Nokia E71

Dec. 12, 2008— -- In what is becoming an increasingly crowded smart phone market, the Nokia e71 is a pleasant surprise.  While everyone races to get Apple's iPhone 3G, T-Mobile's G1 ("Google") phone, Samsung's Instinct or one of the newest BlackBerry phones, there must be some credit given to those who dare to be different.

And for those who want to be different, the Nokia e71 may be just for them.

Unlike many of its competitors, the e71 does not sacrifice feel for look -- a common complaint of the iPhone 3G. The e71 will not easily slip out of its owners' hands.  In fact, the whole look and feel of the e71 is refreshing.

Unlike new touchscreen phones, which can be slippery and difficult to navigate when half of the screen suddenly becomes the keyboard, the e71 has a real, honest-to-goodness keyboard. This means it can be poked, prodded and dropped (though I don't advise this) like any good phone should be.  During a fun night on the town, dropping the e71 most likely won't result in a cracked screen, a useless phone and, ultimately, a mad fit of crying.

But that is hardly the only reason the e71's keyboard makes up for a multitouch screen.

iPhone users often complain about the lack of feedback their fingers receive from typing. And many BlackBerry Storm adopters are baffled by the "entire phone is one button" feature, but e71 navigators will love the certainty the buttons provide, while still enjoying the benefits of advanced cell phone technology.

Unlike many similar phones in the market, the e71 boasts an improved, more familiar browsing experience. e71 owners can use the main phone navigation buttons, such as forward, back, up and down, to browse intuitively in a way that resembles browsing on personal computers. Although the e71 browsing experience may not rival the iPhone's, it is still a good one.

However, the e71 was not built to compete with the iPhone for mobile Internet users.

It was built for the person who wants a powerful, multitasking professional device.

Besides the ease of working with actual buttons and the clean design of the e-mail interface, the e71 provides several other work-friendly tools.