Proporta Screen Protector review

A few days ago Proporta sent me a selection of accessories for the Nokia E61- a metal case, an alu-leather case and an advanced screen protector. I asked Katrina at Proporta what makes the screen protector ‘advanced’? “In what way is it advanced? £10 if you can answer that and make it sound genuine:)” Here’s the reply- 

It is an advanced screen protector shipped from the ‘technological capital’
Japan, it is made from ultra high clarity plastic which is a little thicker than rival brands.  This does not impair clarity of the screen, but actually reduces glare from outside and overhead lighting.  Another difference is that they are washable (with normal hand soap) and replaceable. For easy application it comes with a screen cleaning cloth and an application card. 

OK, that was a very good explanation and did it for me. Let’s start with the screen protector and see how it compares to all of the other ones I have tried. It took me 1 minute to apply it and it went on straight away with no dust or air bubbles- it is almost impossible though to get air bubbles in a protector that is this thick. 

The protector itself is the ‘perfect’ size for the E61 screen and although you would expect all screen protectors to be the right size it is sadly not always the case. 

For in car use it does a very good job of reducing glare and I have found navigation a LOT easier than without it on. Remember though that the E61 does not have a touch screen so it would be nice if the protector was a little bit thinner. This is because the bottom of the screen is flush with the front casing and the protector is noticeable when attached. I don’t think there is a way around this on this particular device and maybe reducing its thickness would affect the glare reducing factors of this ‘advanced’ protectorJ 

Crucially it works best for stopping grease getting on the screen when making and receiving calls. Maybe I have a greasy face (!) but I did worry about stubble scratching the screen and this solves the problem well. All in all- this is a top quality protector that is excellent value at under £6.00 inc. VAT.

Available from Proporta for £5.95 inc. VAT. If you are wondering why a Nokia accessory review is on all three sites it’s because Proporta have a range of protectors for many devices and the only difference is the actual size. Tomorrow I will post a review of the metal case.

Hey you with the pretty face, welcome to the human race…

Written: 30/08/2006

A couple of months ago I posted a three part review of the Nokia E61 (here, here and here) and it caused more emails to my inbox than any other subject, apart from the time when I called George Bush stupid in a news article on 247. I decided there and then not to mention George on 247 again but am more than happy to talk about the E61.

Since I did the review my mind keeps coming back to the Nokia and I haven’t been able to forget just how good it really was. I had a store credit owed to me as a refund for a dodgy PDA2K and decided that it was time to try the E61 one more time. My latest Treo’s on/off button starting to fail had a bit to do with the decision as well… Three Treo’s in six months and they all broke, hmmm.

The reason I have stuck with the Treo for so long is because it can do so much- eBooks, finances, project planning, movies, Wikis, email, internet etc. etc. The last two are very important to me and I started wondering if I should indeed be looking for a device that does as much as the Treo or one that does the things I spend 90% of my PDA time on a lot better. Email is at the top of my list, as is Instant Messaging for when my wife is abroad and obviously voice has to be a prime concern as well- I make and receive on average over 30 calls a day.

So, I duly received my second E61 and started to play with it but this time I took a bit more care in setting it up. After five days I can report the following-

GPRS connects every single time without fail and so does 3G.

Battery life is huge! Spent a lot of time on the phone and emailing via GPRS for the first three days and even then I did not need to charge it but I did for old times sake.

Voice quality and reception are better than the Treo (lets remember that the Treo is very good at these two functions) and light years ahead of any Windows Mobile Smart Phone I have used to date.

The keyboard is one of the best on the market. I’m not convinced it is better than the Treos but with practice I am getting close to my old speeds.

Stability is awesome. Not one crashdespite me loading it up with every 3rd party application that is vaguely relevant to what I need.

It has it’s faults such as two cables- one to charge and one to sync (weird), very slow USB transfer of large files (have to use card reader instead), overly large fonts in some of the bundled applications and some odd ommisions such as no ability to pre-set appointments to have an alarm although that one should be sorted by SBSH soon Oh yes- you also get a wired ear piece with the phone which has only one ear plug. You have to pay £14 for an adaptor to use stereo headphone- that is just daft.

