s'been awhile, as always, since my last post in this gadget-IT-driven blog, and much has changed in my gadget bag since then. here's some of my thoughts, and opinions on recent acquisitions. (Part 1)
Nexus 7
got this tablet to replace our aging-badly-put-still-useful 1st generation iPad. paid SGD$360 for the 32gb, wifi-only version. after a month or so with it, i can see why the tech sites wrote such glowing reviews for this little pocket-able (debatable) tech wonder.
the Tegra 3 processor that serves the unit is zippy, and decently efficient. runs circles around my iPad, and even my now-obsolete (/bittergeek) Samsung Note 1. (Tegra 4's announced at CES as of this post, and damn, does it look great!)
most apps run great. the display, while not the brightest in the market, does the job for me, and the colors are vibrant enough.
the 7" screen is perfect for manga reading, although fans of the marvel/DC/vertigo persuasion may want to stick to 8-10" screens for their digital comic fix.
media-playing apps like MX Player that can play a plethora of media formats make the nexus 7 - or any android device with a sizeable screen, for that matter - a media powerhouse.
music plays as well as it's compact/budget-friendly audio chip allows, which is decently. this is a portable device, mind.
like my iPad 1 though, the lack of 3G-connectivity can be annoying, however, if you're going to be near a wifi-connection when you're out and about, this is but a mere trifle. i usually load my materials that i intend to read on the go before leaving the house, anyway. I believe a 3G model will add an additional SGD$100 to the price (listed SGD$499 for the 32gb 3G), which still makes it a good SGD$100-200 cheaper than most/all of it's rivals, like the the iPad Mini, all the Samsung Tabs (7", 7.7", 8.9"), etc.
Verdict: buy it if:
you've never owned a tablet and want a decently-priced entry into tablets
need an upgrade from a 2-3 year old tablet and don't need a 10" screen (ipad or android)
like reading and browsing the web on the go (hint: 3G)
Speakers Creative T10
for SGD$55, these speakers perform surprisingly well. the few reviews that I've browsed online before the purchasing these speakers, generally spoke of near-monitor (not really, but good considering the price) quality.
all i can say is, typical of desktop/bookshelf speakers without an additional subwoofer, the mid and high frequencies of music/sounds are covered very well by the T10s, but with the subwoofer range cutting off at 80hz, don't expect THX-levels of cinematic oomph when watching movies on the PC.
being some what of a jazz head, 50s-60s recordings sound fantastic (again, for the price) on the T10s. Led Zeppelin's remastered 2CD best album were decently reproduced, even the trashier songs with a cacophony of instruments did not illicit any crackling of the tweeters.
some double bass-heavy recordings, or thumping dub-step tracks may highlight the ultimate weakness in the low-frequencies of the T10s, but those instances are occasional, at most.
the speakers are basic, with a on/off/volume knob on the right speaker, and a 'tone' knob, for a quick instant EQ-adjustment of the mid-range frequencies.
Verdict:
Definitely worth the buy if you're looking for a decent set of speakers. I'd recommend these over most of the 2.1 sound systems in the same price range. audiophiles, people who love dubstep/dance music may want to look at the 2.1 systems instead.
Just thought I'd share my current hard drive setup in my PC for those who are interested.
My OS (Windows 7 Home Premium) is running off the SSD, other files are mostly stored in the Seagate and Hitachi. The Seagate also doubles up as a secondary program hard drive in the event i do not have enough space in the SSD.
Things are certainly doing pretty good at the moment, I'm still tweaking the system to optimise and maximise my SSD, and an upgrade to a quad-core CPU will happen in the next couple of months.
Conclusion: SSDs are a nice upgrade to speed things up on your system, C2D is still more than enough for most users' gaming, surfing and productivity needs (unless you do vid-editing and stuff). Don't upgrade your PC unnecessarily if your stuff are working fine!
The LazyDroid app is possibly the best productivity/connectivity/management software one can find on the Android market today.
The basic function of the app is to 'emulate' a few critical apps of communication (i.e. sms, contacts list and file manager) onto your web browser. Effectively allowing you to reply or send SMSes from the comfort of your computer. It also introduces another way to browse files that are in the phone, although you can already do this with a usb-connection to the PC; this is a painless wireless way to do it.
