Nokia E61 Unlocked Smartphone with International 3G, Wi-Fi, MP3/Video Player, MiniSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Silver)

by Nokia

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.7 x 0.6 inches ; 5.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000G2ZYD0
• Item model number: E61
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,905 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Hands-On Review

The E61 is one of Nokia's new business-centric Eseries of devices, and is the first Nokia phone to sport the popular "BlackBerry" form factor that has been so popular in the United States for years. As an Eseries device, the E61 comes complete with remote management capabilities, a SIP compatible Voice Over IP client, as well as support for a large number of push email vendor solutions. The E61 also runs the 3rd edition of the Nokia S60 user interface over top of the Symbian v9.1 operating system, which means that there is a lot of 3rd party application support for the device.

The sleek E61 is all business.

The two most dominating features of the E61 are its large 320x240 pixel display and its equally spacious QWERTY keyboard. The landscape formatted QVGA display is bright and colorful - capable of displaying up to 16 million different color shades. The keyboard makes use of somewhat loose fitting plastic keys that, while seeming a bit cheap at first, are actually quite comfortable to use. Each key is decently large, and there are a number of shift, function, and other keys that allow the user quick access to letters, numbers, symbols, and even foreign characters. Above the keypad are a number of other keys, including two large softkeys, a pair of equally large call send/end keys, a fine joystick, and dedicated menu and messaging app buttons.

As a business oriented device, it is not all that surprising that the Nokia E61 lacks a digital camera of any sort. It does, however, sport a very nice music player application and a miniSD memory card slot. The music player has the ability to sort tracks based on things like artist and album, and allows for the creation of playlists from a PC or directly on the phone. The E61's wonderful web browser is capable of properly rendering just about any site on the internet, thanks to full CSS and javascript support. The browser supports zooming in and out, easy panning around large pages, and a visual back/forward function.

The E61's QWERTY keyboard is easy to type on.

One of the E61's most compelling traits is its support for most of the major wireless networks. For starters, the E61 has fantastic 802.11g WiFi support, for extra fast web browsing and email access. When out of the home or office, EDGE and UMTS 3G data (where available) are also at the user's disposal. In terms of shorter range connections, Bluetooth, USB, and infrared are also available.

The E61's large display and vast capabilities come at a price in terms of power, necessitating the use of a large and somewhat heavy 1500mAh battery in order to obtain its very respectable 8 hours of talk time in our GSM band tests. The E61 can also be used on European UMTS 3G networks as well, but will get slightly less talk time performance when doing so. Audio quality was a bit above average when used in regular calls, but the built-in speakerphone function is one of the best we have ever tested.

While the early E61 that we tested had some quirks with its IMAP email support when configured for automatic download, most corporate users will likely be very pleased with the device's support for the following push email based systems: BlackBerry Connect, GoodLink, Nokia Business Center, Seven Mobile Mail, Seven Always-On Mail, and Visto Mobile. The MMS and SMS systems are top notch, and worked as well as the rest of the messaging applications.

Pros:

• Good keyboard
• Large display
• WiFI, UMTS, EDGE, Bluetooth

Cons:

• Somewhat large/heavy
• A few IMAP email quirks

With its wide array of connectivity and messaging options, comfortable keyboard, and large display, the Nokia E61 is the perfect companion for corporate raiders busy home office types alike. The built-in applications are all very well done, and the availability of plenty of 3rd party apps will help each individual user fill in any perceived gaps in functionality. In short, the Nokia E61 is an excellent choice for a business centric mobile phone.

--Reviewed by Michael Oryl, editor in chief of www.MobileBurn.com

Product Description

Nokia's E61 is the email oriented member of the new Nokia E-series of devices designed for enterprise business. It assumes the traditional "Blackberry" form factor, and as a Series 60 3rd Edition device, it runs the new Symbian v9.1 operating system. The QWERTY keyboard equipped E60 was designed to provide a great email experience for its user, due to its keyboard and varied push email support that includes: Blackberry Connect, GoodLink, Nokia Business Center, Seven Mobile Mail, Seven Always-On Mail, and Visto Mobile. The E61's multitasking abilities means that you can send and receive email while you are in the middle of a phone call

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

144 of 147 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you remember why you bought it, you'll love it, August 31, 2006

By 

F. Rabi (Iowa City, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nokia E61 Unlocked Smartphone with International 3G, Wi-Fi, MP3/Video Player, MiniSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Silver) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Nokia is making two versions of this phone, the E61 and E62. The only difference is that the E61 is capable of wireless LAN and CDMA connectivity, whereas the E62 is not. Otherwise, they are exactly the same.

Now, on to the review. I've been through several cell phones from different manufacturers. My very first cell phone was a Nokia (and at 8 years old, still would make a great phone today!). I have since tried Motorola, Samsung, and Sony-Ericsson (I consider the latter the worst of the bunch). My last phone was a Nokia 6600 and when I wanted to upgrade, I tried the latest-and-greatest Samsung t-809. I was sorely disappointed in that purchase, which was promptly returned (you can read my review about it on Amazon), and I started looking for phones that were not (at the time) being sold directly in the US. The Nokia E61 was my savior - the E61 is the most PERFECT phone I have ever used.

