Great service, and a new toy

A couple of weeks back, I lost my phone handset. Treating this as an opportunity, I decided nice-to-haves on a replacement include wifi networking (for VOIP), GPS+maps, and an FM radio receiver. I had already homed in on the Nokia E71 as a nice-looking phone with all those capabilities. But that has one drawback: it’s rather wider than most phones, and thus a little less comfortable to hold (the tradeoff for a QWERTY keyboard). Could I do better?

I discussed this with a very helpful man at O2 customer support, and ended up with an N78 on a two-week trial. I fairly quickly concluded that the N78’s tiny non-keys and other controls were not something I could live with, but I kept it until my return from FOSDEM rather than travel without anything.

Yesterday I phoned O2 again, and discussed returning it. I said I’d revert to my original idea of the E71. Customer services were again extremely helpful, and arranged to exchange it, so I wouldn’t have to be without a phone. The courier duly called today, delivered the E71 and took the N78 (which they’ll presumably sell on as “reconditioned”).

Now that’s what I call service!

I’m happy to say the E71 is indeed all I’d expected, with none of the annoyances of the N78. It’s not entirely without drawbacks: it’s a little on the heavy side due mostly to a bigger-than-average battery, and the metal case is cold on the hand. But the display and controls are lovely, the operating system works better than the N78 (where the GPS/maps app had a bad habit of forcing me to exit), and I’m looking forward to playing with its more advanced capabilities.