Nokia E7 Review

Design:

The E7 is a big phone and no one ever tried to keep it secret. Even Nokia chose to be casual and relaxed about it in their official announcement. In our books, 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm and 104.9 cc of volume is certainly big but in the communicator form factor actual handling is more important than size. And the E7 has nothing to be ashamed of in that department.

The slim waistline is remarkable for a side slider and a boost to pocketability.

Above the display is a centrally placed earpiece, with a video-call camera on its right side. On the left are the ambient light and the proximity sensors.

Below the display is the solitary menu key. There was no room for hardware call keys and a back button here, which is a bit of a pity. A proper back key is a great boost to usability, especially given the multi-layer UI of Symbian^3.

The top of the Nokia E7 features the power key, which also handles screen lock and the ringing profiles. The HDMI port, the charging microUSB port and the 3.5mm audio jack are here too. The Nokia E7 HDMI port supports 720p TV-output which – combined with DivX and XviD support and the Nokia big screen app – allow the E7 to rival your home media entertainment center.

Features:

The E7 may be the largest of the recent Symbian smartphones – looking at first glance like an oversized N8 and significantly chunkier than the svelte C7 – but inside it’s business as usual. Keeping Symbian moving is a 680MHz ARM 11 processor, paired with 256MB of RAM and OpenGL 2.0 graphics support. Connectivity follows Nokia’s throw-in-the-lot pattern of recent devices, with pentaband UMTS/WCDMA (supporting Euro, T-Mobile USA and AT&T 3G bands in a single device), WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS/A-GPS and an FM radio. Accelerometers, a digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors, and a front-facing camera for 3G video calls round things out.Interface

Interface:

The Nokia E7 shares the same 680MHz ARM 11 processor and 256MB of RAM that’s found with the N8, but it increases its ROM to 1024MB. For most basic tasks, we found the Nokia E7 powered well enough to move at a swift rate, with very few instances of lag or slowdown.

The phone runs the latest version of the Symbian^3 firmware with new web browser and portrait QWERTY keyboard.

Changes in Symbian^3 are both visual and functional and the homescreen is the most evident change. It consists of three panes, which you can fill up with widgets and reshuffle as you see fit. You can delete panes you don’t need but you can’t add more than three.

Contacts:

The Nokia E7 comes with a fully functional phonebook, which can easily be synced with your exchange account. Symbian has been offering users virtually unlimited phonebook capacity and excellent contact management for quite some time but has been revamped with some social networking integration.

Messaging:

The best messaging experience is found with the handset’s fantastic physical keyboard, but Symbian^3 boasts a couple of on-screen options for your pleasure. In portrait, we find the usual looking numeric keypad that offers plenty of room to move around with our fingers, but it can be a painstaking process unless predictive text is enabled.

Camera:

Nokia has built a reputation for high-quality cameras on its mobile devices, and the E7 follows some way in that tradition. As we said, the limitations of space mean the 8-megapixels have to make do with EDoF rather than true auto-focus, and a dual-LED flash rather than Xenon. Still, it does mean you can use the LEDs as a video light, and the E7 will shoot 720p HD clips at 25fps that can then be easily played back via the HDMI port. A second, VGA-resolution camera on the front is intended for video calls, but can also be used to shoot grainy stills.

The remainder of shooting options is put in another menu. If you think having to go through an extra menu just to change the scene mode is bad, just you wait until you try to change the white balance, ISO or some of the other settings – you’ll have to do the tap-to-select, tap-to-activate tango like it’s 2007.

On the other hand, the basic functionality is mostly there. On the E7 you’re in charge of white balance, color tone, exposure, ISO, contrast and sharpness. You can also go for one of the preset scene modes and there is an option for creating a custom scene.

Face detection is also available on the Nokia E7. As for geo-tagging, it lets you record your current location in the EXIF information of the photos, using the built-in GPS.

Music:

Symbian never really had a problem with the features of its Music Player, and that’s the same case here. The Symbian^3

Music Player UI is also quite nice, with a new Cover-flow-like interface in landscape, and in portrait too in some areas. As always, there’s sorting by Songs, Albums, Artists, Genre and Playlists. You can create custom playlists right on the phone, or import a standard .M3U Playlist. There’s support for a variety of formats like MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA and an equalizer with stereo widening.

 

Video:

Symbian^3′s video player is quite capable and supports subtitles too now (via an App Update which hasnt come to the E7 yet for some weird reason). There’s DivX and XviD support too right out of the box, which means the E7 is quite capable in this regard.

It can play back 720p high def video too, smoothly which was pretty impressive. Connect the HDMI port to a High Def TV and this gets even more impressive.

Battery:

The Nokia E7 has the same 1200 mAh LI-Ion BL-4D battery as the N8. However the quoted battery times are different here: you get up to 480 hours (compared to 400 hours) of standby and up to 9 hours of talk time (vs 12h 30 min). Real-life performance is actually lower than what the N8 offers. The E7 lasted only two days of fairly heavy use.

