Wise Rhetoric

I was originally planning to purchase an iPhone. However, after seeing this phone on Amazon, along with many positive reviews and an excellent price ($150 after rebate), this phone looked to have the right price and features for my needs. In particular, I wanted strong messaging capabilities, WiFi, a few games, and reasonably capable web browsing to check the news, my RSS feeds, weather, stocks, etc. However, I really don’t need (or want to pay for) the more advanced iPhone capabilities.

I’ve had the phone for just over 2 days now, and my experience has been consistent with many of the other reviewers. For example, I really like the keyboard and overall construction and form-factor. The core applications like email, web browsing, calendar, and address book also meet or exceed my expectations. However, I found parts of the setup and configuration to be counter-intuitive and the software and handset as a whole to be less “seamlessly integrated” than I would have hoped for.

The above being said, now that I’ve fully configured this phone, and I’m further along the Symbian learning curve, I believe for as long as I own this phone, it will prove to be an excellent value; i.e., it has excellent features, capabilities, and performance for the price.

A few specific pros and cons include:

* “Virtual GPS” with Google maps – If you purchase this phone, I’d definitely download Google Maps. Having done so, I was pleasantly surprised to find Google Maps used the cell-tower method to give a “virtual GPS” location within 200 meters (at least for me on AT&T), and fully integrated this information with its other capabilities.

* Software and handset capabilities not seamlessly integrated – For example, I purchased a 4GB mini-SD card, and proceeded to fill it with hundreds of photos in numerous folders. By default, the built in photo browser doesn’t include the folder structure on the SD card, but instead lists all the photos as one big flat list. There is a work-around to organize the pictures into a second set of “folders” on the phone, but why is this duplicate organization necessary? There are also 3rd party photo browsers you can download/purchase. As another example, I configured the start-up screen to show some contact information to call if someone finds my lost phone, but also configured the phone with a lock code; however, the phone only displays the startup splash screen *after* the lock code has been successfully entered, sort of defeating the value of my “if found” splash screen. In general, many of the features and capabilities on this phone work very well individually, but there’s room for improvement to make all these features integrate more smoothly with respect to the likely workflow of a person using the phone.

* Email setup was a snap – When I started using the phone, it prompted me with a step-by-step (wizard based) configuration of email. In a few steps, the phone was properly configured for my gmail account. However, in the future, using email as a representative example, I’d suggest Nokia put more effort to simplify/automate common tasks in the initial setup process, such as pairing with my bluetooth headset, or specifying predictive or non-predictive text entry.

* Awkward Connection Management – Most of the built in applications have a choice to always connect to a specific WiFi/3G/Edge connection, or to always choose a connection during startup – Wouldn’t it have been simpler to specify a prioritized list of connections to try, such as your home WiFi first, then 3G?

* Lots of keyboard shortcuts – I’m still learning many of the keyboard shortcuts, such as pressing and holding the “Home” button to display a list of open applications, pressing and holding the email button to start a new email, or pressing and holding the calendar button to enter a new meeting. While there’s a learning curve, I’m appreciating the added efficiency of these shortcuts.

* Works well with iSync – Being a Mac user, I downloaded the iSync plugin. So far, I’ve found iSync does a job synchronizing the phone with my local iCal calendar and Mac address book.

I have been using this cell phone for the past couple of days and I have to say that I am really impressed! Previously I owned an SE P1i –> Nokia N82 –> E63. I chose the e63 because I am a heavy texter and the n82 T9 just wasn’t cutting it. I looked at the e71 but since I am on t-mobile and already have an external gps I opted against it (although I still think it is a much nicer phone!).

Anyway, having used 2 different symbian s60 devices I can say that the e63 is much improved over the n82 in many ways. For starters everything on the e63 just seems snappier. For some reason even though the n82 has a faster processor it is much slower.

Secondly the build quality on the E-series is so much better than the N series. I have seen several E series and N series phones and the E series always feels much more solid. The n82 which was around $300 when I bought it had such poor build quality I almost returned it. Although this may not matter…my E63 was built in finland while my n82 was built in china. The keyboard on the E63 is good but not great.

The keyboard on the p1i (which is the best I have ever used on a candy bar) is light years ahead of the E63 but then again i think that the E63 is light years ahead of the palm treo so take it as you will. The thing that I don’t like about the E63 keyboard is that it is a little “soft”. i like my keys nice and clicky so that I know when I’ve pressed them.

Software on the E63 is really solid. Everything “just works”. The menu system on all symbian systems is a little confusing though and will take a while to get used to. Its a little annoying to have to break out the instruction manual to look up something but I’ll live with it.

All in all this is a ridiculous deal for a phone that costs less than many carrier subsidized phones. If you are looking for a smartphone and don’t need 3g or gps I think it would be hard to find a better phone than the e63. Really. It is very good.

I want to start off saying that after using multiple phones over the years, I find this to be one of my top phones I have ever used.

By being unlocked from the start, the phone is completely umbranded, meaning you don’t have all of the cute AT&T or T-Mobile logos everywhere, and have complete access to all of the settings that most providers will restrict you from changing. You also have 110MB of space free on the phone (a ton) for basic apps, and of course you can buy a MicroSD card for even more memory.

