layout: post title: Nokia E61 First Impressions created: 1161551550 categories:

• Nokia
• Nokia E61
• Nokia N95
• Nokia N80
• iSync
• Canada
• Mac
• Wireless, Cellular, and Mobile

Yes, I finally got a new cellphone. My Nokia 6630 lasted me 2 years, and has been a great phone. But, I'm finding the need for a smartphone -- calendar, to do's, and email at my fingertips. Hence, sticking with my favourite platform, the Nokia E61 was the best choice for me. If I wanted to do more multimedia with my phone, I would have held out for the Nokia N95, with 5Mp camera and integrated GPS, including geotagging of photos on the fly. *drool* If I had wanted a phone with camera in the same price range as the E61, my pick would have been the Nokia N80 (which is what Kris just picked up to replace his Sidekick).

Regardless...I will miss having a cameraphone. I'll have to see what kind of camera or picture taking workflow will make it easy to still upload photos on the fly.

Even better, I didn't even have to travel to Europe to actually buy the phone. I got it at Cellular Baby, just a few blocks from my house.

My first impression of the phone: fast! The UI is very responsive, and it comes loaded with applications. I haven't had much of a chance to add extra applications. I'll be putting Opera on, even though the built in browser is surprisingly usable in some ways.

But of course, does it work with Macs? Well, it's not officially supported by iSync. I used this post to add an entry to the plist file to trick iSync into working with it.

I really like the keyboard. It's a compact QWERTY keyboard, and I've already sent several test emails from it. Oh, and of course, it does have wifi. There is a hotspot finder that makes it easy to scan for connections and then create an access point / connect, without having to predefine them.

More soon, as I add some more apps.