Nokia seem to have somewhat regained its brand’s positioning in a cut-throat smartphone market competition with the successful launch of its flagship Nokia N8 in the global market. Following the footsteps, Nokia E7is another device that is highly anticipated and it is going to be launched soon in India by January 2011.
The Nokia E7, or Nokia E7-00, caused quite a stir at this year’s Nokia World and is the second device (after the Nokia N8) to be powered by the latest version of the Symbian OS – Symbian^3.
We like the Nokia N8. it has features aplenty and lots of cool connectivity and storage, as well as a 12 megapixel camera. With the Nokia E7, it’s a similar ‘spec-tacular’ story with its 16:9 nHD 640 x 360 pixels AMOLED display, Symbian^3 OS, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and an 8 megapixel snapper.
The Nokia E7, or Nokia E7-00, caused quite a stir at this year’s Nokia World and is the second device (after the Nokia N8) to be powered by the latest version of the Symbian OS – Symbian^3.
We like the Nokia N8. it has features aplenty and lots of cool connectivity and storage, as well as a 12 megapixel camera. With the Nokia E7, it’s a similar ‘spec-tacular’ story with its 16:9 nHD 640 x 360 pixels AMOLED display, Symbian^3 OS, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and an 8 megapixel snapper.
But does the Nokia E7, along with Symbian^3 and the Nokia N8, have what it takes to re-establish Nokia as a name to be feared in the global mobile phone markets? We take a look to find out.
If you’ve seen any videos or shots of the E7 you’ll know that it is a very similar looking device to the Nokia N8 (113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm). In fact, their anodised aluminium chassis are pretty much identical in terms of style and shape, but the E7, at 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm, is slightly larger and has that slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well.
On top of the E7 is a MicroUSB port, HDMI port, the power button and a 3.5mm jack input. The battery, like on the Nokia N8, is non-removable so users now have to slot the SIM card into a little iPhone-esque pop-out tray that’s located on the right-hand side of the device. A bit further down the right side is the device’s dedicated camera button, which activates the camera with a single press.
There is a single menu hard key on the E7, which sits on the device’s slidable display. One press of this and you’re taken to a familiar Nokia menu. Because of the location of the hard key, it’s easy to access in both QWERTY and non-QWERTY modes.
The E7, like the N8, is a good-looking device and we have to hand it to Nokia in this respect, it’s really done well on the aesthetics front. That said, it is quite large so users that want a slightly more compact device (HTC Desire or Apple iPhone 4 size) might want to look into the Nokia N8 or the C7, which are both slightly smaller with their more pocket friendly 3.5-inch displays.
We do have one issue, though, with the E7′s design, and that’s the QWERTY keyboard’s sliding mechanism. Put shortly, it’s very difficult to open. During testing we passed it around the office to see if other people experienced similar problems to us. Needless to say, nobody managed to do it first time – it does get a lot easier with practise though, so don’t worry too much about this.
The actual mechanism behind the QWERTY slider is very robust and once you’ve got the hang of sliding it up – in the correct manner – you’ll see just how smoothly the display lifts up and floats backwards into its resting position, which is at a slight (30º-ish) angle from the keyboard.
If you’ve seen any videos or shots of the E7 you’ll know that it is a very similar looking device to the Nokia N8 (113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm). In fact, their anodised aluminium chassis are pretty much identical in terms of style and shape, but the E7, at 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm, is slightly larger and has that slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well.
On top of the E7 is a MicroUSB port, HDMI port, the power button and a 3.5mm jack input. The battery, like on the Nokia N8, is non-removable so users now have to slot the SIM card into a little iPhone-esque pop-out tray that’s located on the right-hand side of the device. A bit further down the right side is the device’s dedicated camera button, which activates the camera with a single press.
There is a single menu hard key on the E7, which sits on the device’s slidable display. One press of this and you’re taken to a familiar Nokia menu. Because of the location of the hard key, it’s easy to access in both QWERTY and non-QWERTY modes.
