Review: Nokia E63

I lived on secondhand phones for the longest time. I resolved this year to buy me a new one, fruit of my sideline. It all happened quickly. I posted my old phone in an online auction site and it was sold in just three days. Backing up my memory card, and deleting personal images, videos and notes were all done in haste before finally packing it. The Air21 guy picked up the parcel in under two hours. And just like that, I silently bade goodbye to my phone of three years as it traveled to Pampanga to its new owner.

There were no strings attached. I did not feel any sense of sentimentality. I just thought then that I would really have to buy me a new phone right away. But we let the Holy Week pass before buying a Nokia E63. Most shops were already back in business by Black Saturday, so we were able to buy. Happy! Thanks much to the C siblings for accompanying me and helping me get the best deal.

Nokia E63 is the lower version of Nokia E71, but it works great for me. It has everything I want, basically a wifi for my browsing and emailing needs, and a PDF reader (Adobe) that could serve as an ebook reader. The camera has a resolution of 2 megapixel (as compared to E71's 3.2 megapixel), and the casing is plastic (as compared to E71's metallic casing). The GPS function from the E71 was also scrapped. I find it useless anyway since GPS is not yet reliable here in Manila. And lastly, the built-in dictionary is very helpful and handy.

The QWERTY keypad replaces the normal numeric pad of phones. The keys are not cramped like I first thought it would be. In fact, I think it is engineered well to the user's comfort. It's soft and easy to text. I did not have a problem getting used to it because I know by heart the placing of letters on a normal keyboard. The only setback I realized is that it is not driving-friendly. It is easier to grope on a 3x3 numeric pad even without looking. On the other hand, It is harder to estimate where the letters are without even glancing once in a while in a QWERTY keypad. Oh well. It's bad to text and drive anyways.

Nokia E63 comes in blue and red casing. The retail price in Nokia centers is Php14,200 regardless of the color. If you go to other shops however, like in Greenhills, the blue one is slightly cheaper than the red. Maybe red paint is more expensive? I don't know. But the price difference between the two colors is around Php500. Although it is more expensive, it is still more difficult to find the red phone. In fact, I almost settled for blue.

The internal memory is only 110mb, but the external memory (micro SD) is expandable. As far as I know, there is an 8GB micro SD card available already. I plan to buy one soon. However, a 1GB card comes standard with the package. That will do for now.

I give the functionality of this phone a 5/5. It is a very good alternative to having an E71 especially to budgeted people like me.