Customer Reviews

Nokia E63 SIM-Free Mobile Phone - Blue

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

One glance at the picture and you can see that this is a Blackberry clone. Despite having a plastic body shell, the E63 feels solid in the hand and the keyboard, although small is actually quite accurate even with my large stubby fingers. The screen is bright and crisp with high contrast. One criticism in reviews is the lack of a volume scrolling button on the side of the phone but I have had no difficulty with sound volume and quality. The battery seems to last for ages, albeit I'm not a heavy user. Replacement batteries are quite cheap too.

On the whole, the menu system is logical and functions are easily found. The 'front screen' does look a little untidy but scrolling up/down and left/right gets quickly to the right functions. Being a 'candy bar' design of phone, the keyboard has to be locked and unlocked to avoid accidental calls, which is a nuisance compared to flip/slide phones. The camera is pretty average but the tiny lenses and minute sensor chips in phone cameras are never going to match proper cameras. Forget the misleading emphasis on megapixels (2 in the E63) it's about resolving power, which is NOT the same thing.

The calendar and phone book apps are both nice to use, being both functional and easy to see on the screen. The phone syncs with Windows but software is not provided for Mac/Linux. However, the Nokia site does provide appropriate software so that MAC's iSync recognises the E63. It has a bug but nothing serious. There is a cross-platform alternative for calendar synching/emails etc, which is Nokia's OVI site. I bought a connecting USB cable for use with the computer only to discover that the bluetooth link is more reliable. The bluetooth, wireless networking, etc all work fine and are easy to set up and use. For example, my Motorola bluetooth headset works OK with the E63, albeit with reduced audio responses. The E63 takes micro SD cards so memory is expandable and removable (and thus versatile compared to fixed memories on, say, iPhones).

There are not so many apps for this phone but all the core 'productivity' stuff is available. The Nokia site has a few apps, although those requiring a touch screen are not much use on the E63; more are available on other sites. I generally download apps using my wireless network at home. The phone plays various media without any issues and the headphone socket is a standard 3.5mm jack (hooray for common sense, not one of those specialised sockets that makes you have to spend a fortune on a dedicated earphone set). The FM radio is quite good at picking up a signal and can be manually tuned if required. The earphone cable doubles up as an aerial and most makes of earphone, however cheap and nasty, seem to work OK.

The E63 does not have GPS built in but the instruction manual on (Nokia) 'Maps' obfuscates this, giving the impression that it does. With a bluetooth-connected GPS, the E63 will find its way around. Without it the E63 triangulates from mobile phone masts and, I have found, can be up to 10 miles out.

I bought an unlocked E63 and use ASDA's very cheap PAYG. Apart from the freedom to use whatever network one wants the phone comes with the original (and update-able) firmware, which means everything works correctly. Network imposed firmware can really screw up mobile phones. I'm happy with the E63 for work but am aware that touchscreen models offer more exciting apps. This is a phone for serious work; don't buy it if you just want to play games, it isn't designed for that.

Got this phone at the start of the year. I will first point out that I'm still using (and enjoying it) but the phone is prone to one very serious issue - sound quality. The problem lies in the headphone connector which is prone to a significant amount of hiss and clicking which is a serious problem for a phone with an integrated video and music player. Contacting Nokia resulted in the response 'only use Nokia branded headsets', unfortunately it seems to make very little difference if you use your own headphones or the headset provided with the phone.

Keyboard: The main reason I bought the phone. It looks like the keys are too small but the shape and a good layout results in an easy to use and very functional keyboard.
Battery: Excellent; tends to last around three days under moderately heavy use.
Menu and tools: Very good; clear layout and logical grouping makes finding things simple.
Included applications: Very good; lots available from Nokia and third parties too.
Price: Excellent. You'll have a hard time finding a phone with a similar feature-set at this price.

The phone is quite easy on the eye too, it's covered in tough, non-slip plastic that doesn't attract fingerprints and is easy to keep clean. The quick-access keys are clever and the directional pad is good.

In summary: If you want a really good phone for personal and/or business use then you can't go far wrong but if listening to music is important to you then I would have severe reservations recommending this phone.

Spent ages looking into various smartphones before settling on the E-63 for budgetary reasons and because my previous handsets have all been Nokias. Great for e-mail, WLAN access to get on the net (really fast), and the music player (for podcasts) works well and unlike some of the other Nokia models, it's equipped with a standard jack so you can use your own earplugs. I'm no good with touchscreens, so having the QWERTY keyboard is great. Nice also to have some Office-type applications (document + spreadsheet + PDF viewer). Have not really tried out video yet, but it doesn't support BBC Iplayer (some of the other Nokias do). One annoying design thing: no separate volume control on the side so you have to use the central control button (up or down) which if you press wrongly, you end up stopping your music player or exiting the webpage you were viewing. The handbook is sometimes a bit thin on detail. But overall a nice phone with enough features for my purposes.

I like this phone. It is good for email. Took a couple of day to get use to keyboard but I like it now. It comes with several apps like pdf reader, youtube and ovi maps etc. It doesnt have gps but I got the nokia gps bluetooth below £20 which was much cheaper than going to the E72 and more accurate and smoother than iphone which I use at work. It is never going to have the browse experience of the iphone but it is still good. There are free apps like snaptu that bundle most popular apps and is great for twitter, facebook, weather, news etc. Opera has another good browser but didnt seem to allow access to special characters menu. I heard ovimaps is free which it is but any form of navigation requires an expensive licence. I use Google maps which works well on this phone too and gives routes graphically which I just drive or work along with the phone set to 'my location' which is fine.