I am now pondering buying a traditional PDA to sit alongside the Nokia- sounds crazy but it would give me the obsessive organisation I require and one of the best connectivity options on the market as well. The Mio P550 is tempting me so that GPS is sorted in one package as well.

The only thing stopping me is that without doubt there will be many more 3rd party solutions released for this device in the near future and that’s the only drawback. From a hardware perspective it is all there and it looks wonderful but there are a few things that still cannot be done- finances, project planning and a daily journal being the main ones for me.

Who knows what will happen and if the Treo will win out yet again but I have to say that at this time the Nokia E61 is one hell of a smart device that just happens to look pretty as well…

Update: Since writing this article I have found a good finance application and even some basic product planning apps. I’m fairly convinced that once GPS is loaded up the E61 will be my daily device and that the Treo will be used as a back up in times of trouble. It’s good to have one device for each OS when you run a site like this but I find it difficult to cope with more than one machine for day to day use- it gets too confusing.

E61 (part three)

Written: 27/05/2006

This will more than likely be the final part in my series looking at the new Nokia E61 which has surprised me in a much more positive way than I expected. It’s available now from Clove for £300 + VAT in SIM free form. Normally when I get to part 3 it involves finishing off the loose ends but in the case of the E61 I still have lots more to go through (and there are lots more functions that I have missed or simply don’t understand to cover properly…)

Synchronisation is absolutely excellent in my opinion. I have not had one issue with it and although the E61 does not come with a cradle (an annoying new trend with Smart Phone and PDA manufacturers) it has been easy to transfer files (movies, images etc.) between the device, it’s expansion card and my PC. Syncing with Outlook has also proved hassle free. I have read reports of problems so I must be lucky for once in my life with this technology

The E61, like the Treo, is so much of a standalone unit that you rarely need to do a sync- I go for weeks at a time without syncing my Treo and suspect the E61 will be exactly the same.

I wasn’t impressed with the quality of film output with the built in Real Player and converter but Smart Movie was an adequate replacement for that. MP3 tracks sound really good and in my opinion the sound quality is better than a Treo but slightly worse than an iPod- I’m a bit anal when it comes to music but the E61 just passes my high standards in this regard.

The built in Office suite of applications knocked me sideways. Nokia have taken us back to the Psion days when you could do all of the formatting you wanted in Word and insert images and other objects as you pleased. The example image with this paragraph took me no time at all to make and it was the first time I has used the Word part of Office on the Nokia. Tables, images, formatting- you name it and it is built in.

There is a very good spreadsheet application as well and despite a lack of usefrom myself its potential was clear from the start.
The presentation software is also the best I have seen on a mobile device. There are extas included such as a free wireless presenter application and this is more evidence of the business market Nokia is aiming the E61 at.

A basic file manager tops off the Office suite and to be fair it is very basic- it does the job but not with any great user friendliness of robustness in my opinion. Support for wireless printing is also included in the built in software with presets for HP printers already set up. These little touches make for a solution that makes you feel you are getting real value for money.

GPS would be too much to ask for in this device wouldn’t it? Well, it is built in as well, sort of. I connected my bluetooth GPS receiver in a few seconds and then played around with the GPS software built in to the E61.

It does not do road planning and navigation but includes the ability to show you exactly where you are and navigation for longitude and latitude etc. I must admit to not really looking deep into these applications but it shows that there should be no issues at all running GPS apps when they are released. At the time of writing this the first GPS software or this OS has just been released so that’s a good start.

I mentioned yesterday about the lack of software currently developed for the E61 OS but I am seeing a few more titles appear each day and the number is close to 50 already. That may sound pitiful to Palm and WM users but the entire range of Symbian applications runs to 1000’s and thus at some stage in the future I will be able to accomplish everything on the E61 that a Palm or WM device can do now.

Besides the dirth of 3rd party software I am left wondering what else Nokia could have squeezed into this very slim device? Connectivity is the biggest moan seen in most reviews of mobile devices, no matter what operating system they use but the E61 kicks some serious butt in this department (learnt that phrase in Orlando)

Here’s what you get- GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad band) + WCDMA 2100 (that’s 3G to the rest of us). Bluetooth 1.2, GPRS Multishot Class 11, EGPRS Class B, WLAN connection which can be shared by more than one application at one time (e.g. email, web etc.)