To start off, all I had to do was to install the app to my HTC Desire via the Android Market on the web as so:
After which, all that was needed was to input the given HTTP address - after signing on to my home WIFI network - and the user will be taken to the following page:
The interface is clean and somewhat basic (bearing in mind, this is a Beta Release) but the main functionality of sending SMSes is intact as such:
The SMS functions both ways, you can send out an SMS and receive an SMS notification in the desktop app itself.
You can also navigate the file system in your phone via an 'explorer-like' interface:
All the usual copy, paste and delete functions are in, but bearing in mind your file transfer speeds will be subject to your WIFI network, and will be slower than if you were to things through a usb-connection.
Other than the two functionalities I have already mentioned above, the app also allows you to view the GPS/Gryscopic functions of the phone itself:
Pretty nifty but not very useful for most of us.
As mentioned, you are also able to manage your contacts' list, all the basic adding, editing and deleting functions are available. However, the function is limited to just very basic editing of the few numbers that you will already have for each contact. If you only have the mobile number of one contact and would like to add his/her home number, you'll have to do it back on the phone itself. The app still has some ways to go, the lacking of some functions is to be expected.
The 'Camera' functions like a wireless web camera, but no video file is created in the process at this point. I believe the developers could look into this functionality in the future.
That rounds up this simple review of the app, it works as advertised although some functions are still missing. Bearing in mind this is a Beta Release software, there is still a long road ahead for it to become a complete product, but at the moment, things are looking pretty good for the app.
5 command buttons (left, right, scroll + 2 extras at the thumb resting position)
3dpi selector buttons
lighting on 3dpi selector buttons, and 2 lights at the back of the mouse
background:
This is possibly the first gaming-centric mouse I own. My choice was purely aesthetic driven, I felt the Logitech Marble Ball mouse I was using was not great for gaming, and the Microsoft basic optical mouse was too small for my hand, so, new mouse!
the meat of this article:
The installation of the mouse was simple enough, I have previously installed the intellipoint driver software for a microsoft mouse and wireless keyboard set. It did help that I have Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) recently installed onto my PC, making the driver and related-softeware integration seamless.
I connected the mouse to the USB port and voila; the drivers for the mouse were immediately initialised/installed and I was able to access extra menus specific to customisation of the mouse's many buttons. The intellipoint software allows one to customise each and every button of the mouse to a huge variety of functions or shortcuts in Windows.
You are also able to create customised mouse button maps specific to individual programs (I'm assuming especially games). I personally do not have the need to map different sets of buttons and actions, so your mileage may vary.
The customisation also extends to the 3dpi selector buttons (which also light up, +5 cool factor) allowing you to adjust the resolution of the scanning of the laser optic depending on the application of the mouse. Normally, higher dpi(s) are reserved for FPS games for speed of reaction to your environment while slower dpi(s) are used more for RTS games with the necessity of minute control.
The built-quality of the mouse is solid, not exceptional but better than all the previous mice I have used over the years; bearing in mind up till date I've only been using consumer mice for my computing needs. Time and normal usage will tell if the materials used in the construction of this mouse is value for money.
Notable are the white plastic stoppers at the bottom of the mouse to allow it to glide rather than stick after awhile like most consumer mice with their hard rubber stick-ons. I believe this comes standard for most, if not all gaming-centric mice.
verdict:
I am personally pleased with the mouse. It is quite an upgrade in terms of usability for gaming (which was the whole point of my getting a new mouse in the first place), and also, the built of the mouse fills the user (i.e. me) with some assurance that it can take heavy usage be it gaming or intensive facebooking.
• insane battery life, best of any portable device in the market at the moment; it’s a great feeling to finally be truly mobile without having to worry about my device's battery life
• portable, sleek, negligible weight in a backpack; extended periods of holding in the hands may be tiring for some though (but that’s just commonsensical)
• execution of a portable in typical apple fashion, well designed, apps are abundant, experience is great
• safari works as it should, pity about the exclusion of adobe flash, apparently flash kills the battery life (based on certain reports, go google them if flash is important to you)
• 10inches seem about the optimal size for hand-held browsing of books, websites; however, not so for videos, seems a little silly to holding such a large screen, but still, if you can deal with holding it when there isn’t a table or surface handy, it works great
• the screen is gorgeous, inspite of the somewhat dated 1024x768 resolution; I was expecting retina-like density of pixels, but I believe the chosen hardware are due to technical and engineering issues
• ipod is excellent (as expected), the screen real estate makes this a wonderful toy for wannabe party music control nazis
• love the news apps, picture browsing apps of gettys, life, etc
cons:
• itunes is still a bloody huge mess in my humble opinion (coming from a windows user. Oh, the irony!), and does not play nice with windows, it would seem its more of a difference in oses that causes most of the problems i have with itunes than itunes itself being a flawed piece of software
• that being said, i detest having to go through the app store for every single app, song, book, etc, but its essential (my opinion and reasoning for the need to go through itunes for every single thing) to control the market for the sake of and excellent user experience. u suffer a little every way.
