E71 Part III: An Email Heavyweight.

You only get one chance to make a first impression

My first impression, after I sync'd my contacts with Ovi, is that this is a phone for professionals. The steel casing, leather case, and thin nature of the phone adds to the business-oriented S60 configuration. Some would describe the device as sexy, but really it is a stylish and classy device and says that the person using it is both elegant and sophisticated. I have used two Nseries phones and this Eseries phone is my first from the line. Though they both run Symbian with S60, Nokia has done a good job of tailoring the details toward different markets.


The Nokia E71 is a phone for professionals. It takes no shortcuts in terms of either styling or performance to impress both its owner and those who look on with a lustful eye.

Email
The business world still revolves around phones and e-mail, which is why the Blackberry really dominates both market- and mindshare for this space. Nokia had the E61, which was a good alternative with a nice keyboard that never really caught on in the US market; but the E71 is meant to take this market head-on. I was really impressed with the ease in which I was able to setup my e-mail. Following the on-screen reminder to setup my e-mail, I clicked the link and told it my e-mail address. I use Google Apps for my personal domain (because, hey, if we're going to live in the clouds, let's let someone else manage it!) Usually, this means I have some extra settings tweaks to do to get everything to work just right, and I have had to edit the settings manually on my Nseries phones. Not so this time. I simply gave it my email address with my own domain, and the E71 did the rest!

Easy mail setup is one thing, but one of the reasons the RIM Blackberry is the leader in mobile e-mail is that it employs "push e-mail" whereby the service notifies the device that you have new mail waiting. Nokia has an answer to this service in the form of Nokia Email. This service is free to anyone with a compatible phone. (no N82, but you can pretend its an N95) If your phone is not listed, you could head over to Seven and see if they support you. HiroAdrian's blog does a great job of explaining the push e-mail options for Nokia devices.

Although the built-in e-mail configured effortlessly and the Nokia Email setup showed my my inbox without a problem, I could not reply to or send new messages. This was a bit confusing because the signup process for Nokia Email had done everything else, and I could not find the sending settings from within the app.

Finally, I found the proper place, the email setup application (see screenshot on right):

Clicking on this and then entering in the correct information for sending mail from Gmail accounts, (using Google's cheatsheet, if necessary), and although it gave me an error about connecting, I double-checked my input then told it to accept the configuration. After that, sending mail using Nokia Email has been a wonder. I like how it is both very fast to notify me about new email, sometimes even before it shows up in my Gmail browser, and that when I start to type a recipient, it pulls that in directly from my contacts. A lot of people have a problem with email on Nokia phones. I suspect once this comes out of beta, they will start to change their minds.

Going Further with Email: Multiple Devices, Multiple Accounts

As of today, Nokia Email has quietly released a new version of its software. Still in Beta, this version adds an important new feature: multiple email accounts. Rather than notification within the application, Nokia lets you know about a new version when you login to your account on the website.

The E71, coupled with Nokia Email makes a powerful messaging platform. Since using the two, I have been turning on my laptop later each day, only powering it on when I need to write a longer message or start doing some heavy web-browsing. This is by far the best on-the-go email solution I have ever used.
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