Yesterday, a short trip to 1-Utama shopping complex made me RM 1.9K poorer. Yes, it was an impulsive purchase and I hate myself for it. But you see, it’s a nice phone and my SE T630 is beginning to show its age. Ok, so the T630 is still perfectly fine, but play along with me will ya? I’m trying to justify my purchase here

Ok, jokes aside, the Nokia e61 is certainly very impressive. Check out the specs

• 320×240, true color, landscape screen
• Quad-band GSM, but wait, there’s more - it does EDGE, 3G/UMTS and WiFi (WEP, WPA supported)- oh yeah baby!
• Bluetooth 1.2 is also supported, with the following profiles - BIP-ImagePush, DUN-GW (Dial-up Networking), FT-Server (FTP), HandsFree-AG, Headset-AG, OBEX, OPP-Client and OPP-Server (Object Push), SIM Access-Server
• full QWERTY keyboard
• 128MB memory (64MB usable internal, 64MB miniSD)
• full support for push mail - either using 3rd party server software (Exchange, BB, Goodlink, etc.) or IMAP Idle Mode, of course, regular POP3 is there as well
• cutting edge Symbian 9, Series 60 3rd Edition OS
• enhanced security - remote locking via SMS, memory card password protect, phone locking upon SIM change, etc.
• Comes with an email client, MS Office document editing software, Worldmate (for real-time weather forecast, world time, currency exchange)
• and of course, it syncs with Outlook
• full spec

I’m pretty impressed with it so far (it’s been only one day). It’s fast (rumored to have a 300+MHz CPU), comparing very well against Palm OS devices, just a tad slower. Its web browser is much more impressive compared to anything available on Palm OS (maybe except NetFront but I have not tried that one personally). WiFi connectivity is god-send, no more worries about GPRS/EDGE charges when I’m at home. The QWERTY keyboard is great because of the wide layout of the phone. Ring tones are very loud, with support for midi, AAC and MP3. The OS might not be as intuitive on as Palm OS 5.x, but I’ve managed to master the phone without the manual, in a day. That shows that it’s still a phone, just a very souped up one. I did face some trouble with WiFi but the phone’s online help assisted me. Now it’s very easy to switch between networks to surf the Internet and check email.

Initially, I wanted to write a review but I decided against that when I found out that a few reviews were already out. This one is pretty darn good and this one ain’t bad either, so I’m not going to write my own. Instead, I’m going to list down a few comparison against Palm OS in general:

PIM

Its PIM isn’t as capable as Palm OS. It’s not really lacking in terms of features, but suffers from usability as well as presentation. The lack of a touch screen makes entering information into it a bit more troublesome. You’ll have to use layers of menus to do what can be done via a few taps on the screen. This is a necessary evil because there’s really no way of presenting all the options on screen, all at the same time.

Furthermore, Palm OS has a lot going for it in terms of 3rd party PIM. Want pure simplicity? Stick with the original Palm OS PIMS. Want power? Get DateBk. Want elegance? Try TMP. Want tight contacts integration with eye-candy? Agendus’ the choice. All these choices presents hundreds of ways of viewing your PIM. With the e61, there’s just the built-in one… if you don’t like it, too bad then. Personally, I’ve fallen in love with TMP’s way of viewing my calendars.

Because of the 2 factors above, I’d say people that’s heavy on PIM usage and thinking of switching - be prepared to sacrifice a bit. Having said that, the PIM on e61 isn’t really bad. Its huge screen and respectable resolution makes it way better than any other Symbian mobile phones, but Palm OS still rules here.

Contacts

With the contacts application, it’s a bit of a tie for me - but my preference is for the e61. Let me explain why - comparing the Treo against the e61’s built-in app, both comes away with a draw. Both are very tightly integrated - searching is fast, there’s context sensitive functions (e.g. clicking on email addresses would launch the email editor, mobile phone numbers would trigger either calls or SMS, etc.), and both support thumbnails / pictures.

However, the search is better executed on the e61 compared to the Treo’s built-in contacts application. Searching on the e61 includes first and last names, unlike the Treo that must search the exact order of the name. This saves me the trouble of having to remember someones last / first name. However, this issue can be easily fixed with a 3rd party app for the Treo though. I’ll still have to give it to Nokia for making sure that such a simple feature comes built-in. The Treo 650 with 3rd party software, say TakePhone, is totally unrivaled though.
Web browsing

This is a win for the e61. The web browser handles Flash, Javascript, and in addition to plain HTML. But the major win is stability. Palm OS, though touted for its stability, does very poorly in this department when it comes to web browsing. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know. All I know is, any web pages that get’s too big, usually (though not always), crashes the system. And that’s why I don’t use my T5 for web browsing, even sold off the WiFi SD card. 3rd party web browser for the Palm OS fare better in terms of stability, but is worse in features. Xiino renders the web awfully, WebPro is too expensive and NetFront, which is often considered the best, isn’t for sale for end-users.

Nokia e61 puts the Treo to shame with its built-in fast, standards compliant web browser.

Multimedia

In terms of software support, I think both comes to a draw. I’ve never been a heavy user of multimedia, just the occasional MP3 playing during travel. Both Palm OS and Symbian supports my needed audio formats. For video, well, it really depends on whether there’s a port of TCPMP for Symbian or not . And, because there isn’t one for now, I’m going to have to say Palm OS is a better performer here. My T5 also has more horsepower for video so that tilts my favor towards Palm OS as well. However, I don’t find viewing videos on either Palm OS PDAs, Treos or the e61 appealing. I seldom watch any video on my T5, and I don’t foresee myself doing this with the e61 as well.

Now, in terms of hardware - the traditional PDA and Treo wins hands-down. Why? Simple really - the lack of a standard audio connector on the e61. The Treos mini-audio jack is bad enough, but Nokia’s proprietary connector takes it to a whole new level. I’m going to have to look for a Nokia-audio jack converter real soon.

Office document editing

I’m quite sure Dataviz DocsToGo will tramp all over the built-in software for the e61, but I haven’t had time to really play with document viewing on the e61 yet. Still, the lack of touch screen does make data input a bit more troublesome on the e61 than say a Treo or a T5. So I’m saying that either a full-fledged PDA or laptop is better suited for this.

Still, when push comes to shove, and the e61 is the only thing at hand, it should be able to handle document editing effectively because of the QWERTY keyboard and wide screen.

Other 3rd party software

I think nothing can beat Palm here. I’m already starting my hunt for e-book readers, expense tracking software, alarm clocks, dictionaries, email clients but my initial findings is this - the selection available just pales in comparison with Palm OS. I’m not giving up though, I’m planning to slowly phase out my Palm (it’s just too archaic) and hopefully, as developers port the software for earlier Symbian OS, I’ll get more choice.

My conclusion - if you’re looking for a communications-first device, then this certainly can match the Treo. In fact, it has more connectivity option compared to the yet-to-launch Treo 700p. Note that I don’t see the e61 as just a plain phone, it’s more than that. It’s a dream device for email, text/multimedia messaging. Combine this with features such as enhanced voice commands (it’s doesn’t need training), support for various vendor’s push email and regular IMAP/POP3 mail, the security features, I’d say that some might even prefer this compared to the Treo. However, if you’re looking for a PDA-first device, then this might not be a good choice, but it’s still not bad. The lack of touch screen (for games?) and 3rd party software are the main culprits here.

Here are some pictures comparing between the SE T630, Treo 650 and Tungsten T5: