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Those nice people at WOM have just sent me an E63 to trial just got to put it on charge and take my Dog for his morning run and then i will be starting with some pictures and my review. No pictures of retail box or documents or Manuals as i haven't received any as it's just being launched today. Also i have been informed this isn't a final production model so will need to take that into account to. More to follow in the next couple of hours.
Marc
Last edited by Dogmann : 11-11-2008 at 06:07.
Reason: Change title
__________________
whats the similarity between a marriage and a mobile phone?
In both cases, you feel that had you waited a little longer you could have got a better model
Sorry can't answer any questions or post pictures until tomorrow as that is when the E63 is launched just received a phone call fro WOM asking me to wait.
Sorry can't answer any questions or post pictures until tomorrow as that is when the E63 is launched just received a phone call fro WOM asking me to wait.
All i can say so far is it's very good!
Marc
Marc, looking forward to your thoughts on the E63. I'm interested since you have been so critical and unimpressed with the E71 compared to the E90 and now your Bold. Since you say that it's very good I'm interested in what's improved or changed from the E71. Hopefully you post at midnight so we aren't waiting so long to read the review.
So OK now i can reveal what i think of the new Nokia E63 and really all i can say is WOW and believe me I'm not normally or easily impressed.
So this is the apparently non luxury version of the E71 well I'm not so sure as whilst it may not have the luxury feel of an all metal construction it is far from feeling cheap. The back is made of the same rubberized material that the original N95's had and is something i really like as it has a great tactile feel. The front is made of hard plastic but the paint is slightly metallic so looks nothing short of great.
One of the first things you notice is the lack of any buttons on the outside case separating the two halves is a Black band that goes all the way round the phone and in this we find on the left hand side two flaps. One is for the Micro USB port the other is for your memory card then on the right hand side top of the phone we have the 3.5mm jack point. This has a little stopper in it that i would imagine those of us that will use it will just remove and put back in the box. Those that may not wish to use it can just leave it in place.
My trial unit is the Red version although how i would describe the Red is hard other than it looks really nice. Here are some pictures of how the Red E63 looks.
Now on to how the E63 performs and please remember the unit i have is not even a final production unit which IMO makes my findings even better.
The unit i have have shows the following information for firmware.
100.21.75
26-09-2008
RM 437
Nokia E63-1 (01)
Turning on the E63 takes just 24 seconds to being ready for use and after an initial charge i proceeded to sync a years worth of Calender entries my contacts and my Mobile Internet Bookmarks. As with all recent Nokia's once you attach it to your computer and start PC Suite it installs the necessary drivers so your good to go. This first sync took less then 15 minutes with nearly 4,000 Calender entries i then installed Handy TaskMan and ScreenSnapS60. The next thing i did was to add my Wireless Network and install Seven Push E-Mail both of these were quick and easy to do.
The E63 with Seven running in the background is showing 71.7mb of free Ram and the whole device reacts really fast there is no lag in anything you won't to do even the thumbnail pictures in the Gallery refresh fast.
The biggest improvement and major change between the E63 and the E71 is the addition of a 3.5mm jack as this means using your own headphones to listen to Music is easy and no longer requires a silly adapter. Now whilst this isn't the hardest thing to overcome i know many users find this very annoying and really at this time when so many devices make such good portable Music players there really is no reason not to have a 3.5mm jack point. The E63 as a Music player is really good both through my Shure EC2g ear phones or even over the E63's built in speaker with my Music encoded @256kbps AAC. Through ear phones the sound is excellent there is volume to spare and it delivers a nice full rich sound with good definition and is lacking nothing to be used as your portable Music player. Video is the same as on the E71 and a little fussy but well encoded material plays very well.
I have also noticed the blurring of the lines between E and N series and was pleasantly surprised to find not only Share Online, Music Store and Podcasting in the Media Menu. But also Ovi Files and although their is no GPS built in the E63 it does have Maps, GPS Data and Landmarks included and just requires a Bluetooth receiver to be added.
Really there isn't much else to say as everything else is the same as found on the E71. The one big difference i have noticed having been away from S60 for a couple of months. Is the greatly improved download apps available as from having a really sparse choice it is now full of goodies. Personally i tend to only install the things i really want and need but there is a great choice of some really good apps in their now.
I haven't used the Camera yet but when i do i will upload some pictures for you to judge but to be honest a 2 megapixel Camera on a E series device I'm not expecting anything then it being good for the odd snap. The only other thing i have noticed is no animations on the menus they are as they are although I'm not really sure how useful this really was besides being a bit of eye candy.
Now the $64,000 question if i was in the market for one what would i buy the E71 or the E63? Well for me the inclusion of the 3.5mm jack is worth more than the better Camera and all metal body as i will get more use out of this than the others benefit me. With the just announced retail price of 199 Euros i think the E63 is nothing short of unbelievable and incredible value for money. Especially as all my devices go into a good leather case the difference in build materials is less noticeable and as i said the 3.55 jack is worth more to me than the build material or better Camera and GPS.
I was going to show some screen shots but decided as they look no different to what we have seen on the E71 it isn't really worth it other than how the Downloads now look.
Sorry one last thing i forgot to mention their is new symbol on the space key and this turns on the Camera light so it can be used as a torch and it's very bright to.
11-11-2008, 06:01
Linear Mode
