Cheapest Nokia E71 Unlocked Phone with 3.2 MP Camera, 3G, Media Player, GPS, Wi-Fi, and MicroSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Gray)

First a little background - I bought this Nokia E71-2 from Amazon after a not so positive experience using Apple iPhone (first generation) and Blackberry Bold. I needed an all purpose phone for use in corporate (read that as Microsoft Exchange) environment.

While I found the iPhone to be otherwise great, I had some major issues with it - Lack of real Keyboard just does not work well for lots of email/sms typing. Next the Exchange support was too late, too little (Exchange Account did not work for me ever and Calendar/Reminders was a problem when using Exchange over IMAP), Battery life was unbearably bad, and lastly the iPhone did not support Bluetooth stereo headphones.

So I tried Blackberry Bold - only to find out that the browser on it was not anywhere near as good as the iPhone but the real problem was that it needed a BlackBerry Data plan before it could do anything - no mails, no Internet even when connected to Wi-Fi - and my corporate data plan does not include BlackBerry Data Plan - Bummer!

Enter Nokia E71 - I am happy to report it has solved all my problems. The browser on this phone is based on the same WebKit engine that Apple uses in Mobile Safari. I found website compatibility to be excellent. Most importantly however, it comes with Flash! Most flash sites work well - but not all, as this is a Flash lite version. There is also a Youtube client freely available that works amazingly well.

Battery life on this phone is really great compared to the iPhone or any other smart phone - I can easily get through a heavy-use day (3G calling, Some music over bluetooth, Always on Exchange Sync) and even go for another day with lighter use.

If you use Exchange for email - you will find the E71 does Exchange very well. Setup was very straight forward, I could customize the sync schedule to be always on during working hours and every 1 hour off-peak. The newest version of the Nokia Mail for Exchange Application is very stable and functional. It includes a Company Directory Client which lets you quickly search for your colleagues to find their email/phone information. Meeting reminders work very well - Exchange server calendar is synced to your phone and so all your meeting reminders are available right on the home screen - very convenient. It also supports regular GMail over IMAP.

The real keyboard on this thin little phone is very usable - you almost want to keep typing! I rarely mistype. There is auto completion which works OK for most part and is actually useful.

Call quality is great - very rarely I had dropped calls, but they were due to "Network Busy" errors on AT&T's part and happened after 2 hours of talk - so I can't really blame the phone for it.

Media - The phone continues to do great on this front. I was able to pop in my 4Gb micro SD card to make enough space for all my music and podcasts. It plays MP3s/AAC and most other routinely used formats. All of your music is available automatically for setting as ring tones or other tones (reminders/alarm etc.). It has a very functional Podcast client built-in - I was able to subscribe to all of my favorite podcasts and it automatically updated/downloaded the episodes as and when they became available. Stereo bluetooth support is great - it allows to listen to music or podcasts while driving or while in the Gym. This was the only phone that played lots of music over bluetooth without crashing.

The camera on this phone is 3.2MP and so it produces better quality pictures but I found a blue hue on the pictures initially - that was fixed with the latest software update from Nokia and now the pictures are great.

Speaking of which - if you buy one, do yourself a favor and download the Nokia PC Suite Application (Windows only -works with Vista/x64) and run the phone software update before using the phone. This way you will get all the bug fixes and enhancements for the Phone without losing any data or setup. This is one area I wish Nokia improved - the upgrade process does not automatically preserve your data/settings/applications that are on your phone (as opposed to on the MicroSD card) - it should just put your phone back where it was before the upgrade and do it all automatically.

Lastly the GPS - it works well. It was able to connect to the satellites and determine my position even indoors! Download the Google Maps application for free and you have a very usable GPS.

If you are OK with having this phone locked down to AT&T network for a 2yr contract - I have heard that AT&T is bringing a later version of this phone for under $100 - so keep an eye. Get more detail about Nokia E71 Unlocked Phone with 3.2 MP Camera, 3G, Media Player, GPS, Wi-Fi, and MicroSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Gray).