Sadly no one won our sweep stake as the E61 is much smaller and thinner than we'd expected, measuring 117 x 69.7 x 18 mm and weighing 144 grams. Nokia have really managed to keep their beast of the slim fast plan, meaning your jacket pocket might just cope with its bulk. But why would you put yourself though carrying the E61, most blackberry users are corporate's who have them forced upon them. We wondered if anyone would actually buy the E61 with their own money, surely a good test?

Power up and the screen is the first thing that makes its presence felt, the large 2.8" screen seems much bigger due to its landscape orientation, the colours are vibrant and the backlight is good and strong. Like many mobiles the screen is equipped with a light sensor but this one actually works and manages to maintain a bright readable display even in direct sunlight.

Below the screen is a backlit keyboard which  is a pleasure to use with well spaced keys in a natural layout, yes they are a bit small and more of a thumb board but you soon manage to work quite quickly and are able to crank out text messages and emails. The menu system is the latest series 60 3rd edition running symbian 9.1, this means great looking GUI's which have seen Nokia finally produce a user experience to rival Sony Ericsson and trounce the blackberry who's new models improved menus are only 1 level deep.

The major selling point of the E61 is the connectivity, it's entirely possible that an astronaut could take this mobile on the first manned moon mission and find that it's compatible with the WiFi hotspots run by the Martian branch of Tmobile. Alongside the quad band and 3G mobile coverage there is full mobile data capability with HSCSD and EGPRS and it's possible to hook the Nokia to your home or office WiFi network with inbuilt 802.11b/g.

Being connected is possibly a stronger vision than the convergence bandwagon with inbuilt movie cameras and MP3 players, the businessman or woman on the move needs to stray in touch and Nokia have a little trump card here too. They support multiple push email systems. Push email means that your company's server or one of the many web based services (like Nokias own Intellisync email) can push an email to you as soon as the server gets it. This is more like SMS than older email clients on mobiles which had to check periodically, say every 15 minutes to see if you had mail which was in efficient on bandwidth and also annoying.

The Nokia E61 now supports Visto email technology, BlackBerry Connect, GoodLink and Seven Always-On Mail alongside its own software, so you can see how corporations now have a choice in that the E61 will work using the blackberry technology.

So to our week with the E61, just how would we get on in the connected world and would it compare to our time with the current choice of most businesses the Blackberry?

Having set-up our mobile with the Nokia service (our exchange server wasn't available for the test) we managed to pull down emails using the data connectivity and view attachments (albeit on the small screen) plus reply quickly and without fuss. We had worried that one handed operation would be tricky but the package sits well in the palm and is not too bad for a quick one handed reply email. Using the push email system really did make us feel as if we were connected to the office and our redaers got replies much quicker than normal.

Having found a wireless hotspot at Liverpool Street station (a BT Openzone one) we fired up the WiFi section of the series 60 V3 interface, it is, as you'd expect straight forward enough to search for WiFi networks and enter network credentials including WEP encryption. With a bit of a fiddle to get the BT openzone sit to take our credit card we were soon connected and sending an receiving emails plus browsing the web but more on that later.

Our last test of connectivity was the old favourite of sync with MS outlook back at the desk. It is possibly unnecessary given the connected nature of the E61 but it seems likely that you'd want to sync calendar and email quickly when you hit the office. The traditional methods of USB pop port and Bluetooth both worked fine but surprisingly the WiFi connecting and also the infared one prove a little more troublesome.

While the email client is excellent it isn't the highlight of the new E61, that accolade is reserved for the web browser on the Series 60 which is a joy to use. It has a way of handling WebPages design for much large screens than the 320 x 240 pixel E61's. You get an overall map which can then be scrolled around and then selected to show the area of the web page your require. After a bit of a play this become second nature and make web browsing almost as easy as Nokias tablet PC. Then the standard PIM application including calendar, contacts and ToDo are enhanced by the ability to open excel and word documents even Zip files and PDF's.

Storage on the E61 is provided by 75mb of onboard space but also by mini SD card, however it is not easily accessible which is poor on a business class phone but at least it's not hidden behind the battery like some models. But with SD cards hitting 1gb now it's easy to see why Nokia have included it and it serves as a repository for as many attachments as you can muster making this smartphone more useable.

Battery life is quite exceptional, Nokia quote daft times like 15 days on standby in GSM mode. We can only assume they did not take any calls or use the screen, in our daily use we needed to recharge after 4 days of moderate calls, email use and showing off to our colleagues!  3G use or heavy data use further eats the 1500 mAh battery but even with extreme use we think you'd manage 48 hours use away from a charger.

RF performance is first class with clear calls even in dodgy reception areas which will make the E61 popular with those who end up in the back of beyond on business. The speakerphone feature is very loud and clear meaning it can be set down mid table and performs better than many so called conference phones that the "rent an office" people provide.

Being a new model it's not all good news, we encountered a number of firmware bugs including 2 keys that seem to be swapped around in some applications, for example when using the web browser the all important backlash is switched with the question mark!

Nokia have produced a phone of exceptional build quality which is worthy of the boardroom. Unlike so many so called business phones the materials used feel great and seem to be both hardwearing and yet attractive. The feature set is all we could have asked for, there are the toys like an MP3 player but it's all about connectivity, email and attachments. Combined with a strong battery and good radio performance it is easily better than any Blackberry and a real challenger for the Treo Smartphones.

Published - 17/06/2006

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