The E7, like the N8, is a good-looking device and we have to hand it to Nokia in this respect, it’s really done well on the aesthetics front. That said, it is quite large so users that want a slightly more compact device (HTC Desire or Apple iPhone 4 size) might want to look into the Nokia N8 or the C7, which are both slightly smaller with their more pocket friendly 3.5-inch displays.
We do have one issue, though, with the E7′s design, and that’s the QWERTY keyboard’s sliding mechanism. Put shortly, it’s very difficult to open. During testing we passed it around the office to see if other people experienced similar problems to us. Needless to say, nobody managed to do it first time – it does get a lot easier with practise though, so don’t worry too much about this.
The actual mechanism behind the QWERTY slider is very robust and once you’ve got the hang of sliding it up – in the correct manner – you’ll see just how smoothly the display lifts up and floats backwards into its resting position, which is at a slight (30º-ish) angle from the keyboard.
The E7′s keyboard, as we said, is a full on QWERTY and features ever so slightly raised rubber keys that feel extremely comfortable whilst typing. That said, it isn’t perfect. For starters, typing long emails can become quite awkward after a while as the E7 is quite a long device and doesn’t sit that well in your hands. This means that you’ll occasionally fumble the odd keystroke, which did get a bit annoying.
On the plus side, it’s still a very good keyboard and after a few days of usage you’ll be banging on emails left, right and centre without even looking at keyboard – well, nearly. And even if you don’t take to the physical keyboard, the touchscreen QWERTY is just as good and easily on a par with the majority of high-end Android handsets.
Then there is that display. That 4-inch 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) AMOLED display, which is every bit as good as it sounds – blacks look intense and the brighter colours simply jump off the page. It makes watching videos and browsing the Internet a gorgeous and completely immersive experience. We have give Nokia credit here: it knows how to do its hardware.
However, the big thing with the Nokia E7 is its operating system which, in case you didn’t know, is Symbian^3 – AKA: Nokia’s latest attempt to realign itself with the likes of iOS and Android. But is it up to the challenge?
This is a difficult one to qualify, especially as lots of people don’t actually have a problem with Symbian per se, which is fair enough. But anyone that thinks Symbian could have survived the next year or so without a massive – and we mean MASSIVE – overhaul is very much mistaken. Put simply, Symbian^3 needs to put Nokia back on the map – and quickly too.
And on the whole, Symbian^3 is quite a breath of fresh air. It looks decidedly different, has multiple homescreens and is very easy to customise with apps, shortcuts and dedicated Symbian^3 homescreen widgets. Overall, the experience of using Symbian^3 is vastly improved and adds a level of maturity and, dare we say, modernity, to how you interact with your Nokia handset.
On the plus side, it’s still a very good keyboard and after a few days of usage you’ll be banging on emails left, right and centre without even looking at keyboard – well, nearly. And even if you don’t take to the physical keyboard, the touchscreen QWERTY is just as good and easily on a par with the majority of high-end Android handsets.
Then there is that display. That 4-inch 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) AMOLED display, which is every bit as good as it sounds – blacks look intense and the brighter colours simply jump off the page. It makes watching videos and browsing the Internet a gorgeous and completely immersive experience. We have give Nokia credit here: it knows how to do its hardware.
However, the big thing with the Nokia E7 is its operating system which, in case you didn’t know, is Symbian^3 – AKA: Nokia’s latest attempt to realign itself with the likes of iOS and Android. But is it up to the challenge?
This is a difficult one to qualify, especially as lots of people don’t actually have a problem with Symbian per se, which is fair enough. But anyone that thinks Symbian could have survived the next year or so without a massive – and we mean MASSIVE – overhaul is very much mistaken. Put simply, Symbian^3 needs to put Nokia back on the map – and quickly too.
And on the whole, Symbian^3 is quite a breath of fresh air. It looks decidedly different, has multiple homescreens and is very easy to customise with apps, shortcuts and dedicated Symbian^3 homescreen widgets. Overall, the experience of using Symbian^3 is vastly improved and adds a level of maturity and, dare we say, modernity, to how you interact with your Nokia handset.