IR is still there and whilst seen as old technology today you just never know when you will need it. Support for MMS, Instant Messaging (with inbuilt client for AOL, Yahoo, OMA).

Push Email is there as well and you can choose any option you like- Blackberry Connect, Goodlink, Nokia Business Center and Visto are among a selection of solutions supported.

I can’t see how the connectivity for a device used in Europe could have been made better- the more you read the spec the more you find out and alas a lot of the technical stuff still goes straight past me…

The battery life is wonderful. I haven’t done a techie type test (I have a life you know) but can confirm that it is easily superior to any other Smart Phone I have used and this should be expected with a 1500 mAh pack on board. Quoted times are up to 9.5 hours GSM talk time, 17 days standby time and up to 4.6 hours using VoIP (yes, you can use that as well).

Other specifications include 75MB of fixed ser data memory, a 2Gb miniSD worked perfectly for me as well. 16 million colours are supported by the screen, Caller ID with images, handsfree speaker (which is also the best I have used on a Smart Phone), conference call capabiliy (up o 6 parties) and all of the other features you would expect in a high end mobile phone.

The phone capability is an area where Nokia seem to have a jump on most other Smart Phone manufacturers- the voice part does not feel like a compromise and works to the same level as all other Nokias I have used in the past. The word ‘compromise’ sort of sums up the E61- there are none…

CONCLUSION

It’s obvious that I like the E61 a lot and the more I have used it these past few days the more it has grown on me. It’s very easy to be drawn to a new device just because it is new and to realise a couple of weeks later that your old faithful works better for you. The Treo 650 is still sat in its cradle and will still be my device of choice simply because I can do a lot more with it than the E61 at this time. Once the 3rd party software starts to come out the E61 will show even more potential than it does now.
If I had to compare the E61 to two other devices I would go for the Treo 650 and the KJAM- it’s a bit of a shock to see how they rate (these are purely my opinion and experience with each device)-

Treo 650 v KJAM v Nokia E61

Treo 650 KJAM Nokia E61
Comments
Battery7 5 9
Connectivity5 8 9
Looks4 6 9
Pocketability4 6 8
Speed of use 9 6 8
In built software 8 6 9
Build quality7 7 8
Keyboard9 6 9
Total 59 55 78

(the properly formatted table is in the main news article)

In reality the Treo is way ahead of the KJAM for my personal needs and is an excellent device in almost every respect. The 650 could be described as ugly but that never bothered me until I used the E61 which is also nicer to hold and use for long periods of time. After a few days I even found the keyboard to be a match for the Treos, if anything it is a little bit better but I need longer to be convinced of that.

The lack of 3rd party software is the BIG issue for me at this time and I’m not sure whether to give Clove the unit back or my credit card details (I suspect it will be the latter)

The Nokia E61 is quite simply the best Smart Phone I have ever used. From its build quaility, through to the operating system and finally its flexibility it stands head and shoulders above the rest.

E61 Part Two (the core applications)

Written: 26/05/2006

Today I am going to look at the software applications bundled with the Nokia E61. The first part of the series looked at my first impressions of this potentially remarkable device and if you missed it you can read it here.

The screenshot on the left (or above in the forum) shows a game called Golf Pro which is available for free to all E61 owners- I downloaded my copy using a small net application on the E61 wirelessly and it was a shock to see such good graphics and golf ball physics in a Smart Phone game. Having not played many Symbian games this was a first for me and it easily competes with the Windows Mobile offerings out there, indeed it makes Links look quite poor.

Feedback via the comments link would be useful concerning Symbian games- they seem to be an unknown quantity to a lot of Palm and Windows Mobile users but I am supecting they are a lot better than many of us think.

It was quite a shock to realise that my SIM card is 3G enabled (it is supplied by my work) and the speed is incredible! Again, I should be more up on these things but GPRS has suited me for a long time so far. The E61 includes over 50 icons with various applications and connectivity areas which I have barely scratched the surface of so far. In this article I will look at the main applications and as usual will be comparing to the Palm and Windows Mobile offerings.

The main screen of the E61 is similar to what you would find on a Windows Mobile device. Tasks and upcoming calendar entries are shown along with the time, a row of favourite applications, signal strength, battery level and descriptions for the two hard keys just below the screen (again these hard keys are similar to Windows Mobile 5.0).

