usable but nothing special. [Update 9 Nov: I have just tried Opera Mobile 10 Beta and it seems to be the best Symbian browser I have used]

For mapping the pre-installed Nokia Maps application is okay, but my preference by far is Google Maps.  This is a must to install, inc the YouTube app and Search box.  I update my location on an ad hoc basis using Google Latitude, but make sure to exit Maps (or whatever Google app I have running) properly so as not to consume lots of data.

I have tried lots of Twitter clients and found Tweets60 to be the one I keep going back to.

I have found Sports Tracker to be quite useful for getting data about how far I’ve walked, how fast I managed to ski a run etc.  It has even motivated me to to go out for a walk, and it is nice how if you take a photo during your exercise, this will be marked on the map with where you were at the timestamp of the photo.

The camera (from what I’ve found) doesn’t support geo-tagging of photos.  The photos incidentally are of a reasonable quality, although it’s not the best in low light conditions.

I use Mail for Exchange regularly.  Despite it not synchronising items sent from my computer, the functionality in general is good enough.  I do like how it keeps my Contacts synchronised across my PC and Mobile, regardless of what I update it in.

I updated the version of QuickOffice that came with my phone and have found this to be very useful, particularly for reading attachments in email messages.

I use Shozu for uploading of photos to Twitter (via Twitpic) or Flickr.  Shozu also supports lots of other sites too (YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, MySpace and many more).  I have found however that it doesn’t always exit, but its not a biggie.

For currency conversions I use WorldMate.  This was installed by default but I needed to update to the latest version.

Midomi is quite cool for singing/humming a song and getting Song Name and Artist back, although it appears my singing is quite bad.

Other

One useful feature I found early on was that holding down the Home key displays all applications currently running.  I have found this to be a useful way to know whether I’m running something that might be consuming data in the background.

All-in-all I find the E71 to be a good device with good voice quality, form factor, and quite like having a full QWERTY keyboard (Yes, I find it is big enough to use).

[Disclosure: I work for Telecom, but these are my personal views, and not influenced in any way whatsoever by my employer]

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