Hello, this is my first post on these forums and I thought Id start by saying hello!
I have been conflicted recently on my latest smartphone purchase. I wanted to have two phones that i enjoy for two reasons. One is that I want to be able to switch between them when i feel like mixing it up, and I also wanted two just incase the other bugs out on me or is lost. I have been into Nokia's ever since my first cellphone and have been a loyal Nokia user ever since. I have tried others in between, but have always come back to my comfort zone. I purchased the E62 recently from Cingular and loved it. But as a lot of you know it had big problems. Besides Cingular's crippling of its uses, it decided to die on me. So I needed a new phone in a pinch. I was up for an upgrade so I decided to go in a new direction and I got the cool little Blackberry Pearl. I was super excited at first. I thought the little thing was sharp looking, and I really liked the trackball. The suretype keyboard was not as bad as i thought and even grew to love it, but i couldn't help but notice how much I missed my big bright and beautiful screen on my E62. I sent my phone to Nokia to get it repaird, but I wasnt sure if when I got it back, I would be willing to put up with some of the shortcomings that would make me want to use it instead of my new pearl. So i decided i wanted to upgrade to another full Qwerty device with a big screen, but i wanted all the bells and whistles this time. After much research (I considered Palm, but the windows mobile touchscreen wasnt for me). I even thought about that new iphone, which looks cool, but i think it is more flashy than practical, and I have a 60gb mp3 player from Creative already.So I narrowed it down to two devices... the Blackberry Curve (which will be coming soon and looks sweet!) and the new Nokia E61i (unlocked). The Curve is what i wanted more at first, since i have been slowly, but surely warming up to RIM's interface and style, and it seemed to merge the best of their last two devices (the Pearl and the 8800) seamlessly. But once the laquer wore off that idea, I soon realized that I still miss some very cool things about my Nokia (like the Symbian software!) and would I be longing for them if i went all BlackBerry? That's when I read more into the Nokia E61i and realized it has what I longed for on my E62 (WiFi, 2mp Camera/Video, sleeker build, more solid using steel vs. alluminum, D-pad replacing joystick) and didn't have the Cingular branded shortcomings as well. And since I have Blackberry Connect Email I can still use it on this phone! I read countless reviews and am confident i mad the right choice. Im sure the Blackberry Curve will be a head turner when it debuts this spring, but with my big, bright and beautiful E61i I will feel more at home. Besides, I always have my pearl when I want to go small! 😉
Peace!
K
What led me to the Nokia E61i
Dunno about the Curve, or BB's in general (I don't use mobile email) - but I've just acquired an e61i and I'm loving it.
Only serious criticism is the lack of a hard-numlock for the numberpad - but otherwise, it does exactly what it says on the packet ... and very nicely, at that.
What I'd have on my hardware wishlist is more screen res - since it's a huge available area - and with 600 x 400 would have been the sexiest mother on the block.
The build is fantastic and the QWERTY's quite managable.
Perfect for reading my saved web pages (which saves me a ton of time at home - since I can read the cr*p out and about with the sublime MobiPocketReader (Swiss font) ).
Now the new Opera's on it's way, it'll be unstoppable.
It's deffo a reading device, rather than the uber-MM device that is the N95-8.