The Ovi Store is integrated well into the UI as well. For instance, when you’re adding a widget to one of the homescreens there’s an option to go straight to the Ovi Store and download apps, widgets and games straight of the bat. Unfortunately, Symbian^3 homescreen widgets are a little thin on the ground at the moment, so there’s not as much choice as we’d have liked, but hopefully this is something that will improve with time.
Each homescreen, when you go into Edit mode, has six boxes that you can place either individual apps or entire widgets into. Granted, this isn’t as much potential customisation as you get on iOS4.1 or Android, but it’s a massive improvement on what was available to Symbian users before.
The Nokia E7 isn’t quite as snappy as the Nokia N8, unfortunately, and there were some noticeable moments of lag when its 680MHz ARM processor struggled to keep up with what we wanted it to do. This was most apparent whilst browsing the web and occasionally when skipping between homescreens – maybe Nokia should have opted for a 1GHz like it did on the Nokia N8? We think so.
The web browser on board the Nokia E7, like the one on the Nokia N8, is pretty good packing in Flash Lite 4, HTML, XHTML MP, WML and CSS support. This means that you can view web pages just as you would on a desktop PC – or, the HTC Desire or Galaxy S.
The pinch-to-zoom function is a massively welcome addition to Symbian^3 and makes viewing web pages a practically otherworldly experience when compared with how it used to be. The stock browser’s UI is also very straightforward and easy to use, you simply tap the icon in the bottom right corner and up pops your options: Options, Go To and Bookmarks. Simple.
Adding bookmarks, subscribing to RSS feeds and the extensive Options folder, which gives you access to tools like ‘Find Keyword’ and ‘Go to Feeds’ mean using the E7′s browser on a daily basis is a rewarding and intuitive experience. Unfortunately, though, general browsing on the E7 isn’t quite as smooth as it is on the Nokia N8 but again this is entirely to do with processors and not the actual browser, so we’ll leave it there.
Setting up and using email on the Nokia E7 is also very straightforward. On board, there’s support for Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Windows Live, Hotmail and POP/IMAP services and, most importantly for professional users, Mail for Exchange. You can have as many email clients open as you like on the E7 and view them all in one unified inbox, which is certainly a cool feature – although, it’s something you have been able to do on other platforms for quite sometime now.
There’s also a whole host of other (more hidden but equally useful) resources like Ovi Maps with free car and pedestrian navigation, compass for correct orientation and all the other cool Ovi apps that can be accessed via the Ovi Store from your handset.
In short, if you liked Symbian before – or you’re not really that much of a tech-geek – then you’ll probably absolutely love Symbian^3. It has everything the latter did but has been severely overhauled in a way that’s made it more presentable, more intuitive and basically a hell of a lot better.
Alternatively, if you won’t hear a word said against Android or iOS4.1 and think it’s the best thing since breathable air then you probably won’t be too impressed by Symbian^3. You might even describe it as an ill-fated bastardised hybrid of what happened when Nokia attempted to combine iOS4.1 and Android 2.2 together and hope no one noticed.
Either way, we think Nokia has included enough hardware on the Nokia E7 to impress consumers sufficiently. For instance, it’s got 16GB of internal storage (but sadly no microSD support) and a HDMI out, so you can hook it up to your TV and watch films and videos direct from the handset.
The camera is also pretty impressive too at 8-meapixels with Dual LED flash and Face recognition software. Then there’s its ability to shoot video at 25 fps in HD quality 720p resolution and its front-facing VGA (640 x 480 pixels) camera, which makes short work of video calling. In addition to this, you can also use the pinch-to-zoom function to examine photos in more detail – and when you’re shooting in 8-megapixels, you can rest assured that there’s plenty of detail.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s photo and video editing apps built into the device, so once you’ve taken a picture or filmed a video, you can pop them in that and edit them with effects until your hearts content – and once you’re done with that you can send them via the E7′s HDMI port to your TV for all to see.
