One handset that I have been very eager to get my grubby mitts on is the Nokia E61. This is Nokia’s first bar-style handset with a QWERTY keypad, and has a spec sheet that certainly aims to impress. Lucky me, the UPS man showed up on my doorstep this morning with a package containing a shiny new E61, click on to read my initial impressions/review, and post any questions you may have in the comments.

First things first, the Nokia E61 feels nice in the hand. I have used Blackberry devices in the past, and this thing blows them away in every way. The E61 is thin, and relatively light for a device of its calibre, and overall it gives an impression of a device smaller than what it actually is. Before this morning’s delivery, I had only briefly played with the E61 at trade shows, and I was a little concerned about one-handed usage. I am pleased to say that I have no problem using the device one handed, and am able to reach all keys with ease with my moderately sized hands.

One thing that surprised me was the feel of the keys when pressed. The look of the device seems to indicate a very firm feel, which is quite far from the truth. In use, the keys have quite a spongy feel that does take a little time to get used to. After a little use though, the keys feel nice, and my typing speed is slowly getting faster.

The memory card slot is in a bit of an awkward place, located beneath the battery cover at the side of the handset. Thankfully, the miniSD card is hot swappable, and you don’t have to remove the battery to get to it.

When first turning on the device, the screen will really daunt you. It is large, bright, colourful, and of a high resolution. This is great stuff, and one of the best screens I have seen on a smartphone in a while. The screen is particularly useful when using the built in Web Browser, which I will get to later.

To the untrained eye, there are few differences between the S60 v2 interface as seen on previous Nokia smartphones and this v3 version. One thing that is very noticeable however, is the speed of operation. This is easily the fastest S60 smartphone that I have ever used, beating even the much-loved 6630.

The software bundle with the E61 is impressive. All the regulars are here, including the calendar, to-do, notes, and contact management applications. These are all similar to the old S60 v2 apps, and work great, so I won’t get into it too much. What I will mention though, is the exceptional handling of office formats. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and even Zip files are all handled natively, and all give results very similar to their desktop equivalents. Two applications that stand out from the pack are the Web Browser and WorldMate.

I’m sure anyone reading this blog has seen the features of the S60 v3 Web Browser. This great app handles regular web sites on the internet with ease, and navigation is aided with the Mini Map feature - which gives a thumbnail view of the whole page. The joystick can be used as a mouse pointer in this application, which further aids navigation.

The WorldMate application allows you too specify what city you are currently in, and give you information such as the local weather forecast, currency exchange rates, and full world time information. The information is updated over any of the phones data connections, and the E61 comes with a three-year subscription to the service. Excellent for frequent travellers

The WiFi connectivity was easy to set up, and I was surfing and getting email over a WEP encrypted 802.11g connection in no time. The Nokia E61 supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption. IMAP, POP, and SMTP work a treat over WiFi, though I have not had a chance to test the device with a push email service.

Overall, I am really happy with the E61 so far. It does have its share of ‘early firmware’ quirks. An interesting bug that I have noticed is that the forward slash and question mark keys on the keypad have been switched on my unit, meaning that when I want to input a slash, I have to press the question mark, and vice versa. This proved quite confusing for a start. At the end of the day though, this is a handset that I may stick with for more than the two weeks I average with phones these days.