I got an E71 today as well. I wasn't expecting it for a few more days.
E71-1 (from Womworld, so it makes sense why they sent me a Euro one instead of a NAM one; but that's ok, I use T-mobile anyway, so it's not like I could have used/evaluated the 3G).
It's small enough that I'm actually wondering if it's TOO small. The keyboard is just slightly uncomfortable for my hands, based on size and density of the keys. The feel of the keys (pressure required, tactile feedback of knowing whether or not you pressed a key, etc.) is OUTSTANDING... but I'm not sure I like how small the keypad is :-}
The new UI looks a little more slick, but under neathe it's mostly the same. The active standbye home screen has a little bit more to it than before.
There IS a screen saver. But it's hard to see it, because the screen dims so quickly and so deeply. But you do get glimpses of a HUGE clock (bigger than on the E61i), and the status icon(s). I'll see what I have to do to make it more visible. (EDIT: when the screen is dimmed and then the device locks itself, if you hold down the dpad select button, and the "screen saver" comes up and goes away when you let go; when its like that, you don't unlock it via the select button, you have to click anything other than the dpad, and then unlock it; also, when it's in this state, the light throbs even if you have no new messages/calls ... so, basically, what used to be the screen saver is just an info screen for when the device is locked)
I'll write more in my blog later.