Nokia E72 - REVIEW

When the Nokia E71 launched a while back, it was popular and it was hailed as the thinnest full QWERTY smartphone on the market. It made it’s way to AT&T as the E71x, and the successor, the E72 is here.

Hardware:

The hardware on the E72 is exceptionally good. It packs a full QWERTY keyboard, a 2.4” screen, and a 5MP camera in a body that’s 10.1mm thin. My main complaint about the hardware is the screen. It’s a 2.4 inch screen with the resolution of 320 x 240, which is kind of disappointing since smartphones these days have screens that are larger and higher resolution. You can navigate the E72 with the d-pad, and the center select button doubles as an optical trackpad. The QWERTY keyboard is quite good, the keys are raised and domed, and they have a nice click to them.Nokia FINALLY moved away from their proprietary port, in favor for a standard microUSB slot, and they also added a 3.5mm headphone jack. The microSD card slot is externally accessible, which is awesome and it comes with a 4GB card pre-installed. It has a 1500mAH battery and the battery life on the E72 is really good, it could get me through a day or two.

Software:

Instead of going into the S60 OS in-depth, I thought I would give you my overall impressions and thoughts about S60. The E72 is loaded with S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2. It has some great features like Modes, which means that you can set up two different home screens with different application shortcuts, and with one click, you can switch between the two modes.The email experience is good, although when you scroll through emails, you get a kinetic scrolling effect, which is annoying at times when using the trackpad. I had some problems setting up Gmail at first, but overall setup is fast and easy. The browser is just average, there is support for inline YouTube playing, although the screen isn’t large enough to view a video without being it slightly cut off.

Camera:

The 5MP sensor on the E72 isn’t bad at all. The autofocus takes a while to focus, and it’s hard to make it “focus” on an object, and I noticed a 3-4 second lag when taking a picture. When it’s focused correctly, photos looked really good. There is a secondary camera on the front of the E72 since the Europeans have video calling capabilities, quality isn’t as good as the 5MP sensor on the back, but that’s expected since it’s just used for video calls and the occasional picture of yourself. Flash was bright, no complaints there.

Call quality:

Call quality on the E72 was amazing. Caller sounded crisp and clear, and the caller said I sounded really good. Similar to the earpiece, the Speaker was loud and clear, could make conference calls with ease. In Philadelphia where I tested the E72, AT&T 3G wasn’t too bad, signal was strong and data speeds were pretty zippy.

Conclusion:

In a couple of words, the hardware is great, and the software needs work. I really like the candybar form factor, but it would have been much better if it had a larger and higher resolution display. S60 needs to be revamped with a newer and more modern UI. If you don’t mind a slightly lower-res display, and if you don’t mind S60, the E72 is really a great smartphone.

Nokia E71 - REVIEW

Design:

There is only one thing we couldn't tell by looking at the pictures: The build quality. After spending some time with the E71, here's our verdict: Solid. And we mean it in the best and literal of ways. The metallic, duo-toned finish carried over from the E51 looks stylish and the construction of the smart phone is remarkable. You really have to pick it up to feel the solidness of the handset in the hands. On hindsight, the metallic chassis does attract a fair bit of fingerprint smudges. Other than downsizing the screen from a generous 2.8 inches on the E61i to 2.36 inches on the E71, which frankly makes a difference only if you place the two phones side-by-side, the rest of the design aspects are improvements over the previous model. You still get the same QVGA resolution with support for up to 16 million colors. And at just 10mm thick and 57mm wide, the pocket-sized E71 puts a lot of other QWERTY phones to shame, including the earlier E61i.

Features:

The E71 runs on the S60 platform with Feature Pack (FP) 1 installed, so you won't see the fancy transitions of the FP2 on this handset. That said, it wouldn't have really mattered on an Eseries device targeting business users. Like the previous models, the E71 comes with a full range of wireless radios. These include Wi-Fi, HSDPA, infrared, Bluetooth A2DP and also GPS (with A-GPS support) for satellite navigation. Nokia also included a front-facing camera this time round for video calls which wasn't available on the earlier E61i.Although it's the familiar S60 3.1 edition for the Eseries, Nokia did introduce a number of enhancements to the OS, and these are mostly for the better.There are a handful of applications preinstalled on the E71 and that should get most users up and running in no time. Maps 2.0 now resides on the phone's ROM (so you don't have to reinstall it if you do a hard reset), and you can create/view/edit new Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents using QuickOffice. We were a little disappointed that Mail for Exchange (Nokia's free software that's the equivalent to Microsoft ActiveSync) wasn't preinstalled, but that's not a big deal since you can always download it separately online.

