Nokia E60 (2)

Nokia E60 review: Strictly business

Nokia E60 is available on the market for some time now and offers the users powerful business solutions in almost every possible way. The tri-band phone has 3G UMTS network support and features a fabulous TFT 16 million colors display. E60 is based on the 3rd edition Series 60 and runs on Symbian OS 9.1. It has GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared and USB support.

Nokia E60

Key features:

• Brilliant display
• Symbian OS
• Fast user interface
• Very good web browser
• RS-DV-MMC memory card slot
• Office documents editor
• 64 MB internal memory
• All connectivity options: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared, USB
• GPRS, EDGE and UMTS support

Main disadvantages:

• Visually big dimensions
• No camera
• No FM radio
• Tiny Profiles/Switch off button

Nokia made this phone’s interface and functionality features remarkably like the N80 model. It only lacks the 3 megapixel camera but has a display with more colors. Both phones are of 3rd edition Series 60 with Symbian OS 9.1 and thus are very similar in terms of user interface. We will use part of the material for Nokia N80 in this review.

Elegant and clean

Nokia E60 looks very elegant and sophisticated. However, the silver phone reminds me of an old VCR remote control. The big dimensions of the phone are more of an optical illusion than real bulky size. Actually, the phone feels very comfortable when held in hand and there isn’t even the slightest sign of the visually perceived big size. 115 x 49 x 17 mm and 117 g seem pretty normal for E60. Interesting fact is that not everybody who sees Nokia E60 thinks that it is a high-class phone with nice design, some consider the phone looks as cheap.

Nokia E60 held in hand

The very plain and clean design of Nokia E60 is eccentrically disturbed by the front silver frame which ends in its left side but merges with the lateral side on the right. Similar design solution is used for the battery cover. Another interesting thing about Nokia E60 is the two white lights which are located in the alphanumeric part of the keypad. They serve as additional light for the backlighting.

Solid as a rock

Nokia E60 is surprisingly solid. The phone is so well elaborated that it seems that it’s made of one big piece and then it has been cut down to its current form. There aren’t any gaps between the parts of the phone and it seems unbreakable. Moreover, the phone leaves the impression of safety and control in your hands. Nokia truly deserve admiration for this.

When you first grab E60 in your hands, the first thing you will notice is the enormous display. The 16 millions colors display covers half of the front side of the phone. Above the display there is only space for the speaker and a Nokia sign, both etched in the metal frame, which surrounds all elements on the phone’s face.

On top of the keypad there are the two soft keys and the green & red receiver keys with the navigation joystick between them. On the next row are the Pencil, Menu and C (correction) buttons. Below them are the numeric keys.

Front side

The back side design of Nokia E60 lacks imagination. It shelters another Nokia sign, the battery cover and collaborates with the top side for the two holes for a neck-strap. The battery cover, however, is interesting as it slides aside not downwards. When you remove it you will find the BL-5C Li-Ion battery of 970 mAh capacity. The manufacturer promises up to 290 hours of stand by time and 6 hours and 40 minutes of talk time with this battery and we’re prone to trust him. Nokia E60 managed very well during the test period and we had to recharge it only once.

Back side • SIM card bed • Memory card slot

The sides of the Nokia E60 body are made of silver and black plastic. The left side of the phone features the volume control keys and another button for voice recording. All buttons are made out of metal and look great.

Left side • right side

The right side of Nokia E60 consists of three metal plates. The top one is short and beside it is the loudspeaker grill. Then there is a long one and the RS-DV-MMC memory card slot cover. It has a memory card picture on it so it cannot be mistaken. It is easily opened and closed but supposedly it can become loose or even brake off as the joint part of the card slot cover is not very reliable. When you open the cover, in order to get the memory card in or out, you should push it until it produces a snap sound. The method is similar to digital cameras.

The top side of the phone hosts one eyehole for the neck-strap and the Profile/Turn Off button. However, the traditional Nokia Profile/Switch Off button is really tiny this time. A good thing is that it bulges a bit from the surrounding surface but still, it is pretty small. The bottom side of the phone accommodates the Pop Port and the charger port.

Top and bottom sides of Nokia E60

Wavy style

Nokia E60 has a very well elaborated keypad with nice, easy to distinguish buttons. They are made out of some soft plastic and can be pressed without any problems. An interesting observation of the keypad is that the buttons are located in different heights and are positioned in such manner elaborated in different ovals and angles that they look like a wave combination when looked at from aside.

The navigation joystick of the phone is very good. It is small and stands low but is very functional. The confirmation press on its center cannot be mistaken easily and thus making navigation of the phone seamless. The alphanumeric keys are big enough to be pressed without any effort and small enough to be distinguished easily in the dark. The white lights surrounding the joystick and between the three columns of alphanumeric keys are very spectacular when in dark. They glow with a very decent white light, assisting the main backlighting. So, the backlighting of the keypad is fabulous.

