But times move on, new handsets are released, and inevitably - eventually - a new champion comes along. That new champion, it would seem, is Nokia's E71 - the long-awaited successor to the E61. Why? First, this is a simply gorgeous phone. With a solid metal rear, chrome-trimmed front and flat, almost mirror-finish screen, it's one beautiful piece of design.
And, not only does it look fantastic, but it's also very slim and pocketable. Unlike its E61 predecessor, which was about as broad-shouldered as a phone could get, the E71 is as slim-waisted as an iPhone and 2.3mm thinner, too, at a mere 10mm. It may boast a full QWERTY keyboard, but you can slide it into a pocket and barely notice it. Even the slip case it comes with doesn't add to the bulk too much.
It's a remarkable piece of engineering ergonomically, as well. Cramming a full keyboard into a chassis this narrow is easily enough done, but making it usable is much more of a challenge. Nokia has achieved that and more with the E71: the keys, like the E61 before it, are slightly rubbery so your fingers don't slip off them when you're trying to type; they're slightly domed, so you can press one easily without hitting a neighbouring letter by accident; and the keyboard is blessed with a sensible layout too - important symbols such as the full stop, comma and @ characters are all accessible instantly, without the need to press shift - an ailment all too many other phone keypads are afflicted by.
The keyboard, then, is easily a match for the 8820's excellent offering, but how about the rest of the device? Well, there's no scrolling trackball, but the directional pad above the keyboard is easy to use and works well. If anything, the buttons for picking up and hanging up calls next to the pad are a little on the small side but they're easy to get used to. Combine those with the four well-sized shortcut keys and the pair of soft keys and overall you've got a very comprehensive control cluster.
This phone seems like a mix of couple of mobiles, such as if you closely look at Nokia’s most recent release Nokia C7, you will find a lot of similarity, which means, with this design, the over all theme of phone can be matched to C7 and make it look like a step up from a sequel, rest of the appeal and features look pretty much like Nokia 8800 Luna. RIght now, it might be in appropriate to even comment on the specifications of this mobile, as it is some concept phone by some random person, but it is safe to assume that, this smartphone might run on Meego or Symbian 3 and have a strong sleek camera with atleast 12 mega pixel, it could also have a very powerful processor, such as dual core or something! Well, time shall tell.
