Nokia E7 - Review

“The Nokia E7 is a viable alternative to a BlackBerry and will sit well with email addicts. However, the Nokia software makes the phone cumbersome to use”

Aluminium bodywork

The Nokia E7: A quality build

At first sight the Nokia E7 looks almost identical to the Nokia N8 because both have large touchscreens, sleek bodywork and flat ends. Yet the E7 hides a secret extra feature - a physical keypad.

The covert keypad only emerges when, holding the phone horizontally, you push E7’s 4in touchscreen back in a sort of ‘up and over’ fashion reminiscent of the HTC Desire Z.

Considerable effort is needed to push the screen back though and several times I almost dropped the smartphone in the process.

Once opened, the screen rests at a slight incline that makes typing on the physical keypad and sporadically tapping the touchscreen feel fairly natural.

Typing out emails and text massages using the physical keys wasn’t too difficult, although they lack the definition required to make BlackBerry style touch-typing possible.

E7(black) £429.99

0 min 0 texts

£0.00

Build quality is fantastic and the phone feels incredibly well made, with the aluminium body - available in several hues - giving it a stylish look. The phone is heavy though - 176g, including the non-removable battery.

The phone itself runs Symbian^3 - the latest version of Nokia’s ill-fated smartphone operating system (OS) that made its debut on the Nokia N8 and which was supposed to propel the company back towards pole position in the global smartphone rankings.

Symbian^3

Keypad: Tricky to open but good for typing

Symbian^3 is a marked improvement on older versions of the software and help to give the E7 an iPhone-ish aura. However, the countless differently sized widgets and apps spread across numerous homescreens mean the E7’s app arrangement is messy and difficult to navigate.

Ovi Maps - Nokia’s answer to Google Maps - remains one of Symbian^3’s best features, as it helps you navigate like a satnav with the greatest of ease while driving or on foot. I also love how maps are stored to the phone, so that users can find places when without an active 3G connection.

The touchscreen, while brilliant outside thanks to its “ClearBlack display” often juddered while zooming in on webpages. Yet it made videos, pictures and games look splendid.

Speaking of videogames, the Nokia E7 has an HDMI port atop one end for displaying anything on the smartphone on your HD-ready TV instead.

While the Nokia E7’s 16GB internal memory is probably enough for the average user, someone who wants all their PC’s digital music, videos and pictures mirrored on their smartphone may be put off the E7’s lack of a memory card slot.

HDMI TV connection

The 8Mp camera does the job

One way around this is to carry content on a standard USB thumb-drive, since the phone’s “USB On-the-go” feature means you can plug one into the phone at any time. You will need to keep the connector cable with you though, because the Nokia E7 doesn’t have a standard USB port.

FM fans won’t like the phone’s lack of a radio player, it’s worth noting. But this can be overcome by download apps for your favourite stations.

While it’s fair to say the E7’s 8Mp camera isn’t a patch on the N8’s 12Mp offering, which even includes swanky Carl Zeiss optics, the E7’s shooter still produces pleasing pictures. It will also record decent HD (720p) videos.

The battery life of the E7 left me quite satisfied as it still had a fair amount of juice remaining after an entire day of testing. Standby life was also admirable.

This may be down to the smartphone’s “battery saving mode” which, just like my laptop, helps to conserve juice by activating the screen saver and so on.

Find your perfect mobile phone deal

---

Compare Phone Plan: PAYG Monthly

Compare Compare contracts costing up to: £5