Keypad backlighting

16 million ways to success

The 16 million colors TFT display of Nokia E60 is just incredible. The 352 x 416 pixels resolution makes it look great. Out of curiosity we compared it with 21” Samsung 214T desktop LCD high-end monitor with 1600 x 1200 pixels resolution. The colors of the two devices look exactly the same, but the phone display fits 9 times more pixels on the same surface. Of course, it looks much finer.

The display is very big and thus offers the users a better use of the phone. 35 x 41 mm are very impressive dimensions for a bar phone display. The backlighting of the display is also very good. It glows evenly in the dark and every part of the display is perfectly illuminated.

Display backlighting

Nokia E60 has active stand-by display such as Nokia N80, with the same six applications row and the events list below it. The phone displays the network signal strength, battery status, date and time, operator name and the labels of the applications assigned to the soft keys. It also displays the active connections, Bluetooth, Infrared or Wi-Fi.

Active stand-by display

No mistakes

The main speaker of the phone offers clear and loud sound during calls. So does the loudspeaker. It is powerful enough to be heard even in crowded place or when stuck in a deep pocket. The vibration is normal and can be felt in almost every occasion. When somebody calls you, the phone displays the caller name and picture. E60 can also display the picture of the phone (home, work, other) if it is in your phonebook.

Dexter calling • Dialing a number

Rotate!

Nokia E60 runs on Symbian 9.1 OS and is based on 3rd edition Series 60. So is Nokia N80 which we reviewed not long ago. In this review we will use some of the material we used for the N80 review as they have the same user interface.

The main menu of the phone is made of a 3 x 4 matrix grid but can be switched to a list view or can be turned into a 4 x 3 matrix using the Rotate option. This feature rotates the phone in horizontal mode. This feature can be very useful in the web browser and office applications when you will need more space to display more things. Some sub-menus can also be viewed in grid view but there are some that are in list view only.

Main menu • rotated main menu • rotated active stand-by display

There is a Voice aid application which pronounces everything you do when started. I myself cannot see the need of such application unless you are driving a car and you need to do dial a number or something. Besides, Voice aid is available only in several menus, not in the whole phone.

Voice aid disabled

E60 runs very quickly for a smartphone. There aren’t any major delays in the work speed in any application even when using the memory card. The RS-DV-MMC memory card support is useful for extending the 64 MB shared internal memory.

Tools sub-menu • Profiles/Switch Off menu

Sky’s the limit

The phonebook of Nokia E60 knows no limits as it uses the shared memory. You can add as much contacts as free memory you have. It offers an endless list of fields to assign for every contact. First and last name, job, home and work address, several different phone numbers, email addresses, web sites, etc.

Phonebook • rotated phonebook • assigning different fields

You can order the phonebook list either by first or last name. Search in the phonebook is performed by gradual typing of the desired contact’s name. As all Symbian phones, E60 phonebook can be synchronized with PC very easy. The PC Suite can export you contacts in several format types, including the most popular Lotus and Outlook formats.

Contact view

Who, when and for how long

Nokia E60 has a very good call records log. It is used for the data transfers and connections too. It has 30 records capacity and can show all recent calls made with the phone. The phone calls log is divided in three tabs: Dialed, Received and Missed calls. The connections are logged with the phone calls. General information about the duration of the connection and data transferred is stored.

Missed calls pop-up message • Missed calls tab • Dialed numbers tab • Log • Record information

Try the email

The messaging menu of the phone is not at all different from any other Nokia Symbian phone. It has an Inbox for all incoming messages except emails and asks you for the type of message you want to create when you initiate the editor. The SMS editor is the same as in previous models and shows a character counter with a digit for the amount of messages that will be sent. T9 dictionary is available to assist, of course. The editor displays up to 6 lines en bloc.

Messaging menu • Inbox • Reading SMS • Writing SMS

The email tab of the messaging is the most interesting. Nokia E60 supports multiple accounts and uses POP3 and IMAP protocols. The phone displays 10 emails in the Inbox list. It also manages attachments seamlessly. The email client is either a new one or at least it has been redesigned.

Email inbox • Reading email • Viewing attachment • Writing email

It’s just not what it’s made for

Nokia E60 offers a music player with support of the most common music formats but that’s not what it is created for. The player has a built-in equalizer with some presets. It produces good sound, clear and loud enough but Nokia E60 is a business phone first of all and not much of its users will be interested in listening to music anyway. Music can be played in background, of course, and the song will be displayed on the active stand-by display below the calendar events. Nokia E60 also has a Flash player and a Real Player and thus it can play videos, too. The great display allows very good performance on this subject.