• good apps cost money, but most i've paid for so far are well executed for the price one pays
• it’s only a matter of months before a newer and better version is out.
what it is:
• great PORTABLE web-surfing device; that is if you do not mind the lack of adobe flash support (personally, it wasn't such a big deal for me)
o however, I believe there’ll eventually be a workaround of sorts in the future
• keeps the internet junkies (like myself) constantly connected (as long as you have access to 3G or wifi)
• great for movies with the right app with decent codec support (hint: VLC app)
• great for spontaneous/casual writing or jotting down of ideas on the go; i.e. pairing up with the wireless apple keyboard and you'll have a killer combination for mobile novel/article/note creation
• great ebook and comic reader, color comics pop, great zoom controls for the smaller text
what it isn't:
• it is possible for road warriors, with the right word processing software apps, to be able to churn out simple reports and the like on the go; that being said, the ipad isn't going to replace the macbooks or most of our laptops in that department anytime soon, as i personally feel one would still fare better in the battle with our documents with a full-fledged mouse and keyboard combination in hand.
• it isn't a complete replacement (internet surfing-wise) for our desktops either, as the exclusion of flash and possibly certain https protocols for online transactions can be quite a glaring ommission for a certain percentage of users out there, however, it you’re just tumblr-ing or checking in on your social life on facebook, the ipad makes the experience quite delightful
minutae observations:
• apple still the king of touch computing, swipe and pinching is liquid smooth
o current andro-pads out in the market are still quite a ways behind in the experience. Let’s see if gingerbread or even honeycomb can address the tablet issues manufacturers are facing
• iOS4.2 for ipad is out finally, and I’ve been enjoying the ‘multi-tasking’ it has on offer
o game center is a nice-to-have kind of add-on, giving one easy access to online games that are currently popular
apps to get:
• Flipboard – integrates your favourite websites' headlines and facebook feeds into a magazine-like format for easy/classy browsing
o Alternatively, Pulse is pretty good too for summarising a feed of all your favourite websites
• iBooks – apple's own ebook reading app
• VLC player – updated periodically, getting better with each iteration
• TED – source if information and inspirational videos by industry experts and players
• LIFE – tonnes of galleries or browsing
• SG Mahjong – (proper mahjong game instead of the crappy card matching one)
• IM+ – for instant messenging on the go with support for all the major IMs (yahoo, gtalk, msn, facebookchat, etc) the free version limits push notifications to 2hrs though.\
• Discover – makes a nice magazine-like article out of any subject in wikipedia, among other things
• Pool Bar – paid game that rocks, since im such a huge pool fan
• FlickrStackXP – a great browsing app for flickr-fans
• Radiant HD – free, galaga-style game with updated graphics and amusing storyline, I wasted half a day on it =p
·I tinker with my gadgets a lot; more than the average user anyway
·More control, functions, access to settings, ability to root, etc, is a huge plus for me
·Really dislike closed systems similar to Apple’s Iphone and iTunes - so yes, I’m just personally biased against Apple, that’s not to take anything away from the good bits about their take on a smartphone
·However, thanks to Apple’s foray the smartphone market is growing at breakneck speed, Winmo did nothing of that sort even though it was in the market years earlier.
·Have fiddled with the iphone (2G, 3G and 3Gs versions, since everyone around me had one :S), played with winmo devices here and there HTC HD2 being the last one, only Android has intrigued me off the bat, symbian user since 2004. ·Everything written below are all personal opinions, based on my usage and fiddling with the phone so far, and owing to the nature of software, work-arounds and improvements are constantly coming in; so just take everything with an open mind, this is mostly some thoughts for the geeks, potential-android users and whoever else is bored enough to want to read this
Background to the OS:
·Android used to be an independent startup that was bought over by Google Inc.
·The founder of android now serves as VP of Engineering in Google Inc.