All in all, the Nokia E7 is a thoroughly decent phone. It has more than enough going on inside it to more than satisfy the needs of the vast majority of consumers. It’s got lots of storage, a well integrated apps store, decent camera and video facility, an intuitive new OS and it lets you view web pages in remarkable quality and very quickly thanks to its more than adequate data support – HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, EDGE, GPRS.
Job well done, Nokia..
Each homescreen, when you go into Edit mode, has six boxes that you can place either individual apps or entire widgets into. Granted, this isn’t as much potential customisation as you get on iOS4.1 or Android, but it’s a massive improvement on what was available to Symbian users before.
The Nokia E7 isn’t quite as snappy as the Nokia N8, unfortunately, and there were some noticeable moments of lag when its 680MHz ARM processor struggled to keep up with what we wanted it to do. This was most apparent whilst browsing the web and occasionally when skipping between homescreens – maybe Nokia should have opted for a 1GHz like it did on the Nokia N8? We think so.
The web browser on board the Nokia E7, like the one on the Nokia N8, is pretty good packing in Flash Lite 4, HTML, XHTML MP, WML and CSS support. This means that you can view web pages just as you would on a desktop PC – or, the HTC Desire or Galaxy S.
The pinch-to-zoom function is a massively welcome addition to Symbian^3 and makes viewing web pages a practically otherworldly experience when compared with how it used to be. The stock browser’s UI is also very straightforward and easy to use, you simply tap the icon in the bottom right corner and up pops your options: Options, Go To and Bookmarks. Simple.
Adding bookmarks, subscribing to RSS feeds and the extensive Options folder, which gives you access to tools like ‘Find Keyword’ and ‘Go to Feeds’ mean using the E7′s browser on a daily basis is a rewarding and intuitive experience. Unfortunately, though, general browsing on the E7 isn’t quite as smooth as it is on the Nokia N8 but again this is entirely to do with processors and not the actual browser, so we’ll leave it there.
Setting up and using email on the Nokia E7 is also very straightforward. On board, there’s support for Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Windows Live, Hotmail and POP/IMAP services and, most importantly for professional users, Mail for Exchange. You can have as many email clients open as you like on the E7 and view them all in one unified inbox, which is certainly a cool feature – although, it’s something you have been able to do on other platforms for quite sometime now.
There’s also a whole host of other (more hidden but equally useful) resources like Ovi Maps with free car and pedestrian navigation, compass for correct orientation and all the other cool Ovi apps that can be accessed via the Ovi Store from your handset.
In short, if you liked Symbian before – or you’re not really that much of a tech-geek – then you’ll probably absolutely love Symbian^3. It has everything the latter did but has been severely overhauled in a way that’s made it more presentable, more intuitive and basically a hell of a lot better.
Alternatively, if you won’t hear a word said against Android or iOS4.1 and think it’s the best thing since breathable air then you probably won’t be too impressed by Symbian^3. You might even describe it as an ill-fated bastardised hybrid of what happened when Nokia attempted to combine iOS4.1 and Android 2.2 together and hope no one noticed.
Either way, we think Nokia has included enough hardware on the Nokia E7 to impress consumers sufficiently. For instance, it’s got 16GB of internal storage (but sadly no microSD support) and a HDMI out, so you can hook it up to your TV and watch films and videos direct from the handset.
The camera is also pretty impressive too at 8-meapixels with Dual LED flash and Face recognition software. Then there’s its ability to shoot video at 25 fps in HD quality 720p resolution and its front-facing VGA (640 x 480 pixels) camera, which makes short work of video calling. In addition to this, you can also use the pinch-to-zoom function to examine photos in more detail – and when you’re shooting in 8-megapixels, you can rest assured that there’s plenty of detail.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s photo and video editing apps built into the device, so once you’ve taken a picture or filmed a video, you can pop them in that and edit them with effects until your hearts content – and once you’re done with that you can send them via the E7′s HDMI port to your TV for all to see.
All in all, the Nokia E7 is a thoroughly decent phone. It has more than enough going on inside it to more than satisfy the needs of the vast majority of consumers. It’s got lots of storage, a well integrated apps store, decent camera and video facility, an intuitive new OS and it lets you view web pages in remarkable quality and very quickly thanks to its more than adequate data support – HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, EDGE, GPRS.
