The Nokia E71 is arguably one of the most popular Symbian-powered smartphones since the N95, and many of you guys and gals are still using it, which is awesome. However, clearly there are things that the venerable E71 is missing, such as a decent camera, 3.5mm audio port, and updated version of the Symbian platform.
Enter the E72.
From the moment it was announced, the E72 has had to live up to its older brother’s reputation of a rock-solid build quality, stable firmware, and overall killer experience. Definitely big shoes to fill. From the spec sheet, it looks like a slam dunk. However, before declaring a dead winner, I asked Nokia if I could check one out for you guys, to make sure it really is all it’s cracked up to be. Dotsisx already put the device through our standard Symbian-Guru review process, so this will be a much shorter ‘review’. You can read her full E72 review series here.
Hardware
The first thing I noticed on the E72 is that the build quality looks like perhaps some Nseries guys have been sneaking into the Eseries department. There are far too many light leaks, and there is also a noticeable gap between the display and the top edge of the QWERTY keyboard, as you can see below.
The keyboard, fortunately, is just as nice as that of the E71 and E63, with a nice feel and excellent tactile feedback. I personally really enjoyed the layout, as well – the keys are nicely spaced, and you’ll notice there’s no shortage of handy shortcuts built-in, including the flashlight feature from the E63, quick Bluetooth access, and quick silent-mode.
Sadly, as Dotsisx hit on before, the battery cover is just poorly designed. There is only a single clasp, as opposed to the 2 on the E71, and this clasp is horribly weak. On several occasions, the door came loose just in normal use, which is definitely a bad thing. Fortunately, the SIM card slot is nicely designed – easy to insert and remove the SIM card.
The front of the device has been tweaked as well, to keep up with the latest Eseries design cues. The softkeys and send/end keys have been recessed slightly to give prominence to the shortcut keys positioned between. Unlike its predecessors, the E72’s shortcut keys are only two buttons with shortcuts on either end, somewhat like a rocker, as opposed to a real button. The raised design also lends itself to accidental keypresses, so that I was constantly dumping myself back to the homescreen by accidentally pressing the Home button instead of the softkey.
The E72 is also the first Eseries to feature an optical d-pad, integrated into the expected physical d-pad. While most, including Dotsisx, found themselves turning this feature off, I found it to be quite nice. You can use the optical d-pad to simply brush your finger across and quickly click through the menus. It can be really handy, and definitely saves your thumb from getting calloused from the hard edges of the rest of the d-pad. Of course, there’s room for improvement, such as the ability for each ‘swipe’ to count as more than a single ‘click’, and some sensitivity tweaking, but I personally found the optical d-pad to be a great addition to the E72.
Software
The Nokia E72 comes with a ton of internal storage for your apps and themes and whatnot. Unfortunately, where Nokia was generous with the internal ROM, they were incredibly stingy with the RAM, leaving the Nokia E72 with only around 40MB after bootup. This is fine for normal users who may only have one or two things running at once, but it’s pathetic from a company who should have learned from previous debacles in this category, such as the N95-1, N96, and more recently the N97 and N97 Mini. Users shouldn’t have to hassle with constantly monitoring their RAM usage on the flagship Eseries business device.
The Nokia E72 also ups the ante in the media department, almost to the point of completely becoming an Nseries. There’s finally a standard 3.5mm audio port, perfect for listening to your music through headphones, earphones, computer speakers, or even a home stereo system. The music player is also a bit updated, thanks in part to the update to S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2. Audio quality through the 3.5mm port is awesome, as expected, with no noticeable hiss or static. The built-in speakers are decent, though not something you’ll want to use all the time.
The Nokia E72’s camera is a breath of fresh air in the Eseries family. It’s the first Eseries to feature a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, and it’s actually really nice, too. Gone is the annoying purple tint of the E71, replaced with truer color representation and a much faster overall experience. The team has done a great job of bringing a quality camera to the Eseries lineup. Unfortunately, the phone still lacks a dedicated camera button, which drives me bonkers. Instead, you’ll need to set a shortcut from the main screen if you want to be able to quickly snap a photo.
Conclusion
A year ago today, I would likely have loved the E72. It’s built well, has plenty of features from both the Eseries and Nseries camps to be a good in-between, and works well. The firmware is great and there is now a bundle of great apps that run on S60v3 FP2 to keep me happy. However, it’s 2010, and after spending some time with the 5800 XpressMusic, I’m now convinced that I simply must have a touchscreen smartphone. It doesn’t need to be entirely touchscreen – hybrid devices like the N97 and N97 Mini are preferred – but it needs to have a touchscreen, nonetheless.
Thus, I’m rather pleased to send the Nokia E72 back to its home with Nokia’s PR folks. If you’re not into the whole touchscreen ‘thing’, and just need a really solid business-oriented smartphone, the E72 is it. It completely trumps the new BlackBerry Curve 2 (85×0) series in nearly every way possible (unless of course you like/require BlackBerry OS), and it’s definitely a sexy piece of kit. Even better, Amazon.com currently has the E72 NAM on sale for $340 with free shipping – a killer price for such a full-featured device. UK readers can shop our UK Mobile Phone Deals site for the E72 with a contract, too.
