e61 - You take one look at the E61, and you’re not thinking smartphone. You’re thinking that this is Nokia’s move to take on the perceived might of the Research in Motion Blackberry devices, and the popular Palm Treo. And you’re probably right. At some point, the smartphone stops becoming a phone, and in fact becomes a PDA. Nokia have been pushing this envelope with the Exxx series of phones, and with the E61 it’s crossed the line. So what we have here is a pocket computer with a QVGA screen at 320x240 (landscape mode, another S60 first), that comes bundled with 52 applications. 53 if you count the ability to make and receive voice calls. That’s a lot of power in what is clearly the ‘standard’ PDA format. Let’s go with the physical handset and making voice calls first – after all it is sold as a smartphone. To get the keyboard into the device, this is one of the widest Nokia phones out there. On a practical point of view, it means that you’re struggling to move the E61 to get the best volume from the earpiece, and that sliding around puts a lot of grease onto the screen. Sound quality is more than adequate though, and there have been no complaints from people I’ve been talking to. When you’re on the dial screen, the highlighted keys for the numbers will give you the numbers without having to change the preferred text entry mode (very useful, even though it’s a simple touch). Compare this with the hard to differentiate green and red call/hang up keys that are both directly under the two S60 standard soft keys, and have the same shape and styling of icon. It’s not clear at all which key does what.