The phone itself looks great. The blue color is actually an extremely dark navy, and can look black in most cases. As for the thickness compared to the e71, I think it actually feels better in your hand, and isn’t that noticeable. The headphone jack is a great touch, allowing you to use any headphone set you want.

As for the software, it uses the Symbian 9.2 Feature Pack 1, and includes software you can use to open and edit Word and Excel documents on the go. The built in music player is decent, and set up like an Ipod with its ability to have playlists, genre searches etc. You can even download the free Divx player and watch movies to go! Then theres the Nokia Ovi store. Sort of like the App Store for the iPone, you can download apps directly from Nokia, although at the moment due to its recent launch, there aren’t that many things (especially free) being offered.

The WiFi was the deal sealer for me. Living on a college campus which has wireless internet all over, I didn’t want to have to pay to have internet and email on my phone. Its fast (compared to a friend’s iPone, about the same speed)and it is great for surfing, along with using the build-in YouTube application.

There is a ton of great free software on the web for the phone if you look for it, things like weather applications, instant messaging, mapping software (requires either a WiFi or a data plan to use) etc.

I find the speakerphone loud and clear, and good enough to play music over.

The keyboard is absolutely amazing. I haven’t experience many misspellings while using it, compared to my past palm treo I had. The keys are comfortable and easy to press down.

Battery life is great on this. I was able to get 5 days out of a charge with light usage (30 texts per day, maybe 20 minutes on the phone per day and 10-15 minutes per day surfing using the WiFi)

The cons I’ve found:
Nokia still hasn’t set up a threaded text messaging system as default (IM style chats). My Windows Mobile phone from 4 years ago has this feature, and Nokia has their own application which does this, but you cannot set it as the default Txt messaging.

Weak vibration feature. I can barley feel it. My previous Nokia was weak as well though.

The Operating System (Symbian) does not assume or remember any connection settings. If you open your web browser, each time it will ask you what connection you want to use. It can get annoying if you are constantly in the same place.

Other Tips I’ve found
If you don’t have a data plan, go into the Network settings and change it to be GSM Only (NOT UMTS). UMTS is 3G, and you will get better battery life using GSM only with no downsides if not using the data plan.

To change volume with internet radio, press the function key, and then the up and down keys change the volume.

In media player, you can start typing the name of a song or artist using the keyboard and it will show up.

I want to start off saying that after using multiple phones over the years, I find this to be one of my top phones I have ever used.

By being unlocked from the start, the phone is completely umbranded, meaning you don’t have all of the cute AT&T or T-Mobile logos everywhere, and have complete access to all of the settings that most providers will restrict you from changing. You also have 110MB of space free on the phone (a ton) for basic apps, and of course you can buy a MicroSD card for even more memory.

The phone itself looks great. The blue color is actually an extremely dark navy, and can look black in most cases. As for the thickness compared to the e71, I think it actually feels better in your hand, and isn’t that noticeable. The headphone jack is a great touch, allowing you to use any headphone set you want.

As for the software, it uses the Symbian 9.2 Feature Pack 1, and includes software you can use to open and edit Word and Excel documents on the go. The built in music player is decent, and set up like an Ipod with its ability to have playlists, genre searches etc. You can even download the free Divx player and watch movies to go! Then theres the Nokia Ovi store. Sort of like the App Store for the iPone, you can download apps directly from Nokia, although at the moment due to its recent launch, there aren’t that many things (especially free) being offered.

The WiFi was the deal sealer for me. Living on a college campus which has wireless internet all over, I didn’t want to have to pay to have internet and email on my phone. Its fast (compared to a friend’s iPone, about the same speed)and it is great for surfing, along with using the build-in YouTube application.

There is a ton of great free software on the web for the phone if you look for it, things like weather applications, instant messaging, mapping software (requires either a WiFi or a data plan to use) etc.

I find the speakerphone loud and clear, and good enough to play music over.

The keyboard is absolutely amazing. I haven’t experience many misspellings while using it, compared to my past palm treo I had. The keys are comfortable and easy to press down.

Battery life is great on this. I was able to get 5 days out of a charge with light usage (30 texts per day, maybe 20 minutes on the phone per day and 10-15 minutes per day surfing using the WiFi)

The cons I’ve found:
Nokia still hasn’t set up a threaded text messaging system as default (IM style chats). My Windows Mobile phone from 4 years ago has this feature, and Nokia has their own application which does this, but you cannot set it as the default Txt messaging.

Weak vibration feature. I can barley feel it. My previous Nokia was weak as well though.

The Operating System (Symbian) does not assume or remember any connection settings. If you open your web browser, each time it will ask you what connection you want to use. It can get annoying if you are constantly in the same place.

Other Tips I’ve found
If you don’t have a data plan, go into the Network settings and change it to be GSM Only (NOT UMTS). UMTS is 3G, and you will get better battery life using GSM only with no downsides if not using the data plan.

To change volume with internet radio, press the function key, and then the up and down keys change the volume.

In media player, you can start typing the name of a song or artist using the keyboard and it will show up.