Nokia E63 Review

Software:

Even though this is the first E-series model that isn’t business-oriented, the E63 is by no means dull.    It runs on Symbian 9.2 with Feature Pack 1, just like the E71. The option of switching between two modes is also present here, reminding us of the fact that the E63 can easily turn into a business assistant. As such, it offers perfect organizer functions; phonebook, e-mail client and Internet browser. The last one lets you check your favorite page, and for a fast connection you can use either the 3G or Wi-Fi network. According to Nokia, the E63 is designed to use the Internet or to access social networks and we were eager to find out what options it packs for this. We were surprised to see that it actually supports a Facebook “application”, though it has to be downloaded additionally. We put it in quotes intentionally, as this application is nothing more than a shortcut that opens the mobile version of the site in the browser. While it is very useful, since Nokia is advertising that the phone is for the social networks addicts it would have been better to equip it with a real, optimized application like we see on the Xperia X1.


What the E-series phones aren’t good at is multimedia. Is the E63 better, since it is targeted at the general consumer and not the business crowd? As you would expect, Symbian’s standard media player is used, which is really good, but this time a 3.5mm jack for headphones is also on board. This is a very welcome addition, because in contrast to the decent loudspeaker the headphones from the package perform rather poorly. When we plugged in a nice pair, everything came into order. There are no surprises considering the video playback quality - it’ll be top-notch when you play MP4/H.264 clips with QVGA resolution, as long as you don’t mind the relatively small size of the 2.4” display.  The E63 downgrades the already poor 3.2 megapixel camera found on the E71 to an equally poor 2MP shooter, though it does snap pictures quickly.