Nokia E61 hands-on impression
Marking Nokia's first proper business phone beyond its 9300i Communicator, the E61 opts for a deliciously slim form factor with a stand-out thumbboard and marvellous landscape screen. 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 1.2 and USB 2.0 make for snappy connectivity across every standard, whilst a reasonable amount of onboard memory combines with a miniSD card slot for further expansion. Lastly, the inclusion of broad groupware support and first-rate document management makes this a particularly interesting entrant - due out this March.
Specifications
Having previously courted business users with its 9300 and 9500 Communicator series devices, Nokia has announced the E61, the manufacturer's first monoblock style smartphone to integrate a QWERTY thumbboard. Announced along side
the E60 and E70 smartphones, the E61 is Nokia's first entry into a breed of devices popularized by the RIM BlackBerry and which has been growing increasingly popular - evidenced by the recent introduced of the Windows Mobile powered
Motorola Q.
Sporting a broad range of connectivity options, the Nokia E61 is not only fitted with tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz and WCDMA 2100 Mhz, but also incorporates Wi-Fi 802.11b, Bluetooth 1.2 with support for up to 6 concurrent connections, Infrared and USB 2.0. Furthermore, the device includes a miniSD card slot for expanding its 75 MB of non-volatile memory, all of which is contained within measurements of 117 x 70 x 14 mm and 144 g.
Unlike all other previous devices based on the Series 60 platform, the E61 features a QVGA screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and 16M colour depth. Fitted with an ambient light sensor, the display resides just above two soft keys, a five-way navigational pad and the QWERTY thumbboard of the device, a design first for Nokia.
Also focusing heavily on messaging capabilities, the E61 will be offering support for basic e-mail via POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP, as well as more advanced solutions including Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, BlackBerry, Visto and Seven. Also, the E61 supports push-to-talk and VoIP along with additional voice dialing functionality and recording.
Furthermore, the Nokia E61 includes several business-oriented functions such as the ability to integrate the device into an enterprise framework allowing IT administrators to carry out application management as well as remote locking and wiping of device data.
Price and availability
Due out in the first quarter of 2006, Nokia did not disclose any information concerning the expected pricing of the E61.
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