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| Nokia 6301 |
| Full review » Video » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 For all its flaws, the Nokia 6301 is still a deceptively nice phone. Under the best conditions, at a Wi-Fi hotspot, calls sounded excellent, and the HotSpot @Home service worked well. We're big fans of this UMA service, as it could save customers a lot of money and provide better reception than normal cellular service. The phone also includes a robust music player with a 512MB microSD card as a bonus, and even some nice messaging options. Unfortunately, the fact that it doesn't use Wi-Fi for data keeps it from being more of a messaging and Web browsing powerhouse, and the tiny keys kept us from carrying on long, textual conversations. The menu also kept many of the best in hiding. Overall, this feels like a low-end phone with a few high-end features stuck on, but for the bargain-hunting HotSpot @Home crowd, those high-end features will simply be a nice bonus, anyway. Release: June 2008. Price: $130.
Pros: Calls sound great under Wi-Fi and when reception was strong. Lots of features for a simple calling phone. Included charging dock.
Cons: When reception was weaker, calls sounded bad or dropped out altogether. Small keys made typing difficult. Lousy camera.
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49%
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| Nokia E71 |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The Nokia E71 is a great slab-style QWERTY phone, better than almost any on the market. It has a slimmer, cooler design than the Motorola Q9h or the Samsung BlackJack 2, and it can handle almost all of the business tools that those Windows Mobile 6.1 phones use. It doesn't have all of the carrier amenities that we usually ignore anyway, like over-the-air music downloads and streaming video clips, and it could be more localized for U.S. users. Still, we had no problem setting up the phone for our Exchange ActiveSync business e-mail, and all of our favorite business features, like tethered modem support and Office Document handling, worked nicely. The biggest challenge this phone faces is competing with the ultra-low, carrier subsidized prices of its competitors, but if you want the top of the line phone in this form factor, the Nokia E71 is an easy choice. Release: July 2008. Price: $500.
Pros: Great design with a comfortable keyboard and a slim, slick case. Fast networking on AT&T's 3G network. Plenty of features, including GPS, Wi-Fi and Exchange support.
Cons: Setup could be confusing for the U.S. audience. Exchange AciveSync drains the battery significantly. Camera is lousy.
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73%
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| Nokia E66 |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The Nokia E66 is a fine business phone, and a great, small alternative for users who want a slick design inside and out, paired with loads of great features. The phone has great options for business users, including Exchange server support and a robust Office suite, though not everything is as easy to use as it might be on a carrier-supported phone, and we found ourselves frequently searching for server settings, additional apps and instructions, all to get the phone working on this country's most popular carrier. Once all the settings were in place, we were continually surprised by how feature-rich and powerful this device can be. A little smoothing for U.S. buyers and a great unlocked price would make this a very compelling phone indeed. Release: July 2008. Price: $500.
Pros: Solid, classy design. Great keys. Live, while-you-type searching for contacts. Great Web browser.
Cons: Many features cost extra, like navigation and Quickoffice. Networking seemed slow in our tests. Could have more multimedia features, like the Nseries.
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72%
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Excellent |
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| Nokia 5310 XpressMusic |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a music phone that makes us happy for a number of reasons. This isn't an iPhone competitor, which makes sense, considering the low, $50 price tag. But it is far better than most other so-called music phones on the market, and includes many features that should set the standard. We like the 3.5mm headphone jack, the included 1GB memory card, and the two-stage stereo headphones a microphone. We also liked this phone for regular calling, and found call quality and even its messaging capabilities were surprisingly good. There are phones at four times this price that don't have all these features, and though the phone lacks 3G networking and the accompanying services, when we focused simply on the music abilities, we were happy with what we heard. Release: May 2008. Price: $1.
Pros: Slim design keeps the dedicated music keys, adds a 3.5mm headphone jack. Surprisingly robust messaging clients.
Cons: No 3G networking means slow Web browsing, no advanced services. Transfer software needs a serious update to bring it in line with iTunes.
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70%
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| Nokia N95 8GB NAM |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The Nokia N95 8GB has only improved since we last saw it, but so have our expectations grown as well, and we've come to feel stronger about great interface design and a fast, reliable bit of desktop synchronization software. This isn't the iPhone killer, in fact it's the exact opposite of that device. The Nokia N95 is packed to the gills with features; it does just about everything we've ever seen a phone do, at least in this country. But it lacks an intuitive, fun interface, and the desktop software, though improved to the point of being usable, is a far cry from Apple's seamless, reliable iTunes experience. It's a tough call between the two, and as phone geeks, we'd love to own the feature-rich N95, though we wouldn't hock our iPhone to buy one. In the end, we're glad both phones are out there, because they each represent the goal that the other should strive to achieve. Release: March 2008. Price: $450.
Pros: Feature-packed, now with loads of internal memory and faster networking. Camera, GPS navigation and media functions are among the best in class.
Cons: Big, square phone without much style. No touchscreen. Interface is uninspired and aging. No QWERTY.
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83%
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