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Nokia E66 Smartphone: All Work (And Some Play, Too)
2:43 PM EDT Fri. Jun. 20, 2008
The E66 is a slider-phone that is available in grey steel or white steel. At 4.23 x 1.95 x 0.54 inches and 4.26 ounces, it is comfortable to hold. A majority of the front panel is taken up by the 2.4-inch, 240 x 320-pixel screen. Below the display is a sleek silver array of buttons with the standard green and red talk and hang up keys on the bottom. When the phone is in use, icons hidden within the silver buttons illuminate with shortcuts to the home screen, contact list, calendar and e-mail. There are also two soft-keys and a square five-way directional pad.
The back of the phone houses a 3.2- megapixel camera with a flash. As with other Nokia phones we've tested, when the camera is active the phone can be held in a horizontal position, which places the user's finger right over the shutter release button. The camera mode also has customizable settings found on single-purpose digital cameras, such as color tone and white balance, among other functions.
Although a little dark, reviewers found the pictures taken with the E66 to be better than average for a phone camera. Colors were accurate, and the autofocus worked well. The video camera functionality also shot nice movies, with sound.
As the big selling point of the E series, e-mail capability was of particular interest—and the E66 didn't disappoint. With an easy-to-use wizard interface, the E66 can be configured to access almost any type of mail server. Supported protocols include IMAP4, Mail for Exchange, POP3 and SMTP. We successfully connected to each type of account with no problem and were soon receiving and sending e-mail. Even a connection to our Exchange server took no time at all to set up and use.
Sound quality was loud and clear with no echo or noticeable static, and people on the other end of the call reported similar findings. In addition, the speakerphone worked well. During our battery tests, we received exactly three hours of talk-time before a recharge was necessary.
Browsing the Web was as good as could be expected on a phone. Web pages displayed nicely and scrolling with the five-way pad was intuitive. Besides using the cellular provider's data network, the E66 supports 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi connectivity. There are also various sync options, including a host of Bluetooth 2.0 profiles and infrared support.
Aside from the business-centric features, the E66 boasts integrated GPS and navigation, a music player that supports AAC, AAC+, MP3, AMR-NB and AMR-WB, as well as .eAAC+ and RealPlayer streaming, voice dialing and recording, and an FM radio.
The E66 provides a nice balance between features a businessperson would need on a daily basis and some media functionality for the occasional break time. It is a stylish-looking, comfortable phone to use and is a good addition to the current line of Nokia devices.
