The other week I got a new Macbook Air. Lovely it is, all slender and slim (even if it is woefully underpowered and struggles with anything other than Safari and Keynote). Still, I was fed up of lugging a 17-inch Macbook about the place (getting old) and my new little Air biscuit is doing the trick nicely. Which is why I welcomed gratefully the E71. See, it’s slim. Really slim. No, I mean really slim, not just ‘a bit thin’ or ‘thinner than other devices’ but really, genuinely, properly thin.

If you’re wondering why I sound so surprised it’s because I am. It’s made me realise how bulky and overweight my N95 is. I always knew, but forgave it for all that it packed in. Now though, I have all I need (mail, web, GPS, WiFi) and none of the bulk. People are suggesting the E71 is the best device Nokia has ever produced. And you know, they might just be right. It really is a stonker. But every stonker has it’s foibles.

Maintaining a connection is my main bugbear. Whilst it’s easy to sort, it is a bit irritating. I expected it on the N95, but on this, I wished for more. The night and day theme switcher stuff is more of a gimmick than anything else, I played with it once, got so annoyed that it took so long to switch between the two themes I haven’t been back since. Still, these aren’t showstoppers and, given the device’s blistering speed, are almost forgivable.

Being able to suck names and numbers out of the address book from the home screen is a work of genius. Someone deserves a medal there because it’s a genuine time saver and works brilliantly. Calendar, too, is tasty and dedicated keys for that, the home screen and mail is ace. Given the already easy access to the address book I simply don’t understand why it deserves its own key. Bit of an oversight there I reckon, that keyboard real estate would have done better being devoted to something more useful, such as search. Another time saver is the appearance of messages and missed calls on the home screen. It makes a difference if, like me, you’re always forgetting to take your phone off silent.

Something I wasn’t expecting though was the quality of the camera. It really isn’t bad given that it’s something that’s ‘non-core’ when it comes to Eseries. I’ve taken a couple of shots with it (view them here, if you’re interested – warning, cheesy kid-pic alert!) and I was pretty surprised. Video, too is pretty good. Straight out of the box the speedy chip that powers the E71 shows itself off with rapid camera operation, no shutter lag and quick flicking between video and stills. Uploading to Flickr and Ovi is good too, and for once I actually tried and used it. For stuff like that life is so much better with a QWERTY keyboard. I don’t mind tapping out messages on a standard phone keypad (like on the N95) but filling out forms was always such a bind. I forced myself through the signup process for Ovi on the E71 and you know, it was actually okay. In fact, it was pretty quick. Uploading pics and vids from home was fast with WiFi engaged, I haven’t tried it over 3G yet, but assume it to be reasonably fast there too.

The finish is still doing its bit to wow me. The reflecta-metal is lush, the lovingly-machined back feels nice in the palm and despite a pretty persistent battering over the last week (I am notoriously hard on phones) the keypad is still perfect. Typing mistakes still happen occasionally, but I have found my on-the-go emails are longer than before (and much longer than those I typically receive from BB users). Today I couldn’t resist the chance to size my mate’s new BB Pearl up against the E71. As you can see from the pictures there’s a bulk fest going on over there which the E71 has slipped right past. Whilst the Pearl might not be the most obvious comparison (it doesn’t have a real QWERTY keyboard), it is one of the thinnest BBs but at 14.5mm is almost one and a half times the depth of the E71.

Life is now good in the world of slim. I think it might be this year’s ‘big thing’. It certainly is for me.