Performance:

The rated battery life was remarkable, with the 1,500mAh Lithium-polymer cell capable of delivering up to 10 hours of talk-time and standby for up to 17 days. On regular usage of making calls, sending text messages, checking emails and navigating using GPS, we could get about three days of use without reaching for the charger.The camera on the E71 wasn't the best around even though its resolution had been bumped up to 3.2 mega-pixels and it now comes with on board LED flash. Video recording was also limited at VGA at 22fps and QVGA at 30fps. Even the image browser, which seriously needs some sprucing up, hasn't changed a bit from its predecessors. In terms of image quality, we'd say it's passable given the proposition of the phone.

Conclusion:

We don't want to sound like Nokia fanboys here, but it is hard to walk away without feeling impressed by the E71. Sure, it doesn't have everything. We want stronger multimedia features and, perhaps, also a 3.5mm audio jack, but to Nokia's credit, the E71 was never meant to compete with its Nseries counterparts. The handset is great at what it's supposed to do and then more. Combine that with a price of S$798 (US$573.19) without contract [easily S$300 (US$215.49) off if you include a two-year plan], it's a smart phone we would highly recommend. Included in the commercial sales package is a 2GB microSD card loaded with a local map, pouch, wrist strap, stereo headset, micro-USB cable, battery and charger.

In a nutshell, the E71 takes everything that was on the E61/E61i including the ergonomics, design and functionality, and made it even better.

Nokia E70 - REVIEW

The good:
The Nokia E70 cell phone features a fold-out full QWERTY keyboard and a vibrant display. The Symbian smart phone offers integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, document viewing and editing, and robust e-mail capabilities. It's also equipped with a 2-megapixel camera and solid talk-time battery life.

The bad:
The E70 lacks 3G support and occasionally suffers from sluggish performance. The joystick is hard to use, and without the backing of a U.S. carrier, the phone is expensive. Call quality is substandard, and the phone's speaker is also pretty weak.

The bottom line:
The mobile professional who wants a compact smart phone that doesn't sacrifice features should take a look at the Nokia E70; just be prepared to pay a price.

Review:

Like HTC, Nokia distinguishes itself in the smart phone world by offering a broad range of designs. Nokia's E series is particularly noteworthy; this family of business-centric smart phones comes in all shapes and sizes, pretty much ensuring that there's a style to suit almost everyone. We've already checked out the broad and powerful Nokia E62, which is built for the power user, but what if you want the same messaging capabilities without all the bulk? No problem. The Nokia E70 answers that call. It offers a more compact candy bar-style design, yet still manages to pack in a fold-out QWERTY keyboard, robust productivity tools for the mobile professional, and a 2-megapixel camera. Unfortunately, all this power takes a bit of a toll on the phone, as it occasionally suffers from sluggish performance, and call quality could be better. As with most of Nokia's smart phones, the E70 has not been picked up by a U.S. carrier, so you'll pay a premium for an unlocked version. Currently, the Nokia E70 is available for around $390 to $450.

Design:

Though the Nokia E70 shares the same flip-phone body of the Nokia 6820, that's where the similarities end between the two phones. Like the rest of the Nokia E series, the E70 caters to the business crowd, so the handset has a more muted and refined look, with its classic silver-and-black color scheme and streamlined design. By contrast, the Nokia 6820 has a more youthful light blue-and-silver casing and resembles a basic, starter cell phone. The E70 has a stout body to match its solid feature set; at 4.6 inches long by 2.9 inches wide by 0.8 inch thick and weighing 4.4 ounces, it certainly doesn't fall into the sleek-and-sexy category, and it's quite masculine-looking, but it feels solid in the hand and is comfortable to use as a phone.