- First Impressions Of The Nokia E75
- Nokia E75 Review: Email
- Nokia E75 Review – Things I Love
- Nokia E75 Review – Things I Hate
- Nokia E75 Review – Hardware
When I arrived here in Austin for SXSW, I met up with some Nokia friends and was handed a red Nokia E75 Euro. Not one to waste time, I quickly set it up for use, to put it to the test in a constantly moving event situation, installing my various apps and getting my PIM stuff all setup. I’ve now been using the E75 full-time for over 24 hours, and have got some first impressions that I wanted to share. Rest assured I’ll have a full review posted soon.
Note: This review is based on pre-production firmware v100.48.58.
First, as I discovered when I had a hands-on, the phone is deceptively small and thin. The red version isn’t quite my style, but it’s not as offensive as I had first imagined. This is a production unit, and I’m pleased to find that the slide mechanism is rock solid, as I thought. Unfortunately, there are a few build issues that are bothering me, mainly with light leaks along the edges of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
To test out the keyboards (both the numeric and QWERTY), I’ve had my Twitter delivering updates via SMS, and have plowed through over 1000 texts in the past few days. The T9 keyboard is nice, but I still prefer the Nokia N79′s, as the E75 numeric keypad is slightly mushy. I’d like to see Nokia somehow make it a bit more clicky. However, the QWERTY keyboard is fantastic. I find myself sliding it open constantly, and it’s supremely fast in entering text. The buttons are flat, but individual and rather large, which means they’re easy to press without accidentally pressing the neighboring buttons.
I’ve also used the music player quite a bit, giving me some music to go to sleep to each night. I’ve been very pleased with the quality of sound coming from the speakers, specifically since this is an Eseries. I’m also extremely pleased with the lowest volume setting, as it’s different from most Nokia’s, being lower than normal (which is in fact a good thing).
I am, however, disappointed with the built-in Nokia Messaging email client. It is different from the version available from the web in several areas, and has several annoyances. The biggest issue with this newer system is that it doesn’t seem to integrate well with its Active Standby plugin. I’m often told that I have new emails there, when I really don’t. I’ve also discovered that, for some reason, if you click through to a new email from the Active Standby, you are taken straight to that email, with no option to switch back to your inbox. To get to the inbox, I have to go through the menu to get to the Email client.
Speaking of menu, something I hinted about on Twitter (@symbianguru) the other day is that the new icons used in the menu are incredibly confusing. Folders are not clearly marked as such, I even had trouble finding a few different applications, such as Share Online and others. I don’t quite know how new users will react to this, though. It could be that these new icons make it easier for newcomers. Something to test, for sure.
Thus far, though, I’m still 100% sold on the Nokia E75 as my next personal phone. The battery life is phenomenal, even with a smallish 1000mAh battery. We’ll be taking a deeper look at some of the key features later this week, including the overall system, camera, and other features. If you have a specific question that you’d like to see covered, please do leave them as a comment here.