Why did I like it? Number one - it's a NOKIA. I think Nokia has perfected the user interface. If you've owned a Nokia before, your transition will be easy because many things are carried over. You will also like the easy transfer of everything from your old Nokia to your new one (go to the nokiaUSA website and search for "phone-to-phone transfer"). The way the phone book is setup is better all others. Nokias, in general, all use the same adapter.

Number two - it's a smartphone. That means you can upgrade the software, you can download new applications, you can personalize with themes.

Number three - it is QUAD band. I travel a lot and I need this feature. In general, two frequency bands are used by GSM services in the US (850 and 1900). Two different frequency bands are used by GSM services elsewhere in the world (900 and 1800). A phone that works in one frequency band unfortunately can not also work in the frequency band next to it unless added as a specific extra frequency band. Ideally, you'd want a phone that can work on all four bands - commonly called a quad-band phone. But these are still rare and expensive. If choosing a tri-band phone as a second best choice, be careful which three bands your phone has. In the US, many rural areas are served with the 850 band (because the signal travels further). Some tri-band phones are 900/1800/1900 and people wonder why they get poor service in some cities (mostly rural) in the US!

Number four - all connectivity options are available. WiFi, EDGE, GPRS, and 3G. Sign up for a data plan with your provider (cheapest with T-Mobile) and you can surf the net at about 128kbps anywhere there's cell service! Or you can use your Wifi network to surf for free wherever there's a wireless g signal. You can even use the WiFi feature to use this phone with a VOIP provider (such as Vonage). Lots about this over at HowardForums. And this is the particular feature that is scaring the US telecoms - hence the lack of WiFi in the US-destined E62 version. 3G is not available in the US, but is all the rage in Japan (blazingly fast downloads - even enough for VIDEOS!). The E61 also supports CDMA connectivity, although this is absent in the E62. That really won't affect US GSM users much - as far as I know.

Number five - push email. This means you can set it up like a BlackBerry and have your E61 notify you everytime you get an email. The software provided with the phone makes this easy. If you need more help, just search for "E61 forum" - lots of helpful people.

Number six - NO CAMERA. This for me is an advantage. I never used any of my prior cell phone cameras. Their presence in a phone only serves to make it more bulky and more expensive. Eventhough there is no camera, you can still upload pictures to use for wallpaper or as picture caller-ID - use bluetooth or WiFi.

More good stuff;

7. Bluetooth works great.

8. Screen looks good, even in daylight. It doesn't have as high a resolution as the latest Palm Treo, but believe me, 65K is more than enough.

9. You can add more memory with a miniSD card - you don't have to remove the battery to change cards. I've already used a 1GB Kingston miniSD card and it worked fine.

10. The charger it uses (which works 100-240V) uses a smaller plug than all other previous Nokias, but the E61 comes with a short adapter that allows you to use your old charger! I wish Sony and Samsung would remember this!

11. The buttons are nicely configured and easy to type with (not too small, not too flat - just right). Someone will invariably write a review saying the phone is too wide. I don't understand why people will do this? It is a business phone with a full keyboard layout - what do you expect? If you don't need the full keyboard, then don't get this phone. IT is definitely thinner than you'd expect though.

12. Battery life is pretty good. When I use it as a phone, I can go about three days without recharging. Using wireless services can drop the battery life pretty quick. In general, I charge it every other night.

13. Case is brushed aluminum with a magnesium-alloy back. Fingerprints will not show like they do on the shiny Samsung t-809. Feels sturdy in the hand too. I wouldn't drop it, though, because the screen is pretty big.

14. Speakerphone works nicely. Loud. Single button switchover to speakerphone while on a call (I don't know what Samsung was thnking hiding it under a menu)

15. You can use it as an MP3 player and even assign MP3s as ringtones. You will want to truncate your MP3s to 20 seconds or less though because it will only play that much before looping. Having more would be a waste of memory - unless you still want to keep the song so you can listen to the whol ething using the media player (included in the software package).

Anyway, all that being said, there are a few things that aren't "perfect". Using Wifi is slower than expected. While connected to a "g" network, you don't get speeds higher than dial-up. Connect using EDGE though, and you're good to go (but that requires a data plan with the service provider). Also, this phone uses Symbian software - that's great BUT you will not be able to use the readily available Palm or WinCE applications. To sync it with my Outlook at work, I had to call the computer department to give me privileges to install the special Nokia syncing software. It works great, but just a little hassle.

Also, you will find it difficult to use phone numbers that are based on letters, ie 1-800-CALL-ME (or whatever). This is a keyboard layout, so the letters are in QWERTY fashion, and the numbers keys just take up the center spots. Not a big deal for me, and I'm sure there's software available (or soon will be) to use an onscreen guide. That's the beauty of this being a smartphone!

This is a business phone, so don't expect a lot of games. It came preinstalled with some Golf game. No Snake! Part of the reason I love Nokias is because of the snake game. I'll get around to downloading it sooner or later.