·Truly open-source software for developers and enthusiasts to modify, create, etc, think linux for the mobile platform
·Even the brand is open-source and has a creative commons license 3.0 (go google it)
Why not Apple or Winmo or Symbian:
·Winmo has been in the market for years and has never impressed me enough; only the differing hardwares that it was installed on got some of my attention, but other than that, I was pretty indifferent to the platform on a whole
·Apple is just extremely closed (personal view) as an operating system, not that I am going to start coding for Android anytime soon, but usually, the more open a platform, things progress a lot faster, and improvements, enhancements and 3rd party apps are created helluva faster (less restrictions, more innovation, and yes, more crap too)
·In essence, Android seems more nimble (technologically flexible and front running) as opposed to Apple and Windows who seem to let margins, principles, corporate red tape, antiquated ideas about what consumers want hold their OSes back (personal opinion, disagree if you want)
·Symbian has not been innovating or moving like the Big 3 mentioned above for a very long time, the E71 was my last straw with the system, and I’m not impressed with the upcoming symbian and updates, hence bye, symbian, it’s been great for awhile, but I need to move on
The phone (google the tech specs):
·General Likes
o3.7” AMOLED touchscreen that’s wicked bright, although personally I like my brightness levels low, colors seem better than the 65k possible
oZippy processor, huge ROM and RAM makes web browsing, gaming, using the phone a breeze
oSpeaker is loud enough for ringtones and handsfree communication
oLarge screen (as compared to my prev. E71’s) is a joy to read text and webpages
oThe overall design of the phone is sleek, clean and Zen-ish to me, the buttons just seem to be in the right places, tactile feedback is just about right, a huge difference over the QWERTY keypad and button-laden E71 (which to be fair, I kind of miss the QWERTY)
oHTC sense is not as bad as feared - think manufacturer-specific pre-loaded software on laptops, PCs
oThe menus upon menus of customisation and settings that are available to the user (+1 to android) I’m personally a control/tinker freak when it comes to my toys
o‘mobile multi-tasking’ which has been on the OS since day one, the hardware has only caught up recently to give decent power/speeds and battery life
oMobile IMs are so much nicer on a large screen
oAndroid market is growing fast, so there’s no shortage of apps, most are repeats or variations of each other anyway; so one platform having more apps than the other is a meaningless comparison factor
oAndroid’s inbuilt web browser with google integration (obviously) is surprisingly good, as I have personally expected a lot less after dealing with Nokia’s inbuilt symbian web browser
oLike most smart phones now, the integration of the native photo-album app with social networking sites like flickr, facebook, etc. so snap a pic on the phone and post it on the spot! Lovely.
·Specifics (killer features)
oHTC photo widget allows me to view my entire library of pics on my flickr account as if the library exists on my phone (slow when loading huge sets)
oRingtones, HTC has a ringtone-creating app allows you to ‘clip’ any song in your mp3 library in the SD card, which is then saved as a ringtone in a separate folder
oGmail, Gcal, Google maps and everything google-cloud-related integration. ‘nuff said.
oPower control widget for instant command access to Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sync and Screen Brightness
oAndroid market has the “downloads” tab that show the current list of downloaded apps you have loaded into your ‘droid phone, it doubles as a “Add or Remove” software window where you can download/install more apps and also uninstall apps
oNotifications are listed as they come in, email, smses, etc. allowing you to see all the recent notifications in one summary page (I believe winmo has something similar to this)
oAndroid home screens similar to Apple’s Expose for OS X, pinch to see overall view of all 6 screens, tap on the one you want to enter the screen, else just flip it like you do in the iphone
·Silly Little Extras that I liked
oHTC sense has a weather widget that depicts the current weather in your vicinity; i.e. if it is raining in your area, the widget will simulate rain and droplets on your screen, and a wiper will wipe the ‘rain’ away whenever you unlock the phone or bring it out of sleep.
oPhoto/picture frame (HTC and android) – allows you to put a picture(s) on the phone; I.e. think of it as a separate photo frame on your desktop of your significant other
oHTC has a buttload of ‘clocks’ you can choose from to place on the ‘desktop’ of the phone, most of them take up the entire window.