Job well done, Nokia..
- The screen is simply gorgeous — ClearBlack may be a gimmicky trademark, but CBD’s black levels are no joke. We’re definitely talking Super AMOLED degrees of awesome, which means that Samsung’s stranglehold on badass mobile displays was pretty short-lived — unless Nokia is sourcing CBD from Sammy, of course. At this point, we don’t know and the Nokia reps we’ve spoken to have been unable or unwilling to tell us.
- The keyboard is the best we can remember using on any Nokia. Finally: a straight-up great Nokia keyboard without any fatal flaws like an off-center spacebar or a slider that doesn’t slide far enough — it just works. It’s rubbery with a ton of clickiness, and in our quick tests, we were able to belt out verbiage without error.
- The slide mechanism is… well, weird. Simply pressing up from the bottom of the display doesn’t do any good — we fiddled with it for a minute before realizing that we could get it to go by prying up on the top side with our fingernails. Turns out that the "proper" technique is two firm thumbs on the bottom, which worked for us, though it takes a little getting used to (and you need to make sure your fingers holding the phone up top aren’t in the way).
- Jury’s still out on performance. Apparently, the swiping problems on the home screen — which we also experienced on the C6-01 and C7 — are being passed off by Nokia as a feature that prevents you from accidentally swiping. Sounds like PR spin to us, but we’ll have to wait and see how the retail devices work.
Last week’s Nokia World was a mixed bag. We expected Nokia to dish out its first MeeGo device, but that didn’t happen. We can only assume that the announcement was shelved in order not the steal the limelight from the E7 running on Symbian^3. At the event, Nokia reiterated its allegiance with the Symbian platform with a trio of smartphones including the C7 and C6-01.
Design
By now, you’d have noticed that the E7 is very similar to the N8 in terms of design aside from the larger glass display which tilts open to reveal a physical keyboard. The chassis is carved out of aluminum, which based on past experiences, should be a delight to hold. Naturally, the E7′s bigger screen also warrants a slightly expanded footprint. Here’s a quick comparison of the key differences between the E7 and the N8.
Features
The E7 runs on Symbian^3, so you can pretty much expect the interface to be similar to the N8 and the current Nokia S60 5th Edition devices out there. You get up to three customizable home screens for application shortcuts and widgets. For social networking, the E7 comes with a Social client that brings together Facebook and Twitter updates. Profiles and event listings from these sites are also accessible via the phonebook contacts and calendar.
First impressions about the new ClearBlack AMOLED display on the E7, which apparently delivers deep blacks even in sunlight, seem to be positive judging by the chatter on the Web. The 4-inch panel has a 640 x 360-pixel resolution and, according to Nokia, supports the use of a capacitive stylus. You also get handwriting recognition for Chinese, accelerometer and an onscreen keyboard for times when you’re too lazy to slide out the physical QWERTY.
One of the biggest push for the E7 (as well as the N8) is compatibility with Qt and Web Runtime standards, making it easy for developers to deploy their applications across various supported operating systems without rewriting the source codes. Out-of-the-box, the E7 is preinstalled with Mail for Exhange, IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, Quickoffice dynamic premium, Adobe PDF reader, F-Secure Anti-theft for Mobile and Ovi Maps with free GPS navigation.
HTML email is supported (no surprise there) and there’s a unified inbox for multiple email clients and common editor for SMS and MMS. For SMS, threaded view is available.
On connectivity, the E7 supports automatic switching between WCDMA and GSM bands, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI, Assisted-GPS, micro-USB (doubles as a USB host with USB on-the-go) and a standard 3.5mm audio jack. The maximum speeds for HSDPA and HSUPA are rated at 10.2Mbps and 2Mbps, respectively. The E7 also works as a data modem.
The primary 8-megapixel camera is accompanied by a dual-LED flash unit and records up to 720p high-definition videos at 25fps. The secondary, front-facing shooter for video calls records VGA stills and 176 x 144-pixel motion images at 15fps. Both cameras’ apertures are fixed at F2.8.