Another thing (which Noia has already addressed in more advanced phones such as the priced-like-a-computer N91) is that there is no input for regular headsets. This means that if you want to listen to MP3s, then you'll have to use the single-ear headset included with this phone. They might have a double-ear (stereo) headset available once the phone gets more popular).

All in all, I think this is a great phone. It gives me almost everything I want and none of what I don't want. I wish it could accept standard headsets. It's a keeper!

I hope this review has been helpful.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding product, but Symbian SW can't touch Palm, September 15, 2006

By 

xgrep "xgrep" (Silicon Valley) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nokia E61 Unlocked Smartphone with International 3G, Wi-Fi, MP3/Video Player, MiniSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Silver) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Looking for a smartphone to replace my Motorola L7 and Palm V combination, I bought this phone because it had (1) WiFi, (2) a QWERTY keyboard, and (3) all the good cellphone features I appreciate from Nokia (battery life, call quality, etc.). First, let me say that I had to return it because of a problem with my home electricity - it seems that the european multi-voltage charger couldn't generate enough voltage off my low 109VAC to charge the phone. This has been reported by some others, but is apparently pretty rare. Unfortunately, it was a deal-breaker for me. Strangely enough, the phone did the initial charge fine, but would never charge again.

But in the 4 days that I used the phone, I was quite impressed. It really is an outstanding product, and the only thing else on the market that has everything this has (and more, in fact) is the HP iPaq 69xx, which is too new to know much about. I would generally agree with the glowing reviews already written, so I won't repeat everything they've said - it's pretty much true. But coming from a Palm PDA experience, I was somewhat disappointed by the PDA capabilities of this phone.

For example, there is no search capability! OK, the File Manager allows you to search material that's under its control, but that doesn't include the phone's contacts, notes, and calendar/ToDo apps - the very things you need to search! There's a decent search application from sept-solutions.de, but it can't search the notes - a serious limitation for me.

Next, the sync can't use many of the phone number fields from Outlook. For example, I sync'ed my Palm to Outlook, and many entries use the "Main" phone number. Outlook got these fine, but the Nokia PC Suite couldn't sync them to the phone. A real nuisance. A simple remapping setting in sync could eventually solve this, but for now, I'm out of luck.

Next, there are no categories for any of the phone's applications. The very nice AquaCalendar 3rd party application allows you to assign categories to calendar items (including tasks), but these aren't transfered in a sync with Outlook. Personally, I can't see how anyone could survive without categories for tasks, notes, and contacts (not to mention calendar, but Palm doesn't have that, either). The E61 has contact groups that are essentially categories, but these don't seem to get transfered in a sync.

Another problem I never found a solution for is that my Palm has several hundred items in the ToDo list, all undated. Outlook has undated tasks, but it seems the E61 does not - all were assigned to the day I sync'ed. And there were too many for the calendar app to handle without getting memory full. So basically no way for me to transfer my ToDo list!

Yet another problem is that you can't attach notes to calendar, task, or contact entries. This is a deal-breaker for me. AquaCalendar does allow notes ("descriptions") on some calendar entries, but it's not nearly as useful as what's on Palm.

Another problem is that when you want to change the date of a calendar entry, or simply go to a date that's a couple of months away, you don't get a nice month view the way you do in the Palm's calendar app. It's quite a nuisance to have to scroll or guess and correct when going to or setting a date that's far in the future.

Finally, while this is not another show-stopper for me, I use PocketQuicken on my Palm. This outstanding app is also available on Windows phones, so should work on the iPaq, but I haven't found anything this good on Symbian or J2ME platforms. A very nice free app, JabpLite, seems like it would do the trick, but I've never managed to get it to read QIFs from Quicken other than by very slow bluetooth file transfer.

In summary, if you want a truly outstanding smartphone (without a camera), the E61 could easily be your best choice. But if you're expecting the usability of a Palm-based device, you'd best look elsewhere. The Treos might make a good choice, but they don't have WiFi (yet), and as a phone, they can't touch the Nokia. As for the iPaq, it might do the trick, but it's somewhat larger than the Nokia. Motorola Q? Nice, but also no WiFi. I haven't been able to check out everything from HTC, yet, but the last time I looked, they didn't have everything I was looking for. The perfect phone still doesn't exist, but the E61 sure has raised the bar.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good, but important flaws, February 5, 2007

By 

Thomas Corbett - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nokia E61 Unlocked Smartphone with International 3G, Wi-Fi, MP3/Video Player, MiniSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Silver) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

This is my first smartphone, and my expectations were high, that is why I give it a 3 stars. It does have a good performance, and now that I am used to it I cannot live without it (but I would switch to a phone that would solve the "bugs").

Problems:

1. there is no way to connect to a wifi by itself, and then use all applications as you like (web, e-mail, etc). You have to connect to a wifi using an application.

2. The phone freezes very often, and as there is no ctrl-alt-del and not even the on-off button will work, I have to remove the battery and then restart the phone.

3. Not a lot of software available for Symbian OS.

4. For those that are used to Palm OS, the basic applications are sub-standard

Maybe next version of it will solve some of these problems.