·Dislikes
oOS lags quite noticeably when downloading/installing an app in the background, hope this has been resolved in v2.2 (Froyo)
oManufacturers take time to update latest versions of Android on their own branded phones with their own GUI on top
oRooting voids warranty, then again, this is the norm.
oContacts from gmail, your sim card and imported from outlook from your previous phone are all mashed together, you can only select what is shown, there isn’t a way to delete the sim contacts or organise them properly. i.e. I have a friend A who’s on my gmail, my sim card, and imported as a contact from my older phone, so I have 3x repeats of his mobile number, 2x repeats of his email
oIncluded handsfree kit has pretty decent aethestic and functional design, but really bad acoustics (too trebly)
oMajor failure for me was the uncommon mini-usb jack, why can’t we use the mini-usb jacks that is being used on portable hdds, PS3s, DSLRs, etc? and the cable could afford to be longer
oBattery life as expected is not fantastic as compared to my E71, but of course, that is a given; the screen is way larger, way brighter, hardware on the Desire is so much more power hungry. Battery does better than expected when 3G/EDGE/4G is not running constantly
oCamera could be a lot better, but understandable given the physical constraints and keeping everything within a certain budget for mass-market, this is a phone anyway, not a camera featuring a phone’s capabilities
·Recommended Apps (free ones):
oAldiko – fantastic ebook-reader with a great visual interface to search and download a variety of free, open-source ebooks (classics, free-contemporary writers, etc) and even links to buy commercial ebooks
oColor note – make notes, set reminders, create checklists, etc.
oHandcent SMS – allows aesthetic customisation of the messaging function of the phone, has a very useful ‘quick-reply’ function that opens a window when you receive an sms that bypasses the lock screen
oFxCamera – a popular type of lomography app for a variety of post-processing of the pictures you take with your phone’s camera
oNimbuzz – have used this 3rd party IM app on my Nokia E71 before, and found it a very powerful portable IM client that allows you to combine all your Facebook, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, etc contacts into one client, works great on the Android
oiToday (for Singaporean paper newsfeed) – best of all the local papers’ apps on the android market; for more international news, I’d go with the BBC app
After much deliberation (as always, I choose my toys carefully), I decided to replace my aging E61 with a new phone. The options I had (and everyone else for that matter) are few especially with regards to replacing the E61's hardware capabilities, and of course, it's screen size and very usable QWERTY keypad. Of course, I had a few criteria other than just finding a phone with all the the hardware goodness of the E61, I was also thinking of taking on another operating system on a mobile device. Namely Windows and Apple's OS on the iPhone. I was getting pretty fed up with the rather one-dimensional S60 (Symbian platform) and have to admit I was very impressed with Apple's slick GUI on the iPhone 3G. It helped that it's release was just about the same time when I was looking to get rid of my E61. Windows was looking pretty good with it's expandibility and very good synchronisation with the Windows OSes on the computer.
I used to own a couple of Palm phones, and sad to say the Palm OS and its phones are a shadow of their former selves, hence why I skipped over that OS completely. Blackberry's nice I suppose, but most of their phones are butt ugly in my opinion, with maybe the exception of the Blackberry Bold, but it's probably not hitting Singapore's shores so I gave that a miss too.
However, there are plus and minuses to everything and these are the main reasons why I finally settled with a Nokia/Symbian again:
1) Windows is a powerful software, with much support and stuff on it's side, but it's one resource-heavy OS too, till date, there hasn't been any phones that are sleek and have the hardware to be able to run it at 'decent' enough speeds to my liking, so I decided against the platform. Besides, I believe the only phone at the moment that has the features or is attractive enough to me that is using the Windows OS is the Samsung Omnia, which is somewhat clunky for a mobile phone if you ask me. Although I have to say, their Soul phone with a touch-sensitive screen for a D-pad is a somewhat brilliant evolution in the right direction for how people interact or use their mobiles.
2) The next big OS is of course, Apple's OS for the iPhone. For me, it's the prettiest and most user-friendly OS for mobiles in the market at the moment, and not to mention the best executed. Let's be objective here guys, the 'stock' OS on the iPhone looks a million times better than anything Symbian and Windows has in any of the phones. But that's about it that's in the iPhone's favour, it's plainly obvious that Steve Jobs and Co. never planned for the iPhone in it's current incarnation to be used as more than just a 'fun' phone. To me, its more an iPod with a phone function rather than a phone proper. However, I do believe the iPhone 3G is but a stepping stone for more serious business and whatever other kinds of phones for Apple, and it can only get more interesting in time to come, but the current iPhones are just not what I'm looking for.