Music player o Equalizer o Music playing in background

You can connect to anything

The phone supports GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi, UMTS, PTT, Bluetooth, IrDa and USB. Nokia E60 works with Bluetooth Specification 1.2 supporting the following profiles: Basic Printing Profile, Generic Access Profile, Serial Port Profile, Dial-up Networking Profile, Headset Profile, Handsfree Profile, Generic Object Exchange Profile, Object Push Profile, File Transfer Profile, Basic Imaging Profile, SIM Access profile, and Human Interface Device Profile. Unfortunately, the A2DP profile is not among them which make impossible the use of stereo Bluetooth headset with the phone.

Connectivity menu

The phone offers a Printer connection application which can be very useful if you intend to use a printer more frequently. The phone makes a connection with the printer via Wi-Fi, USB or Bluetooth, it’s you choice. The USB connection can be made only with a custom USB data cable as Nokia E60 doesn’t have a normal USB port.

The fast data transfer can be used via GPRS, EDGE or 3G UMTS. You can also try the Wi-Fi connectivity, in which case you have to be near a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can set the phone to detect and connect automatically to such hotspots or you can search them manually. When you are connected, E60 automatically creates an access point for the hotspot and starts using its Internet broadband. The connection speed depends on the distance from the hotspot and on the provider. The signal is displayed as the network signal strength.

Available WLAN networks menu

When needs meet quality

There are two web browsers in Nokia E60, a great one and a poor one. The poor one is mostly used for connecting to services web pages and for downloading ringtones and games. The real web browser is the same as in Nokia N80. It is one of the best, if not the best. It can open web pages just like you’re browsing them on you PC. The great display makes this browsing even better. The Rotate feature is very useful for viewing web pages. You can see more and better when you use the phone in landscape mode.

Web browser

There is even a mouse cursor which can be operated through the navigation joystick. Surprisingly, it works great and is very easy to control. A semi-transparent mini-map of the page displays on the screen when scrolling a webpage. The mini-map can also be accessed by a shortcut – the “8” key. You can zoom in and out on the page using the “*” and “#” buttons. It’s amazing to see how small the text can be and still remain readable. In fact, this browser fits more information in a single screen than the IE browser on the VGA display of Qtek 9000!

Browsing gsmarena.com

Most of the sites we visited (including gsmarena.com, take a look at the screenshots) looked exactly like on the PC. Even when loading complex pages, the web browser was operating fast and there was no slowdown in the scrolling speed. The browser also loads Flash clips (not all of them, pitifully) and has no problems dealing with Java Scripts.

History – switching between web pages

Office organizer

More than everything Nokia E60 is a business phone. That’s why it offers great office features. It has Word, Excel and PowerPoint editors which work very well. You can zoom in and out in the file, jump to other page or edit the content. You can also create new files. These Office applications are much better, compared to those in Nokia N80, which could only read office documents but couldn’t edit them.

Office sub-menu • view and edit of Word and Excel files

E60 features a dual clock. You can set two different times and dates in two time zones. The Calendar has Month, Week and Day view. You can assign Meeting, Anniversary, Memo and To-do tasks in the Calendar. You can also put alarms on those assignments.

Month • Week • Day view of the calendar

There are also the Notes, Converter, Calculator and Recorder applications in the Organizer menu. The Converter converts Currencies, Area, Energy, Length, Mass, Power, Pressure, Temperature, Time, Velocity and Volume. The calculator is very simple and easy to use. Regrettably, the Recorder has a one minute limit for voice records. This seems quite illogical since the phone has such powerful features, enough internal memory and a memory card slot.

Calculator • Recorder

Strictly business

Nokia E60 has some preinstalled applications which can serve well if you need them. The Positions, Navigator and Landmarks applications are meant for an external GPS device. You can connect to the GPS receiver via Bluetooth and then connect to the satellite for incoming data. There is an option for determining your position through the network, if it supports such feature, of course. You can use those applications to pin-point locations you wish to save for further use and acknowledgement.

GPS connection methods

Another application is the HP printers one. It is for managing seamless connections with HP printers vie Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or USB. The phone also supports Internet telephony and you can connect to such provider and use the lower tax rates of VoIP technology.

Printers • Printer information

The test E60 we had didn’t have any preinstalled games, so we cannot tell you anything about the Golf Tour game announced by Nokia which is supposed to come preinstalled on E60.

If you need not to have camera

If for some reason you are keen on a business phone without a camera, there’s no doubt that Nokia E60 is the best possible choice for you. With such a rich set of features as Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, Bluetooth and Infrared and with the great display, Nokia E60 seems the best business solution on the market. And the fast interface response makes it even more desired for the users.

Undoubtedly, the lack of camera and FM radio makes the phone less attractive but if you don’t demand those extras and want to focus on business tools, Nokia E60 has just the right thing to offer you at a reasonable price.

