First impressions of the Nokia E66

Does your phone 'breathe'? Does it know which way is up? Introducing, the Nokia E66, which is not yet available in Australia. It is Nokia's latest tribute to the crowd favourite, the Nokia E65. At MyE65, we will have the opportunity to get our hands on some of Nokia's latest instalments and today we play with one of Australia's only Nokia E66 handsets. The idea of this post is not to do a complete review... there are plenty of websites that do that. I'll give you the gut reaction of a E65 user to the phone and spend less time on the technical details (though sometimes I can't help it).

First of all, what does it look like? Rather than put up a lousy picture of the phone, have a look at it here from the Nokia site. First impressions..

The phone design looks very clean and polished and with a stylish back cover. However, the E65 slider is much more solid and defined than the E66. The slider on the E66 is similar to the old 6280 sliders and they had a reputation for weakening over time. It is slightly lighter than the E65. The keypad is better than the E65's which took some getting used to, to figure out where the keys were.

In the excitement of trying to get this phone to work, I found it took me a while to figure out how to open the back and get the battery in! Refusing to check the manual, I pulled, twisted, fingered, slid and finally relented and pulled out the manual. Apparently you need to squeeze the sides and the cover will pop up a little like the bonnet of a car. Just like any good gadget, it keeps you guessing.

All is forgiven when you look at some of what's new with the E66. Let's look specifically at what makes this phone E-class.

After opening the box, one of the first things that will put a smile to your face browsing the features is how you can silence your E66. When the phone rings, tap it twice while its in your pocket, or turn it over and the phone switches to silent mode!

The introduction of the accelerometer in the phone means that you can rotate the phone 90 degrees and the display will rotate for you. You can then view a photo in landscape mode, browse the internet, watch videos or just read and sms with the phone on its side.

The phone has an optional "breathing" light which pulses subtlely in the dark, not bright enough to annoy you while you are trying to sleep but bright enough to help you find your phone in a dark room or your car. This breathing light becomes a more urgent pulse when you have received a missed call or an sms. That way, a quick look at your phone at night will tell you whether you received a missed call without blinding you.

Pressing down the main button when the phone is unlocked allows you to see the time without the phone turning on all the LEDs. Again, this will prevent you being blinded by your phone in the middle of the night if you just want to check the time.

There is more to be said but that will do for now. Meanwhile, I'll try get this A-GPS working....

Edit: more on E66 can be found here