Interestingly I have not found a phone key pad screen? Either I am incredibly stupid or there is not one- in any event it does not really matter because dialling contacts is very easy. Just hit the numbers on the keypad and a smll box pops up or use the Contacts application to choose the recipient of your call.

Talking of contacts this application is very basic and a bit of a let down in my opinion. It shows each piece of information for a contact in seperate fields and this can lead to a bit of scrolling- it does allow you t choose exactly how you want to communicate though- email, voice, text etc.
The size of the font in contacts is also quite large and thus you do not get many entries on each screen. There is a screen shot at the end of the article which highlights this.

The calendar application is also very basic but I really do like it. It looks the part, is easy to use and reminds me of the standard Palm calendar except that it looks much more professional and is much easier on the eye- amazing that the two most important applications on an ‘organiser’ are the least well featured but they do the job well.

The built in Web application on the E61 is quite imply the best I have ever seen on a mobile device!!!

It is much quicker than Blazer and as quick as Opera mini using GPRS and I found that it could handle standards neither of the others could. Of personal interest to me is that it can cope with Coranto (our news posting system) which I cannot even get to work on a MAC or a Palm or a Windows Mobile device and at times on a PC

The Web screen on the right shows what happens when you press ‘back’. You get a choice of magnified pages that you have already visited and simply scrolling through them and clicking the one you want will bring it back up- marvellous.

It gets better though- this is the only mobile device web software I have used that gave me a desktop internet feel in my hand. Evenm on a VGA Fujitsu Loox it was never this good. This application alone will be a good reason to purchase for many people…

Also bundled for FREE is a copy of WorldMate which includes world time, weather, currency conversion and of course the famous map. It does not contain all of the features of the Pro version but for free it is a nice to have and considering the unfairly high price of the commercial version it does add value to your purchase.

Navigating around the myriad of icons built in to the E61 is easy and dificult: easy because the joystick and shortcut buttons are so good, difficult because it is similar to the old style Pocket PC environment. It’s a real surprise to find that Symbian is a mix of the Palm and WM interfaces- as quick and stable as Palm with the bells and whistles of WM- sounds like a perfect match doesn’t it?

In many ways it is the best compromise between the two other operating systems and I for one am a fan already. The E61 has a BIG problem at the moment for someone like me who would class himself as a power user. There are ceratin things I need to do with a Smart Phone outside of the core applications. Here’s a list and the current status-

eBooks- nothing available at the moment. eReader does not work on the latest Symbian OS and MobiPocket are trying hard (see this thread).

Movies- is now possible in decent quality thanks to Smart Movie ($30!). I hope that better will come along in the future though.

Finances- Handy Expense has been released but it is not a proper financial application and this is something I really do need.

There are many other things I would like to accomplish with the E61 but because there are so few apps re-developed for it’s OS at this time you have to consider it a device without 3rd party applications. A real shame because in all other respects it is fantastic and no doubt be we fantasticer (new word) when they arrive. Tomorrow I will look at more hardware features such as connectivity and phone capability plus yet more built in software including the wonderful Office applications.

E61 (first impressions)

Written: 25/05/2006

Clove sent me a brand new Nokia E61 today- they are the company that supplies 247 with hardware for reviews at no charge and without expecting anything in return. They do it because they want to support the 247 sites and we very much appreciate the time (and expense) they take to help us out. Make sure they are your first stop for your next PDA or Smart Phone upgrade- you simply cannot get better customer service anywhere else… The Nokia E61 is available unlocked for £300 + VAT from Clove now.

If you are wondering why this series of E61 articles are appearing on all of the 247 sits it’s because we believe it is good to see what the competition is producing.

When I first saw the Nokia E61 at www.nokia.com I was immediately impressed with the look of it. It looked like a Treo with a design that was about 20 years ahead. For me an easily accessable keyboard is a must have following my Treo experiences of the past year and reliability is up near the top of my requirements as well (following my Treo experiences)
Upon opening the box the first thing I noticed about the design was it’s size which is unusual for a Smart Phone. It looks like a PDA and a Phone, it feels like a PDA and a Phone- it’s hard to explain but it works brilliantly. It is heavier at the top than the bottom and this helps make the device feel ultra comfortable in the hand.

