Nokia E63 review – No GPS
Thumbs Up:
Nokia E63 features 3G support, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, QWERTY keyboard and complete email capabilities. It is a budget friendly unlocked smartphone.
Thumbs Down:
It does not have GPS and dedicated volume control buttons. Its call quality needs improvement. Moreover, the camera does not produce good quality pictures.
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: 3G support, 2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Nokia E63 has 110MB internal memory and one micro-SD card slot that supports maximum 8GB cards. The operating system is Symbian OS 9.2 Series 60 3.1 Edition.
2.36 inches LCD display of Nokia E63 is based on TFT technology. It has 320×240 pixels resolution that supports 24-bit (16.7 million) colors. The E63 has 2-megapixel camera that features CMOS optical sensor and self timer delay. The still image formats are JPEG and EXIF. The smartphone has still image resolution of 1600×1200. Supported video recording formats include H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG4 and 3GP. Its video recorder resolutions are QVGA 320×240 and QCIF 176×144.
The additional features of Nokia E63 are Macromedia Flash support, Zip Manager support, XHTML based Nokia Web browser, Text-to-speech (text recognition), Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, IEEE 802.11b/g, VoIP client, PDF support, HSCSD, Class 32 EDGE, Class 32 GPRS, SMS Cell Broadcast, and support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP. The smartphone supports Java MIDP 2.0.
Essential features of Nokia E63 include speakerphone, caller ID, voice recorder, conference call capability, call timer, voice dialing, polyphonic ring-tones, vibrate mode, metric and currency converter, basic calculator, reminder, calendar and alarm clock.
Nokia E63 supports speech codec of EFR, AMR and FR. Supported digital audio formats are WAV, MP3 and WAV. In addition, the smartphone supports digital video playback formats of MPEG4, RealVideo plus RealAudio, H.263 video and AMR audio, and 3GP.
Nokia E63 has two connectors: one for 3.5mm headset jack – mini-phone and micro-USB. It has 1500mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 660 minutes of talk time and 480 hours of standby time. Accessories included inside the package are user manual, wired headset and power adapter.
Razzle Dazzle:
Nokia E63 is 4.4 inches tall, 2.3 inches wide and 0.5 inch deep and it weighs 4.4 ounces. It is a bit thicker than Nokia E71. The smartphone is available in blue and red colors. Our test model had blue color. It looks like consumer specific attractive device. The E63 has solid built and it gives comfortable feel while taking in hand. It has non-slippery texture due to soft finish on its back.
Inside Dope:
The famous Nokia E Series smartphones are business centric handsets. This phone costs $279 and it is very less other unlocked smartphones like $500 Nokia E71. Despite the low cost, the E63 offers Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, QWERTY keyboard, with every productive and messaging features. Nokia E63 will face tough competition with the $99.99 priced Nokia E71x from AT&T. Moreover, the call quality of the E73 is average. If you do not want an agreement with any carrier and need an unlocked and non-touch smartphone, then we would recommend you the Nokia E63.
2.36 inches non-touch LCD display has a resolution of QVGA 320×240 pixels that supports 16 million colors. The bright and vibrant display features light sensing for adjusting the brightness as per the surroundings. We could not see the display clearly in some lighting conditions and colors looked washed out in sunlight. You can customize the menu layout (list or grid), font size, theme and background image on the Home Screen.
Nokia E73 offers two different modes: Business and Personal. You can access work tools like file manager, Web and email in the Business Mode. Personal mode will provide instant access to messages, Web and multimedia libraries. If you do not like the Personal mode then you can simply switch to other mode by pressing a button.
The navigation array sits beneath the display and consists of Talk key, End key, four-way toggle with center select button and four shortcuts for Messages, Contacts, Calendar and Home. The QWERTY keyboard of Nokia E63 is located beneath the array. It looks like the E71’s keyboard, but it has little differences. You will find more keys in the bottom row, which results in small space bar. The individual keys are larger and deliver good typing experience. Keys feel little mushy and soft on pressing.
Micro-SD card slot and micro-USB port are located on the left side of Nokia E63. Unlike the E71, you will not get user-defined shortcuts and volume controls on the E63. While using media player, you can change the volume using toggle. Detachable cover protected 3.5mm headset jack sits on the top, whereas power connector is located on the bottom.
Unlike the E71, Nokia E63 does not have GPS and compromised to have 2-megapixel camera instead of 3.2-megapixel one. We captured few images through it for testing. In natural light, the colors looked good and photos were clear. In other lighting conditions, the images were looking washed out and gray even using flash. The recorded video quality was also same. Overall, the image clarity was good.
Nokia E63 features Flash Lite enabled Nokia Web browser, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Quick-office, and other multimedia and email capabilities. You will also get full-screen option in the Web browser. The Bluetooth profile supports object push, file transfer, dial-up networking and stereo profile. You can also pair Bluetooth enabled GPS receiver with the E63 for taking GPS benefits.
We made few calls through quad-band based Nokia E63 for testing. The overall call quality was average. We received loud and clear sound at our end with little distortion and background noise. The callers received some audio cuts occasionally at their end. Some of them also received choppiness and static. The speakerphone call quality was impressive and good. Both of us could hear conversations without any problem. We did not get any problem while pairing Bluetooth headsets from Motorola S9 and Logitech Mobile traveler.
Nokia E63 supports 3G bands of AT&T 850/1900, but does not support 3G network of T-Mobile. Using AT&T network, we browsed some Web sites. Microsoft.com loaded completely in 30 seconds and a Google search completed in 10 seconds. YouTube video clips buffered quickly before playback and then played without any further buffering. The streaming video quality was good.
Nokia E63 has 1500mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 11 hours of talk time and 18 days of idle standby time in GSM. In addition, the battery life is 40 minutes talk time and 20 days of idle standby time in HSDPA. The digital SAR is 1.24 watts per kg as per FCC radiation tests.
Nitty Gritty:
Nokia E63 is a budget-friendly unlocked smartphone, but sacrifices some features like GPS and dedicated volume controls the low cost. Its camera and call quality needs improvement. If you do not want an agreement with any carrier and need an unlocked and non-touch screen smartphone, then you can buy Nokia E63.
