Nokia E7 - Review

The E7 is a smartphone designed and manufactured by Nokia with runs the Symbian^3 mobile operating system. The device features a 4 inch touch display and a landscape slide out QWERTY keyboard. The E7 has an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash which is capable of capturing HD video at 720p and has 16GB of storage. Specifications First Impressions You can read our detailed review of the Nokia E7 below

The Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 have a distinct design which has been quite popular among it's users. The Nokia E7 has changed this quite a bit, and looks to resemble the Nokia N8 while offering a full QWERTY keyboard which has evolved from devices like the Nokia N97 and Nokia N900.

With the review device our goal was to find out if the Nokia E7 could take on the flagship mantel from it's predecessors and champion the Symbian platform until Nokia moved the E-Series onto the Windows Phone platform.

Lets start of taking a look at the key hardware features on the E7 :

• 4 inch display
• Anodized aluminium uni-body
• Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
• 8 MP Camera with 720p HD video
• 16 GB internal storage

No smartphone can compete in the market without good software to go along with it's hardware, so lets take a look at some of the software features of the E7 :

• Symbian^3 OS
• DivX and XVid video playback
• Flash and Java support on the web browser
• QuickOffice with document editor
• Smart and Voice dialing

As the features point on the device is quite impressive, but lacks a couple of features I really don't understand why Nokia would leave out on a top level smartphone.

• Fixed-focus : The 8 MP camera on the Nokia E7 does not have auto-focus and is given fixed focus instead. With fixed-focus you are not given to option to focus on the shot you take and it can be quite frustrating at times when you want to take a close up photograph.
• No micro-SD card : I was quite surprised that Nokia had not added a microSD card to the E7. I understand that 16 GB will be enough for many. But if you want to use this as your primary device to manage your business life, you need to offer the user some options.

Is the extra screen size and QWERTY keyboard going to sway users away from the Nokia N8 which we reviewed not too long ago? Well that would come down to the user preference. So lets take a closer look at the Nokia E7 and see if it have what it takes to hold the E-Series flagship spot.

Unboxing All good reviews have to start with a good unboxing. So lets start by taking a look what we have inside the E7 box.

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The device comes well packed with all you can expect from a high end Nokia device. It had the standard charger, data cable (which you can also use for charging), USB-on-the-go cable, mini HDMI adaptor, one-piece headset and manuals.

Device Closeup

The front of the device houses it's large 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display. The display is scratch resistant and features ClearBlack technology. After hearing many positive reviews with ClearBlack under direct sunlight, I was looking forward to put that to a test. While I do see improvements in outdoor usage Nokia has some work to bring their displays back to what they used to be before their started using capacitive displays on their devices.

Above the display on the right you will find the video call camera and on the left side is the proximity and ambient light sensors. Below the display you will find the menu button which is a light indicator which alerts you when you miss a phone call or message.

On the top of the E7 you will see the power button, microUSB port, HDMI port, 3.5 mm and audio jack. The power button can be use to switch the device on and off  and to switch your audio profiles. The HDMI port is covered by a plastic cover unlike the microUSB port which is exposed probably because it will likely be used more often for charging and syncing. An LED indicator next to the microUSB port shows us when the device is charging.

The right side of the device features the SIM card tray, volume slider and dedicated camera key. The SIM card tray strangely resembles the iPhone, which I was disappointed to see considering Nokia did a nice job with the Nokia N8. I found the volume slider quite innovative compared to the volume rocker which obviously takes more room. The camera button on the E7 takes a couple of seconds to open the camera app. While this ensures that you don't take photos by accidentally pressing the button, you could also loose out on a potential photograph because of the time it takes.

The left side has the screen lock slider seated by itself. The lock switch is well built, but I found it slipping out of my finger sometimes. On the bottom of the device is the microphone which takes care of the most important feature of any smartphone - phone calls.

The slider on the E7 is the evolution of the N97 and the N900 and I was very impressed with the way Nokia has implemented it. I have to admit that sliding the display up was a little stiff and sometimes feels like the device might pop out of your hand when it slides up.

However the slider is solid and well built. The keyboard is the best I have seen so far on any Nokia device, the keys are well placed and easy to type. The display looks like it has been cut right out of the device which is beautiful to look at but the sharp ends of the keyboard sometimes scrapes your hands while you type.

At the back of the device is the 8 MP camera with dual LED flash and the speaker. There is also a second microphone for noise cancellation and stereo audio recording for videos. The camera takes reasonably good photos.

The E-Series which is aimed at business users are not expected to look for high end camera features but the E7 does not disappoint. But one feature I simply cannot learn to love is the fixed focus, which left many of my photos fuzzy or blurry. I hope that Nokia uses auto focus or touch to focus on their devices in future and leaves fixed focus for their low end smartphones. The 720p HD video did not disappoint one bit and even captured amazing video in low light. The speaker on the rear did face one problem, that being the sound was a little muffled when the E7 was on it's back.

The (1200 mAh) battery is hidden away from the user much like on the N8. Since my trial device was quite old, the battery hardly lasted a day with normal usage. But I am sure a new device will live upto 2 days with standard day to day use. The standby was just around a week, but once again I can't judge my trial device as it has been heavily used before.

I have to conclude by saying the E7 is an amazing device. It may not be the fastest device in the market today, but it is beautiful and more than capable of getting the job done. With the upcoming Symbian Anna and Symbian Belle updates you know that Nokia stays committed to the Symbian platform : at least for now.

E7 pictured next to the Nokia 6120