First impressions about the new ClearBlack AMOLED display on the E7, which apparently delivers deep blacks even in sunlight, seem to be positive judging by the chatter on the Web. The 4-inch panel has a 640 x 360-pixel resolution and, according to Nokia, supports the use of a capacitive stylus. You also get handwriting recognition for Chinese, accelerometer and an onscreen keyboard for times when you’re too lazy to slide out the physical QWERTY.
One of the biggest push for the E7 (as well as the N8) is compatibility with Qt and Web Runtime standards, making it easy for developers to deploy their applications across various supported operating systems without rewriting the source codes. Out-of-the-box, the E7 is preinstalled with Mail for Exhange, IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, Quickoffice dynamic premium, Adobe PDF reader, F-Secure Anti-theft for Mobile and Ovi Maps with free GPS navigation.
HTML email is supported (no surprise there) and there’s a unified inbox for multiple email clients and common editor for SMS and MMS. For SMS, threaded view is available.
On connectivity, the E7 supports automatic switching between WCDMA and GSM bands, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI, Assisted-GPS, micro-USB (doubles as a USB host with USB on-the-go) and a standard 3.5mm audio jack. The maximum speeds for HSDPA and HSUPA are rated at 10.2Mbps and 2Mbps, respectively. The E7 also works as a data modem.
The primary 8-megapixel camera is accompanied by a dual-LED flash unit and records up to 720p high-definition videos at 25fps. The secondary, front-facing shooter for video calls records VGA stills and 176 x 144-pixel motion images at 15fps. Both cameras’ apertures are fixed at F2.8.
Performance
The jury’s still out on the performance, but based on initial videos posted on Nokia Conversations, pinch-to-zoom seems to exhibit a slight lag. Like the N8, the E7 also comes with a dedicated graphics processor with OpenGL 2.0 with 3D graphics for enhanced gaming.
Unlike the N8 which comes with a 2mm charging connector and USB charging feature, the E7 juices up its 1,200mAh battery via only USB. Talktime has also been trimmed down to 9 hours on the E7 compared with 12 hours on the N8. However, standby time on the E7 stretches 18 days, while the N8 tops out at 16 days.
Both phones are powered by an ARM11 680MHz processor.
Unlike the N8 which comes with a 2mm charging connector and USB charging feature, the E7 juices up its 1,200mAh battery via only USB. Talktime has also been trimmed down to 9 hours on the E7 compared with 12 hours on the N8. However, standby time on the E7 stretches 18 days, while the N8 tops out at 16 days.
Both phones are powered by an ARM11 680MHz processor.
Outlook
Although there are noticeable pros and cons between the E7 and the N8, the inclusion of a physical keyboard in the former clearly distinguishes both smartphones. Ultimately, for the end-users, it should boil down to a toss between going with a physical QWERTY or doing without.
The E7 is expected to be available in Q4 with an estimated retail price of 495 euros (US$646) before tax.
The E7 is expected to be available in Q4 with an estimated retail price of 495 euros (US$646) before tax.
Business as usual for the Eseries is a cliché – thank you very much. But the kind that makes the world feel right. The Nokia E7 could’ve been just another Eseries phone. Oh well, that wasn’t meant to be. The latest is implicitly the greatest but, in the case of the E7, the latest may simply be the last.
