E61i : First Impressions and Built Quality

Few days have passed since I’ve received the E61i and honestly I’m so impressed by this solid device.I received it while I was in the uni and all my friends were asking me,what the heck is that,you’ve got a calculator this time?As I mentioned in my previous post none have seen it in real life before,no wonder cos people here rarely use these devices.Now it’s about the E61i everybody asking from me and ohh my brand new N95 8GB is been forgotten by all of them.When showed both N95 8GB and the E61i,and asked them which one do you prefer and surprisingly most of my colleagues sayd their choice is the E61i,its the looks not the features they’ve concerned about.Being a real eyeopener it truly deserves such comments.Even I feel its better than the 8GIG,sometimes especially when it comes to jot down blog posts.Not only the QWERTY keypad,its the build quality of this keypad that impresses me.Actually the whole device is made into a one piece of rock solid gadget and no one would ever regret on buying one,it’s that steady and designed to give a very good physical feedback while you are holding it in your hand.The massive display is Ideal for reading and watching movies,most of all superbly adapted for web surfing.Front face plate around the display looks like its made out of metal but it is also a nice piece of plastic work.The only metal part is the battery cover and it goes well with the rest of the plastic design.Unlike many other Nokia smartphones the start button is placed in the front side and I found it to be more easier than the others.In the other end we can see the light indicator and not like the one in the N80, this can be used for notifications.In the left side it has 3 white plastic keys,two for volume and the other one to activate the voice recorder.The mono speaker and the unprotected camera without flash are big let downs,but for a business device its acceptable.At last the best physical aspect of this beauty is the keypad and the D pad.The D pad on E61i is the best of its kind I’ve ever used and though it’s bit smaller for an average adult,the feedback is superb.with its beveled edges it grips well to the thumb and the middle button is also very responsive.Selection keys and the 2 shortcut keys which allow easy access to email and contacts are perfectly arranged and placed along with the menu key and the customizable own key.And there are so many things to say about the QWERTY layout and I’ll be covering it in my next post.Apart from the phone itself the pouch that came with the package is a nice solution keep the device safely and the phone fits well inside it,so no worries on dropping it anymore.