Ovi Store:

There’s quite a ton of apps on the Ovi Store, and with games like Fruit Ninja making an appearance, it does seem that big companies are pushing out apps for Symbian along with other platforms. But individual developers might not, which would mean new premium content in the Ovi Store wouldnt appear as consistently as on other operating systems.

A-GPS and Voice Navigation:

Ovi Maps has a bunch of nice features, like Lonely planet integration, Bookmyshow (India) and Buurp.com (India), and an Event guide to let you know what’s going on nearby, within your city or town. There’s pinch-to-zoom and you can download maps straight to your phone without needing a computer (for Ovi Maps V3.06).

Getting a GPS lock takes about a minute or two with A-GPS, and anywhere from five to ten minutes without A-GPS (though that depends on a number of factors).

Nokia E7 Specifications

Technical Profile

System: WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 and

GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

OS: Symbian^3

Form Factor: Touch and full keyboard

Dimensions: 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm (L x W x H)

Weight: 176 g

Planned Market Introduction

• Q4 2010

Category

• Eseries, Business smartphones

Perfect form factor

• The ultimate business smartphone with full keyboard and a

stunning 4 inch touch display

• The best possible user experience amongst smartphones

• Premium materials, thin design

The Ultimate business smartphone

• Mail for Exchange, Microsoft Communicator Mobile and

support for intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft

Share Point Server*) offer professionals direct, secure and real-time access to corporate systems

• Pre-installed productivity apps include Vlingo, F-Secure Antitheft,

QuickOffice and World Traveler

• Business apps from Ovi Store include Salesforce for Symbian,

Bloomberg, F-Secure Mobile security, Microsoft

Communicator Mobile, JoikuSpot

Security

• Business grade security solutions such as device lock and

wipe, secure intranet access and device management

• More Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® policies supported

than on most other smartphones BT3 0 with support for stereo headsets

• Higher security with Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync®

certificate based authentication*)

• Cisco and Juniper SSL VPN support*) in addition to existing

rich IPSec VPN compatibility

• Rich OMA DM support with enforceable encryption and

device controls including camera and bluetooth

• F-Secure Anti-theft protection to remotely lock, wipe and

locate misplaced devices

*) available via a software update in 1Q2011

Free navigation, forever

• Free worldwide satellite car and walk navigation from Ovi

Maps in over 70 countries

• Built in premium guides from Lonely Planet and Via

Michelin for tips on travel, restaurants, weather

and hotels

A rich multimedia experience

• HD quality imaging and cinematic sound

• Shoot and edit photos and video with a 8 MP camera

• Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound and HDMI connection

• Three fully customizable home screens

• Live updates from Facebook, Twitter, and RenRen

Technical Profile

System: WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 and

GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

OS: Symbian^3

Form Factor: Touch and full keyboard

Dimensions: 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm (L x W x H)

Weight: 176 g

Display: 4 inch, polarized, AMOLED, widescreen

(640 x 360 pixels) capacitive touch

Battery: 1200mAh BL-4D

Media Storage/

Memory: 16GB mass memory,350 MB internal

memory, RAM256 ROM 1024

Video Playback: Video recording, Performance: encoding

25 fps, decoding 30 fps, File Formats:

H.264, MPEG-4, VC-1, H.263, Real Video

10, ON2 VP6, Flash video

Music Playback: radio, music player,

Supported codecs: MP3,AAC,eAAC,

eAAC+,WMA,AMR-WB- AMB-NB, DRM

support WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0

Main Camera: Image capture: 8 megapixels

Video capture: HD 720p

Flash: dual led

Connectivity

• WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n

• BT3.0 with support for stereo headsets

• Positioning with GPS, A-GPS, WLAN and Cell-ID

• Micro-USB 2.0 high speed for file transfers and charging

• USB On-the-Go

• Nokia AV connector 3.5 mm for audio input/output and

TV out

• HSDPA Cat9, maximum speed up to 10.2 Mbps,

HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps

Operating times (estimates)

• Talk time (GSM/WCDMA) – 9 h /5 h

• Standby (GSM/WCDMA) – 18 d /20 d

Nokia Original Accessories

• Nokia High Efficiency Charger AC-10 (inbox)

• Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-179 (inbox)

• Nokia Stereo Headset WH-205 (inbox)

• HDMI-C to HDMI-A adapter: CA-156

• Micro USB to USB OTG adapter: CA-157

Colors

Dark Grey, Silver White, Green, Blue, Orange

Proformance:

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.

Conclusion:

Without a doubt, depending on whom you ask, the Nokia E7 is either the best or second best Nokia device available right now. Unfortunately though, that might not mean much, because of the fact that it does run Symbian, which isnt exactly the cool kid on the block anymore.

PRO:

• Good display
• Symbian^3 performs well
• HDMI port
• 8 megapixel camera
• QWERTY keyboard
• Decent browser
• Unified email
• 720p HD video recording

CON:

• Pricey
• A tad on the heavy side
• Lack of memory expansion slot