Nokia E60 photos

Display screenshots

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_e60-review-86p6.php

Nokia E60

The one thing you really can’t (generally) accuse Nokia of is conservative smartphone design. Quite apart from the outrageous specifications and gymnastics of the Nseries, especially the N93, even their ‘business’ devices are very differently styled. So, we have a trio of Eseries smartphones (plus the more recent E50 – which AAS is going to be reviewing in the next week or so – and the leaked-but-not-quite-announced-yet Communicator successor), all with very similar internals but very different form factors.

There’s the landscape-screened E61 with permanent qwerty keyboard and the folding E70, with camera and twin keyboards, both of which are strong contenders in their own right. So what’s so special about the E60, with neither qwerty input, camera or gimmicks? The unique selling point is that there aren’t any gimmicks. It’s the full S60 3rd Edition experience but in the plainest, most traditional ‘boring’ form factor possible – no curves, no sliding bits, no cameras, no hinges. The E60 looks like a phone, acts like one and will hopefully be as reliable as that 6 year old Nokia ‘dumb’ phone that’s been kicking around in your glove compartment – there’s simply almost nothing to go wrong. And the absence of a camera will endear it to many companies, worried over security.

My initial impression was that Nokia had made no effort to shave off extra bulk – by modern standards there’s quite a bit of real estate that’s wasted – and this is backed up by the more recent release of the E50, which is leaner all round. Yet there’s a certain industrial feel to the E60 that’s attractive in a ‘does what it says on the tin’ functional sense.

There are few surprises on the hardware front, with Nokia plumping for the conservative choices of DV RS-MMC expansion card, ‘old’ style charging socket and BL-5C battery. Three buttons on the left hand side control up/down volume and voice recording/control. The joystick is a pleasant surprise in that it’s shrouded in rubber and quite superb to use, without a doubt the best smartphone/PDA joystick I’ve ever used. That apart, it’s left to acres of silver aluminium and plastic to deliver the plainest S60 3rd Edition experience  possible. The first genuinely mugger-proof smartphone?

As with the rest of the Eseries, the E60 has the full Symbian/Nokia Office Suite (though rumour has it that future Eseries devices will have a different Office suite again), the new Web browser, of course, and Wi-Fi, absolutely essential for a business device these days, for both fast web surfing and Voice over IP functions. I can see businesses going for the E60 in a fairly big way, integrating it into a company Voice over IP solution, presumably saving money in the long run.

The last incarnation of Symbian’s own Office suite? Still quite sufficient for most users…

As with the identically-equipped E70, the screen is amazingly crisp and bright, at 352 by 416 pixels, despite not being physically any larger than an average phone display. And as with the E70, you can run all the applications in landscape mode, should it be any more convenient, such as when viewing Office documents or, more likely, browsing using the Web browser. Here the switch between screen modes is done in software, with a ‘Rotate’ utility on the opening menu. As with all S60 smartphones, the first 12 application slots are shortcutted to the number pad, which means that you can switch screen modes from the menu with a single press of the ‘0’ key (or whatever it ends up corresponding to after you’ve finished customising!)

In portrait and landscape modes, although actual rotation is via the ‘Rotate’ utility shown…

The S60 3rd Edition platform will be familiar to most readers, with quite adequate PIM apps, Calendar, Contacts and the like, allied with cutting edge multimedia, including MPEG4 video and AAC audio (though you do have to buy your own stereo headset). As one of Nokia’s business devices, they’ve made sure it’s compatible with all the leading push email systems in use in the corporate world, and they’ve also not been stingy with the general software package. Downloads for Nokia’s Eseries on Nokia’s web site include a year’s subscription to the popular WorldMate travel aid and a licensed Zip archive utility.

We’ve often mentioned Nokia’s OpenSourced ‘love it or hate it’ Web browser on AllAboutSymbian and it’s arguably better here than on any previous device, with the extra high resolution screen, Wi-Fi for decent page loading times and even handy backlit ridges embedded in the main keypad to make it really easy to hold and use the E60 in landscape mode. It’s worth noting that you have to go back to the main application menu to make the switch though – you can’t toggle to landscape mode from within each application.

Nokia have been getting better and better at providing new users with a good experience, and the E60 features the full S60 3rd Edition Help and Tutorial systems. I doubt many people will bother to sit down with the manual (a shame, but I’m being realistic here), so these systems at least make sure the basics are all covered on-device.

My review E60 had the very latest, optimised firmware and came with over 21MB of free RAM at boot-up, which in practice is plenty for a device that doesn’t have to worry about a camera or RAM-hungry photo editing, and I had no memory problems during the review period, thankfully.

The E60’s ‘monolith’ styling isn’t immediately attractive, but look past that and there’s a seriously powerful smartphone here just waiting to be unleashed in the right hands.

Source: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_E601.php