So with all these limitations and misgivings about most of the offerings on the market, I had to do a double-take on the E71, which I had predicted is coming (it's not that hard if you bother to notice how Nokia releases all their previous phones), but was pretty underwhelmed when I looked at the specs (you can find them anywhere online, I shall only elaborate those that matter to me in this post). Then I realized, it was hard to have anything new, since the original E61 had almost every GSM band on the known planet, plus CDMA as an option, bluetooth, infrared, etc. The biggest problem I had with the E61 was Nokia's annoying and moronic decision to use their own proprietary dataports which totally suck and are totally useless and do no favours for their boast about having good design for users. So let's look at what the E71 had to offer that was one-up (for me) on the E61.
1) Inbuilt camera: not a deal breaker, but it's a nice to have, although the camera as some reviewers online have mentioned, is pathetic and old (like 2001 old, and I agree wholeheartedly with them), it's like if you can't do something at least basically decent, then don't bother and save yourselves the trouble, still it will do for the occasional need to snap something I suppose.
2) Check out that sexy design! Received glowing approvals from my colleagues at work, all admitting it's one very slim and handsome phone (mind you most of them have a PDA phone). The main thing that Nokia got going for the E71 was they finally redesigned the damn phone (I was half-expecting them to actually reuse the E61 base template again like they did for the E61i -lazy buggers-), and did a pretty sweet job of it. It's all shiny and metallic, rather than plasticky like some of their newer N-series phones which is such a waste in my humble opinion. And it's magnificently thin, 10mm according to the specs, but feels more like 8-9mm (4 SD cards are about 10mm for anyone who's interested).
3) New hardware:
microusb (FINALLY! USB YO! NOT YOUR DAMNED DATAPORTS ! -end rant-)
newer generation ARM 11 369Mhz processor - improved speeds in menus and especially when surfing the internet, graphics intensive sites like flickr and a local lomography forum were loaded as fast as it can get on a mobile, I trust the expanded ROM/SDRAM has something to do with it too
5-way scroll key which is only slightly better than the 'joystick' of the E61
bluetooth with A2DP
thankfully, Nokia also decided to keep the IR port (so I can interface with my Fujifilm Pivi)
bigger inbuilt ROM/SDRAM helps with the speed
microSD up to 8gb (good for storing pictures, office files and songs)
To be fair, the screen looks a lot crisper, that's also because the pitch of the pixels have been reduced, given the significant size reduction from the E61/i versions to the current physical incarnation, the color is more natural too, with color-corrected photos looking absolutely fantastic on the screen. However, the screen is still just a puny 2.36", not very conducive for staring at your photos for too long.
4) Significant software improvements:
S60 V3.1 (sadly not the FP2, hope to have a free update from Nokia -if they want to retain this customer)
Better interoperability with windows office files (apparently, haven't tried this yet though)
more useful calendar - very nice with the appointments of the day listed on the side of the monthly view, might be a little too small for the older consumers, especially those with eyesight issues, people like my parents would definitely have a hard time with it.
somewhat better contacts (minor improvements)
hook-up with flickr, but sucky camera = kinda pointless but nice all the same
windows messenger (I use msn a lot on the go, so for Nokia to provide this in the phone is pretty nice)
all sent messages (SMS) are now archived, rather than the last 20 SMSes sent out restriction on the E61 and probably the E61i.
That's about all for the good parts, now, the glaringly huge problems with the phone:
1) Why can't we slim down and still maintain size?
Smaller screen. 2.8" > 2.36" not cool man. Not cool at all.
smaller keypad. not cool too, but I can still handle it, it's not as bad as I feared.
here we go again, Nokia and their moronic proprietary 2.5mm audio jacks. Sony and their MS Duo sticks is inane, 2.5mm audio jacks? COME ON NOKIA, first the dataports, now this??! Major Fail.
2) Why did Nokia take away some of the function keys?! I mean, if you're gonna leave the grey Fn key, why don't you leave the damn underscore, backslash, ampersand, dollar and equal on the keypad dammit?!?! Bewilderment much. I wonder if Nokia is having trouble retaining talent or designers with a little common sense. (hint for Nokia: notice QWEASDZXC have no Fn keys assigned to them now??)
Anyway, that's about all I have to say about the Nokia E71 so far, I only talked about the major issues that matter with respect to how I use the phone, so if you want more details of other parts of the phone, make use of google. I may or may not add more to this review-like post in the future.
Cheers~
*added some comments in blue, after having spent more time with the phone*
