Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

I recently signed up for a new plan and changed carriers to get an E71. It’s not as media oriented as an iPhone, but that’s okay, cause my life doesn’t revolve around downloading podcasts and having 8 gigs of music at my disposal.

More importantly for me, the E71 appears to do many basic things a whole heap better. And that qwerty keyboard, no matter how small it is, will always trump a touch screen keyboard.

I’m very happy with the choice I made. :-)

I found my 1st Gen iPhone to be quite good, since I listen to music, play movies and download podcasts. My new 3G is just as good, but they both share the same problem - the touch screen keyboard is a pain when you are walking or using it in a moving vehicle. I have also found on both that over time I start to get problems & glitches like freezing and the speakers not working. which are software related as once I reset the software or upgrade, these problems disappear, but then reappear later on!

I haven’t owned an E71 (although I have had a play with a friends and they seem quite good,) but I have owned many other Nokia’s over the years and always found them reliable. I also quite like the look of the E71 over the iPhone.

thats my 2 cents :-D

I’m using an E71 and I’m very happy of it. I think the iPhone is better for multimedia, e.g. if you want to watch a movie you really need the big screen. But if you’re into multimedia you should compare with a N series I think.

I love the E71 in particular for the VOIP integration (SIP), and for the physical keyboard.

[...] device has bee running for a while, and the ability to send contact info easily. DT posts about the design of the E71 and has shared a couple of images of the device up against an [...]

Hey man,

I think peeps above said it all. Want multimedia? Get an iphone. More usabilitty? Get E71.

I must say, however, that apple really did a pretty good job in terms of design and marketing: even hving cellphones that are way better then Iphone, Apple´s marketing power and emotional design was so good that most people still see the Iphone as the current leader in terms of function and quality.

Well, to be very honest with you, I think I would buy em both (if I had the money to do so hahaha). Probably I would stick to E71, being a geek as I am…

I don’t own either but have friends who do and I have used them both before. The iPhone is good for things like MySpace and Facebook while the E71 is better for generic email and can be used for business purposes. It seems the iPhone would be for someone who’s intent is to socialize and the E71 would be for some one who’s intent is to be professional. Regards!

Hey Jarod and Raph,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experiences. I appreciate it.

Erwan, I think the E71 is a better comparison to the iPhone as they both allow you access to content and email. I see the N series more as “media creation” product (good cameras etc.) and the iPhone pales in comparison to the performance of the N series phones.

Hey Bruno, I might just use both as well! I have an office line that I could set up with my E71.

Hey there,
Honestly in my opinion. I would still go for a normal phone like the E71. The Iphone to me is a bit over rated. Sure it’s cool and you can touch the screen. But just because of that I find it a hassle for typing out smses. I have an Itouch right now and I’m quite happy with it while I use my normal N95 as a phone. I find that I’m constantly being nitpicky about fingerprints on my Itouch and I wouldn’t want to be too bother by that with a phone. Imagine the obsession of wiping the screen lol.

E71 is still a great choice for a phone. According to friends I have in my country, Malaysia, the phone is going real cheap now. Furthermore, the keypad is great for typing out stuff since u can feel each embossed key unlike the iphone which doesn’t allow you to feel any keypad.The E71 has camera, gps, internet / email and other capabilities. And I wouldn’t worry too much with battery on the E71 as much as the Iphone.

Hope this helps ya make a decision :)

@aronil: Thanks for sharing, and I agree that keyboard is fantastic compared to the iphone UI keyboard. I find my chance of error goes up when I type very fast.