Nokia E66
Discontinued 16th June 2008
A straightforward replacement for the
Nokia
E65, the new Nokia E66 is a 3.5G, WiFi
enabled Symbian slider with built-in GPS.
The Nokia E66, as with the E65, is really
aimed at business users. But the old E65 was a surprise
hit with consumers too.. so can the Nokia E66 follow
suit?
This is not the only GPS-enabled slider
phone in Nokia's range, and the E66 is very similar
in specification to the Nokia
6210 Navigator that was announced a couple
of months ago. More of this later.
A
quick run-down of the features show that the E66 is
a pretty capable device. There's a 2.4" QVGA display,
3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, video
calling, HSDPA data (with download speeds of up to 3.6
Mbps), WiFi, microSD expandable memory, it comes with
an FM radio, Bluetooth, USB and infra-red connectivity
and on top of that it runs the Symbian S60 operating
system which gives the E66 a number of useful applications.
The main differences between the Nokia
E66 and the 6210 Navigator are that the E66 has WiFi
and the 6210 does not, but the 6210 is a little lighter
and more colourful. The software on the E66 is more
business oriented, and it has a longer battery
life. Both handsets are roughly the same price. So..
it seems that the E66 competes very well with the 6210
and it might well out-compete it in the consumer market.
The usual E-series applications are
on the E66: push email support (including with Microsoft
Exchange), a capable web browser and a set of personal
information management functions. The E66 doesn't appear
to have a document viewer as standard, although there
is a large amount of S60 software available for download.
As with the old E65, it is possible to integrate the
E66 into a corporate PABX system.
Internal memory is 110 MB, expandable
up to 8GB with microSD cards. Maximum talktime is 3.5
hours on 3G, 7.5 hours on GSM. The E66 has Bluetooth
2.0, USB and infra-red connectivity. It's nice to see
some handsets still have infra-red!
There are only a few drawbacks that
we can see with the E66 - one of them is that any kind
of GPS / SatNav system is pretty miserable if you don't
have a touchscreen. Talktime is a little short for a
business phone, and it's not all that cheap at around
€350 (£280 / $550) before tax and subsidy.
There will be three UMTS variants depending
on region, in two colours (Grey Steel and White Steel).
Nokia indicate that the E66 should be available from
July 2008 onwards.
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Nokia
E66 at a glance
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Available:
|
Q3
2008
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Network:
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GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
+ UMTS 900/2100 or 850/1900
or 850/2100
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Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
+ WiFi
|
Screen:
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240
x 320 pixels, 16m colours
|
Camera:
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3.2
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Medium-large
slider 108 x 50 x 14mm
/ 121 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
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microSD
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Infra-red:
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Yes
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
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Java:
|
Yes
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GPS:
|
Yes
(A-GPS)
|
Battery
life:
|
7.5
hours talk / 11 days standby
(GSM) 3.5 hours talk
/ 14 days standby (3G)
|
|
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