Blackberry ... oh wait Nokia E63 (Nokia E63)

Member Name: f1ndl0w

Product:	Nokia E63
Date:	09/05/09 (803 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Battery Life, Reliable, Well Built

Disadvantages: No games included (but you can download for free anyway).

For most people when they first see this phone "Blackberry" comes to mind, having a distinctive QWERTY keyboard and landscape display, contrary to Nokia's typical "candy bar" form factor. But upon taking a closer look it is clear that this is a Nokia, built like any other, just with a few more buttons. Overall I would say that the build quality is excellent, when holding it in your hand it feels solid & well built, with no creaks or gaping holes for dust to get in. The battery cover even has a little switch to release it (basically the whole of the back of the phone), which means that the catches' don't wear down over time - a problem I have had with other phones, whereby the battery cover would just fall off.
The keyboard is fully backlit, so using it in the dark is no problem whatsoever, and another neat feature is a light sensor (above the display) that ensures the keyboard is only lit up when it needs to be, so it isn't wasting the battery during the daytime.
One of the major selling points of this phone for me was the excellent connectivity, having all the things you have come to expect from phones nowadays (3G, Bluetooth), and additionally Wi-Fi. This allows for you to connect to the outside world virtually anywhere, and usually at a high speed. The Wi-Fi seems to be integrated excellently, it works by allowing you to define Access Points, and then each time an application requires Internet Access (assuming you haven't set a default) it will allow for you to chose either your mobile operators network, or Wi-Fi (assuming the access points are available).
Naturally, with a phone that has such great connectivity as this one a decent web browser is a must. Nokia's built in one I find is excellent, it is based on the "webkit" rendering engine, which basically means that most websites designed for the iPhone will work with this. It allows for you to easily navigate around even the most demanding pages, and even supports flash!
This phone is generally marketed as a Business Phone, and as a result the camera isn't that great. It is 2 megapixel, and takes Ok looking photos, but doesn't have any features such as auto focus. In all honesty the pictures from it look fine until you compare them to one from a "proper" digital camera, at this point you notice that the colours are dark and inaccurate (even in sunlight).
To make up for this the E63 has an excellent messaging app, combining SMS, MMS and Email all into one place. It is possible to setup this phone (using a built in wizard) with your email accounts and have it automatically check them, additionally sending any type of message is simple - all having the same unified interface, so there is no confusion over what you are doing.
The E63 run's the Symbian S60 OS, one that is well polished out, and works very well. On this phone it is very quick and operates without delay (probably due to the huge 126MB of RAM!). There are no real complaints about this, other than the pre-loaded themes are a bit too business-like for me, but more can easily be downloaded.
The phone comes with a large number of built in applications, ranging from Internet Radio to a fully functional Office Suite! There are too many to list everything you can do but here are some functions: Office Suite, Dictionary, Bluetooth Keyboard (yes, you can use a full keyboard with this), Zip ([un]zipping files), Printers (can also print from your phone!), Adobe PDF, Real Player, Flash Player, and even an app to upload your photo's to the web (i.e. flickr).
In addition to everything that is included there is a huge library of software available, ranging from the sensible (games) to the things you never thought you could do with a mobile phone (FTP Client).

Summary: Great phone if you are more concerned about communication than a camera!

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