I have the email working and am sure it is usually smooth but I had a few hiccups as my email account required port settings that didnt seem to pop up automatically but had to install and then go in and fix the settings.I also get the email setup going off on bootup of which there is a thread on Nokia which seems to be about not typing "yes" to disabling the setup at the end of the process after which it seems you are stuck . The youtube app in the media folder works ok but doesnt allow sign in to a youtube account. Using youtube with a browser seems to fire up real player which doesnt work - I tried setting realplayer to no proxy with no results

That all sounds a bit negative but it is a neat phone that does the 90% of phone, email, calendar and social networks well.

It is probably true that this is a better phone than I currently think...Unfortunately the on phone software to guide through features and help and the accompanying handbooks and instructions have been written by complete morons who cannot think logically,write english and see beyond their geeky personal knowledge.Why cannot manufacturers who spend zillions on the product spend tuppence on explaining it intelligibly to purchasers?..Otherwise love the keyboard ..but where is the guide to punctuation symbols included in previous nokia phone handbooks ?How on earth can one work out how to use the radio? What sort of manufacturer thinks its sensible and economic for purchasers to spend hours learning the features and instructions ?..Life is way too short unless you are completely sad like many Japanese or , evidently, Finns..

The E63 from my experience is a very good phone. It is a Blackberry clone but lacking the main features of the Blackberry original.

The size, weight of the phone are perfect and also the phone has a very good layout and design. The QWERTY keypad is excellent for quick and easy text messaging. The menu options and a very nice sized screen are easy to view and use. The calendar and phone contact options are also nice to use and view.

The camera quality however could certainly have been improved. At 2 Megapixels it is poor quality indeed and for a phone at a price of £150+ the camera quality should have been more better.

The battery lasts for a very good length of time which is something that I find rare in many mobile phones today.

Although the phone lacks quite a lot of applications it is reasonable for anyone looking for a simple yet stylish looking mobile with a decent set of features.

This replaced my LG Viewty. My main concern for this was the keypad, I was sure I didn't want a touchscreen but would this be difficult to use? Well, at first it was strange but within a few days I could type on it easily and I would never go back to touchscreen or the 9 button keypad.

The camera is fine, my old one was 5mp and I did use it alot. However, although this has only 2mp because the screen is so clear and the camera itself is good quality I can't honestly see much difference.

There is a light (which I have used way more than I expected!) which can be accessed by holding down the space bar button.
The speaker on the music player is great, again better than my old one, although if you are going to hold a lot of songs/texts you will be needing a memory card!

Great phone and super happy :)

I got the Nokia E63 as I wanted a new phone but could never get the hang of touch screen keyboards, and dislike the greasy-screen that inevitably occurs with heavy usage.
The E63 in this regard has a nice keyboard. It looks a little small, but even larger fingers such has mine can type without issue.
The phone itself feels very solid, and it has survived a couple of drops without issue, it seems very well built.
Battery life is average, 2 or 3 days at most, about 1.5 days with heavy bluetooth / WLAN usage.

The biggest problem, which is probably a limitation of the processor, memory and screen, is the web browsing.
For some sites, the web browsing is perfectly adaquate. For others, however, the memory soon fills up and the phone grinds to a halt.

Some sites start rendering a mobile version, which you start to read, however I find that when I am still reading down the article the browser then clears and tries to render the full version of the page. This can be a little annoying.

Navigating in and out of text boxes on web forms with the predictive text can be a pain too, as the navigation buttons move between words and spellings and not away from the text box, leaving you with a different spelling than what you were looking for. Annoying when web / wiki searching.

When browsing and a text message arrives, you must leave web browsing mode and enter the text inbox. Once finished, re-entering the browser is pot luck as to whether it has kept your existing page, or whether you need to start looking for the page again from scratch.

Changing from WiFi to 3G/WAP browsing is not handled gracefully, it will attempt to find the WiFi again, and if not found the connection fails. You have to try and start a new web browsing session and force 3G/WAP.

WiFi connecting is a bit hit and miss if more than 1 WiFi connection is defined, it tries them alphabetically. Not ideal if you have two wireless routers - A and B, while B may be the stronger signal, it will try A. Even if "B" is shown on the main menu of the phone, once you select it it often refreshes the wireless networks, and decides to choose "A".

All in all, not a bad phone, decent keyboard, let down by poor web browsing and web connectivity usage issues.

Got one of these on contract, fantastic little phone, was web browsing with it for hours last night, watching Youtube vids etc. and the battery has only gone down by 1 bar! :P

Also, the flash/torch is really good compared to my old phone, so that was an added bonus =)

The 3G is amazingly fast as you would expect, and the WiFi range is also really good.

Would definately recommend!

I'm on pay as you go and this is my first smartphone. Overall I really like this phone but there are a few things that aren't so great. I've not owned that many phones in my life nor do I have an expert knowledge.

What I like most about this phone is being able to connect to WiFi, which is great for casual browsing while in the living room or at a cafe. Another feature I really like is the contacts list, and being able to use a full QWERTY keypad, saving time and effort. So if you're not great at texting like me this phone could be for you. The calendar is also great, and you have assign a variety of status types to an event, helping you prioritize. In my hand it feels like a high quality product, and everything fits together well.

There are a few bad points about this phone though, mostly the camera. Taking a photo at night time, even in a well lit room produces a very grainy image, even with night mode on. If you decide to turn the flash off, a small light will still turn on when you take a photo, often reflected in shinny surfaces. The phone doesn't keep the camera settings either, and each time you go to take a photo it's on the default settings. However during the day time you do get reasonable quality images, with a high resolution. My final dislike is the battery life, like a lot of smartphones you do have to charge it more often than a normal phone, the average battery life is 3-4 days.

I'm still exploring the phones features, but this is what my experience has been after a month. If you're on contract you will definitely get more out of this phone. I would definitely recommend this product to a friend.