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

I've had the BlackBerry Curve, switched to iPhone, then tried out the Storm (which is the worst BB ever made in my opinion), then switched back to my iPhone. I needed a QWERTY phone and I think this one is a good compromise between Cupertino and Ontario, good in many but still short of some.

Map app is better than Blackberry. Directions are turn-by-turn in 3D or 2D, and other modes with voice guidance (7 days only). Absence of US POIs. You can't even search "Universal Studios Hollywood". You can search a POI in Google Maps and enter address in Nokia Maps to get a 3D turn-by-turn direction.

Nokia (Ovi) app store will launch soon. You currently can access free apps, themes, ringtones, wallpapers, etc on Nokia Beta Labs, S60.com, Nokia Mosh, and many forums and blogs.

Great metal design, feels like a fine piece of gadget, which it is indeed. Small enough to really look like a phone, thin but substantial in the hands, and formal yet sleek look. QWERTY pad is responsive, very good sized one and very fun to use (trust me, it is way better than my ex BB Curve 8330's QWERTY pad which I always seemed to use my nails on that one instead of fingers).

Good native internet browser. Even better than BB Storm's. Another browser, the Skyfire works great on the Nokia E71 (Skyfire runs only on Symbian and WM). It is way better than Opera Mini (on BlackBerry). Flash player and flash content works great. With Skyfire, you can display desktop version of websites, unlike Opera Mini on BlackBerry which will always display mobile content.

The email functionality is poorly designed, in my opinion (the BlackBerry is still the king). You can have push email through Nokia Messaging Service (IMAP only, I can't figure out how to use POP3). Native email client will only "push/auto-notify" you of new email(s), but will not download the email itself, instead it will download an email only when you select or decide to download it. One by one in fact. Both clients are not capable of displaying HTML content within the email's body. Will have to download the attachment or link and displayed in a browser. The entire email functionality needs some time to be appreciated. In fact, because of some email functionality issues, its release on AT&T has been rumored in blogs and forum to have been pushed back towards end of May 09. Newer BlackBerries, Palm Pre, and iPhone 3.0 will likely take the stage by that time.

Email filters are non existent especially if you use Mail for Exchange. You can't block internal office spam, ERP/server-generated responses, and annoying co-workers. Neither the native email client nor the Nokia Messaging client provide filtering for MS Exchange emails.

Multi-tasking is great on this phone. I can listen to internet radio, browse the web for a restaurant, search in Google Maps, type direction in Nokia Maps, open a PDF file to read something, and switch back to internet radio to change station and do all these without exiting an app, and the radio is still playing.

Internet radio is a good substitute for lack of Pandora or Slacker app. However, the phone jack is not standard. You can't plug it into your car's mp3 jack like you normally do on your ipod, iphone and blackberry. You won't find any third-party adapter either. You are stuck with cheap ear piece which you can't replace with a premium one either. Weird.

You can sync your Google Contacts.

Limited support (stingy software updates) from Nokia for US version. Either they think their phone is superior or they are not listening to customer feedbacks.

Fast 3G/3.5G (depending on your location though) but will work only on AT&T. It will work with T-Mobile on voice but not sure on the data side as T-Mo operates on 1700 whereas this phone operates on AT&T 3G's 1900 spectrum.

Has Wi-fi and GPS. I'm not sure if you can tether and how you're going to billed for that. I've heard from several people able to do this but have not tried it.

Cheaper plan than iPhone and Blackberry. My plan is $30 unlimited data and unlimited messaging. I used to pay extra for the messaging/SMS on the iPhone and BlackBerry, but messaging is bundled to this specific phone's data plan and unlimited :).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).