The second thing I noticed was the Nokia logo just above the screen- a silly thing to comment on but the thought of a Nokia device in my hand compared to a Palm device gave me a feeling of comfort. My history with standard mobile phones has been dominated by Nokia and their excellent build quality- I have never ventured into the area of Symbian Smart Phones properly so I have no clue on their reliability but I can’t shake that ‘Nokia’ feeling. Peter’s experiences with his new TX, my T5, TX and Treo experiences lead me to believe that Palm have some work to do with regards to build quality. I’m not convinced that Palm has a problem but they could do better in my opinion.

The next thing I noticed was just a daft error by Nokia. Take a look at the photo below and consider the size of the text in the user manual compared to the phone keys. I have very good eyesight but could not read the manual properly- the text is stupidly small and for the life of me I cannot work out why Nokia did this? Even the font is printed badly to make matters worse.

The user manual itself is strange quirk considering the quality of the box, packaging and the equipment itself and I guess it is not that important- it just made me laugh…

With the battery installed (a 1500 mAH job) it is still very light and considerably lighter than the Treo. Some may see the width as an issue but this does give room for a spacious keyboard and a wider screen. The finish looks a bit plasticy but it feels like metal and is as solid as a rock- there are no rattles or noise no matter how much you shake it (don’t tell Clove I did that!).

The screen is fantastic. Perfectly viewable in direct sunlight and very bright- despite the fact I have only been using it for a few hours I have grown attached to the device from a hardware point of view in a very short space of time- heck, I was attached to it in the first 2 minutes.
I won’t go into specifics regarding all of the functions and the interface because I want to take each part in turn after I have used the device for a couple more days- expect the next parts on Monday and Tuesday. What I want to do now though is quickly talk about the keyboard and touchscreen (or lack of).

I LOVE the Treo keyboard- it is a marvel of design and works beautifully despite sitting on a fairly thin device. I can get some excellent speeds out of it and it is perfect for texting, appointment and general navigation around the Palm operating environment.

The E61 keyboard is the next best thing to the Treos. The keys are spaced nicely and despite an initial feeling of no real feedback my typing speeds quickly came close to what I can do on a Treo. The Treo keyboard is helped greatly by a 3rd part hack called KeyCaps650 which takes away the need for shift keys etc. If we see something similar for the E61 they will be as good as each other in my opinion. Shifting and punctuation on the E61 is actually a lot easier in its raw form than on the Treo.

The E61 has no stylus! This was a huge shock for me when I first found out and almost made me disregard it as a proper Smart Phone. For someone who has used touch screen devices for the past 6 years and nothing else it was a big shock to find myself not missing it at all in only a few hours.

The native interface is a bit high on menu layers for my liking but I even forgave this quickly as what I needed to know was on the front screen such as time, battery, signal, calendar appointments and To Dos. There is also a row of most used applications for quick access which comes in handy- I haven’t worked out how to change them yet because I can’t find a spectrum telescope to read the manual

Most worryingly for me was the presence of a small joystick which is used for the majority of navigation. I used to have a T68 and the joystick was awful but Nokia have done a good job with this one and it works well, even with my fat fingers.

As I write the parts of this review I am going to keep an open mind about the Symbian OS- I am a true Palm user because I love the simplicity of the operating system. I am not a fan boy and don’t believe they can do no wrong- they have certainly never helped out 247 in any way (that was proved once by someone in their UK marketing department- “Oh, Palm247. I’m not sure that we can give you devices for review as we can’t be sure what you would say…” I took that as a compliment as it goes to show that we always strive to tell the truth.

My first impression of this latest Symbian release is that it is well thought out and much closer to the Zen of Palm than I expected. It is very different though and I need to make sure I don’t look for replacements to my current 3rd party Palm applications. To be fair there is little chance of me finding any and I will explain why on Monday.

So, to sum up my first impressions I am extremely impressed with the E61 from a hardware point of view- compared to my Treo 650 it has a better screen, nicer design, is much lighter, equivalent keyboard and nothing on the Treo that I can think of beats it, unless you really must have a touchscreen.

After one day (which is a very short time) this device has shown Nokia to have taken great care and attention with the hardware and they should be congratulated for that. Does the E61 have a more practical and better design than any other Smart Phone I have used? Easily…