I am on the look for a new cell phone, and now that the Nokia E60 and E70 are out, I went to the shop to had a close look at them, and one thing I can say up front is that they’re both quite okay for people who like Series 60 (v3) phones and all the colourful navigation stuff you (have to) do with them. I personally don’t really care as long as I can quickly learn to find my way, and as long as the physical aspects of navigation are okay and responsive (which rules out Sony Ericsson for me).
With that I can start at one difference between the two E series phones: the navigation nipple on the E60 seems a lot easier to use than on the E70. That said, the two phones are otherwise very similar under the hood (see this link for details, in the following are only the points I consider important):
- both are triple-band with WCDMA support.
- both come with bluetooth, infrared, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, and WLAN (incl. WPA/WPA2 and EAP support).
- both have a VoIP client, though the store manager didn’t know for sure whether I could connect to a SER (SIP express router) on the ‘Net over a WLAN connection. They say that you can connect to a local gatekeeper [0]_, so I’d assume it’s possible, but that’s something to try out; read on…
- both can assign ring tones per contact. Nokia heard my cries…
- both can reuse my 6230’s battery and charger. This is really a major selling point of Nokia — all of their phones have the same charger, and batteries are compatible across many!
- both run Series 60 v3, Symbian OS 9.1, which is somewhat outdates (9.2) is current, but it does give you “improvements in the OS [which] mean that applications and content, and therefore a developers investment, are better protected than ever.” (Wikipedia). Boy am I glad!
- both can run ScummVM, meaning I can play all of the best games ever released! If this is not a selling point for a business phone, what is?
Obvious differences include:
- the E60 has no camera, while the E70 comes with a 2 megapixel one. I am actually not sure whether this is a plus or a minus, given that it is nice to have a camera handy when your life isn’t all cubicles and security-conscious companies.
- the E70 sports a keyboard that you can fold out (as does the 6822). Unfortunately, here in Switzerland, all they offer is a QWERTZ version, which I’ll avoid if at all possible. I don’t think I’ll be using the phone for “working” (as in word processing or spreadsheet editing; who does?), and I avoid SMS when I can, so even though the keyboard is certainly cool qand usable, I won’t draw too much benefit.
- the E70 seems to have better battery life (according to the specs), but that’s something that can be addressed with a more powerful battery, I’d say (plus, I can use my 6230 battery with both).
- the E60 is 3 cm³ smaller and weighs 10 grammes less than the E70. That said, it’s still a lot bigger than the 6230 I now have.
You can compare the specs of the two phones as well as the 6822 (which is like the E70 in some ways, but without WLAN and VoIP) at this link.
Oh, and then there’s the Motorola A910, which runs Linux, comes in a little heavier and at about the same volume as the E60, doesn’t include infrared support, and doesn’t seem to provide a VoIP client, which I’d say is less of a problem given the Linux basis. Unfortunately, it does not seem to available in Switzerland.
Together with a contract extension, I can get either of the E series phones at about half the street price. In addition, the shop manager told me he’d allow me to return the phone within three days if it didn’t meet my expectations. All of this, and the above combined makes me want to sleep for another night, and then try out the E60 over the weekend.
I have to make a decision whether to prolong my contract by 24 months, or only 12 months and pay CHF 100 more for the phone. That comes down to around 5€/month, which is around 10% of my monthly bill. Given that I was always happy with Sunrise as provider, it would seem natural to bind myself for 24 months. However, prices are expected to drop substantially over the next year, and I am not sure whether a provider could lock you in to an existing contract, even if the government ordered a price decrease. So in the light of the expected availability of more and enhanced WLAN phones, such as the Motorola A910, I think a 12 month contract will be the better choice.
.. [0] “gatekeeper” is an H.323 term and I brought it up in the conversation : because I am new to SIP and, well… He said it would be able to connect to a company-internal “thing, like a Cisco router,” so this leads me to assume it will be able to connect to any SER out there. Thanks to Mark Brown for bringing this to my attention.
