Let’s go with the physical handset and making voice calls first – after all it is sold as a smartphone. To get the keyboard into the device, this is one of the widest Nokia phones out there. On a practical point of view, it means that you’re struggling to move the E61 to get the best volume from the earpiece, and that sliding around puts a lot of grease onto the screen. Sound quality is more than adequate though, and there have been no complaints from people I’ve been talking to.

This smartphone is constructed of solid-feeling aluminum. The weight comes in at 5.1 ounces. The surface texture is very slightly buffed. It is not particularly slippery in the hands, but a rubber strip along the edge would be a good idea -- on hot summer days devices with this type of texture can easily fly out of the sweaty hands of gesticulating Italians like myself.It measures 2.75 inches wide and is about 4.5 inches tall. The E61 has a wedge-shaped profile that goes from 0.5 inches thick at the base to 0.75 inches at the top. It rests nicely in the hand.

When twisting the E61 in my hands, it felt like a solid chuck of metal. It feels much more solid than my Sony Ericsson P910a or Treo 650, but not so solid that I would want to drop it. The E61 would probably dent before shattering, but that is a road I don't want to travel.

My over-all design impression of the E61 is that it's a typical Nokia business device - understated and modern. A few years ago a device like this would have wowed people but now it's pretty conservative. Compared to Nokia's previous smartphones, which ranged from giant bricks (9500 series) to goofy toys (3600 series, N-Gage), I think the E61 with its mini- QWERTY keyboard design is a big improvement. 

The key travel is very short, and although there is no audible feedback of a button press, after using it for a few hours I felt quite confident with it. I did not have any problems with accidentally pressing more than one button. A lot of this is personal preference so I would encourage you to visit a good cellular store or find buddies with these types of devices and try a few out to figure out what keyboard works for you.

Absent from the keyboard are dedicated buttons for some functions, like Internet. There are keyboard shortcuts for most of these common functions (like 'silent mode' and Internet - # and 0 respectively). Like any Nokia phone, take some time to learn all the shortcuts because these phones reward people willing to fully learn their device.

Nokia has equipped the E61 with an ambient light sensor that automatically backlights the keyboard when needed. In my testing the backlight came on whenever I pressed a key - pretty standard in my books. Perhaps I was missing something.

Above the QWERTY keyboard is the five-way joystick, flanked on either side by Right and Left soft keys, begin/end call buttons, and dedicated keys for the programs area and email. My keyboard had special keys for international characters. Above the screen is an unread email indicator light. 

Along the left side of the E61 are the loudspeaker, volume up/down keys, and voice recorder button. The top and right side are clean.Unlike RIM's Blackberry devices, the P910a and the aforementioned Sony Clie PDA, the E61 does not have a thumb wheel. It is hard going back to a joystick once you are used to a wheels and I think Nokia should add one to the next generation of this device -- maybe in place of the volume keys. Or perhaps a future firmware could enable context-sensitive use of the volume buttons for scrolling menus or lists.  

Wondering where the miniSD card slot is? Nokia has hidden it underneath the battery cover -- perhaps to preserve the E61's clean lines. I'm not sure how I feel about this. The card is hot-swappable, but it's a pain popping the door off. If the E61 was equipped with USB 2.0 I would probably not mind because I would never have to remove the card, but we get USB 1.1 and moving any large files across this connection is painful. Also, as you can see from the dimensions, it's hard to believe that a standard size SD card could not be fit into the E61.

The E61's bottom is where you will find the infra red port, Nokia's proprietary pop-port, and power plug. Speaking of the pop-port Nokia made a nice device in the E61 only to saddle it with a proprietary port for data connection and other functions, including audio output.

This is a huge knock against the E61 that is worsened by the fact that this ridiculous connector does not even charge the unit -- you need a separate charger for that. Yuck. Nokia makes an optional USB cable they will gladly sell you that includes both a charger tip and pop-port tip. At a minimum this cord should be standard. 

Also, when listening to music with the E61 you will have a giant blob of plastic protruding from the bottom of the E61 because that is the only way to connect headphones. Meanwhile, competing devices do it all through an IT-department friendly mini USB cable and a standard 2.5 audio jack. I hope that Nokia wakes up to the fact that this connector is lame and detracts from the overall experience of using the phone.   

The phone comes with the great messaging services which include text messaging (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS), email & instant messaging. The messaging services have distribution lists & are all easy to create & send.

The multimedia messaging allows the user to send a message complete with image, sound & text to any MMS compatible device. The instant messaging service can be carried out with the use of Yahoo, AOL & OMA which allows the user to send messages to contacts that are online at the same time as the user. The email service is quite something on the E61 & the user can access their email account with just one press of the button. The email service comes complete with a LED indication which will alert the user when an email is received or delivered.

The user can send attachments via email in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Zip Manager & Adobe Reader formats which is a very useful tool for any business user. The user can also send & receive emails whilst they have a conversation on a call & all at the same time. The email service allows user to read or write emails when the Nokia E61 is offline. The push email feature allows user to be informed as soon as a new email is received & the phone supports a choice of email solutions which include Native email & Nokia Business Centre.