Symbian is just about to be knocked off the top-spot as the market-leading smartphone platform. Worse yet, while loyal users are still sitting on a fence about replacing their E71/E72s Nokia is deciding whether to euthanize Symbian. Question marks have been hanging over the platform’s approach to touchscreen since day one. And now it’s got WP7 at its very doorstep. It’s the worst of times for the Nokia E7. But it’s up to it to show that the Eseries are still open for business.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
- Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA
- Anodized aluminum unibody
- 4" 16M-color ClearBlack AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
- Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
- 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash
- 720p video recording @ 25fps
- Symbian^3 OS
- 680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- microHDMI port 720p TV-out functionality
- GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
- Digital compass
- 16GB of on-board storage
- Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
- DivX and XviD video support
- Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- Stereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter
- microUSB port with USB On-the-go
- Flash and Java support for the web browser
- Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
- Good quality audio
- Smart and voice dialing
- Office document editor preinstalled
Main disadvantages
- Symbian^3 is still behind Android and iOS usability standards
- Ovi store content is inferior to Android market and App Store
- Fixed-focus on an 8 megapixel camera is just wrong
- Camera interface is decidedly outdated
- Battery is not user-replaceable
- No microSD card slot
Now, Nokia reconfirmed their commitment to Symbian in the short-term, but that doesn’t mean much. If the platform is to be scrapped, users will learn it the hard way when regular updates stop coming in. Occasional bug-fixes is the best they can hope to get. And good software support is among of the main reasons why people still choose Nokia.
However, how much short-term can stretch depends on the success of the current Symbian^3 devices. So if the Nokia E7 does at least as well on the market as the N8, it might as well buy the platform a few extra years.
As you can see from the lists above, the Nokia E7 is basically a larger N8, trading the camera bulk for a a larger and better display and a full QWERTY keyboard. To be honest though, when we reviewed the N8 it was mostly the camera we were delighted with. Then, that was five months ago and the bar is set higher now.
The Nokia E7 certainly won’t have an easy ride throughout this review. Let’s see how it handles the pressure.
Nokia spared no expense when it comes to the connectivity of the Nokia E7.
For starters, all kinds of network connectivity options are at your disposal – GPRS, EDGE and 3G with HSPA (10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2.0 Mbps HSUPA). The GSM/EDGE networking comes in quad-band flavor and the 3G covers all the five bands available worldwide – 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz.
Bluetooth connectivity is version 3.0 with stereo support and there’s a WirelessN-enabled Wi-Fi radio.
USB is version 2.0, with the standard microUSB port capable of charging the phones besides transferring data. We already covered the USB on-the-go functionality and we were very pleased with it – it worked much better than when we tested the N8.
A miniHDMI port rounds off the wired connectivity and there’s a miniHDMI to normal HDMI provided in the box.
The Nokia E7 is either the best Symbian^3 smartphone on the market or the second best. This just can’t be bad news – whether you’re a brand-loyal upgrader or an unbiased user shopping for a premiumsmartphone.
Symbian has been questioned and doubted but Nokia are giving users something to hang on to, something to use in their defense. The E7 has all the latest and most advanced ingredients: a ClearBlack AMOLED screen, USB-on-the-go, an HDMI port, penta-band 3G. HD video, the anodized unibody and a lifetime sat-nav license are also massive points in favor.
But are we simply delaying the inevitable here? Even the best Symbian^3 devices aren’t quite on par with the competition. It’s not about the specs, nor is it about the power or performance. It’s that bit oftouchscreen magic that has so far eluded Nokia and Symbian. Frustrated to the point of giving up, Nokia are looking to Windows Phone 7 to get their inspiration back.
It obviously isn’t the E7’s fault but – just as obvious – the Nokia E7 will have to suffer the consequences. Politics aside, the E7 is having another thing to worry about. It seems a little overpriced at the moment and, we are afraid, by the time its price settles down Symbian will be a few months closer to its inevitable demise.
The two major Android competitors – having been released earlier – cost less than the E7.
The HTC Desire Z has a higher-res screen, albeit of inferior quality. Android offers better touchscreen experience and a vastly superior number of apps. With the Desire Z, you’d be sacrificing the metal body but getting an autofocus camera in return.
The Motorola MILESTONE 2 boasts a FWVGA screen though, again, LCD. Motorola’s after-market support has been pretty poor recently, but the MILESTONE 2, being their flagship might make it to Gingerbread.
That’s the curse the Nokia E7 has to live with. Last time we checked, Eseries were the easiest phones to recommend to anyone looking for a handsome, sensible and powerful business phone. And they didn’t even have to be die-hard Symbian fans. But things look different for the E7 – its timing just couldn’t have been worse. This may not be the end of an era – but the Nokia E7 certainly is on the wrong end of a generation gap.
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