Update 27th May 2012It has been a year plus of using this phone. I have been tempted to change to another phone but some things keep holding me back. Maybe I am just sentimental. Maybe it is regret that Nokia decided to prematurely abandon the platform, which is actually pretty good.
But mostly I just loved the fact that I can tether it to my laptop to access the internet without paying extra smartphone tethering plan / jailbreak / etc.. (for some reason, some telco considered this phone a dumbphone thus I can use the unlimited data plan for dumbphone. Which is cheaper. WIN!!)
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This is a good phone. But no gadget is perfect and I will go into the pros / cons. Hopefully this will help those who are on the fence to make up their mind.
(Really, the Symbian / Nokia users need not much convincing and are already very aware of the phone; while the android / iOS fans will probably just stick with what they are comfortable with).
First, I have been a Nokia / Symbian user for a long time. My wife has an iPhone; so I can appreciate both. Played a bit with android but did not spend too much time with it to give a fair opinion on it. On to the review:
What about the Hardware?
First, the hardware is very nice and is a major selling point. The OLED screen with 'Clear Black Display' really looks nice on the eye. If people are impressed with 'Retina Display' they should be equally impressed with E7 screen with the vivid color and unparalleled contrast. OLED also draws less power and have tricks with the sleeping screen (check Nokia Beta Labs Sleeping Screen app).
The form factor is another reason to consider E7. For those like me, who prefer a hardware keyboard... Let me say that the keyboard is one of the best. The slide mechanism is solid and impressive too.
The GPS function can easily replace a dedicated unit out there. Especially since you can sideload map from all over the world free using the OVI Suite.
USB on the Go, HDMI output, QuickOffice offer great flexibility in sharing / viewing / moving your files and media. The media / music player is an included standard feature as well.
Do I need to mention that the E7 cover all the international variants of GSM / HSDPA frequency band? This means you can access 3G pretty much all around the world where they are available. (Most other phones cover all the GSM frequency variants but not HSDPA.)
In a nutshell, the hardware is a solid five. Some may disagree on the camera though. Being a fixed focus with EDOF (Extended Depth of Field), you will not be able to take close up picture. This is a trade-off for the slimmer body. Still, the picture is usable (I suggest to change the color to vivid and use sharpest setting the camera processing seems to produce a very subdued picture). You may want to check Nokia N8 if camera is more important to you than a hardware keyboard.
What about the software?
Symbian^3 is a major step up from the earlier version. Still, to really enjoy it, one has to actually go into it and learn the intricacies. So yes, it is not as intuitive (simple) as iOS. But some may actually prefer the flexibility that comes with this. Here is a couple of tips (things I always do when I get a fresh Symbian phone):
Give accompanying OVI suite a try (try the beta version.. it's faster). I mostly use it as an easy way to tether my laptop (yes sir, big reason why I love unlocked Nokia phone) but some of the other features are nice too.
Update all the firmware / apps.
Reorganize the icons into folder structure that make sense to you. It is a hassle the first time but will make a difference as to how you use the phone. (Option > Organize)
Play around with the setting. (Seriously..)
If you really have to have iOS style interface, you can customize multiple shortcut widgets on your 3 home screens. Frankly, I never see the need to do this.
The search widget is quite useful... but do go to the setting to exclude items that you don't want it to index.
Here is a tip... touch and hold is like a mouse right click. It brings up context menu for many items in the phone.
What about the apps?
Sad to say, this is a major con when it comes to Symbian. If you come from Android / iOS, the first thing you will notice is actually the lack of it. This is especially a concern now since Nokia announcement to transition to Windows Mobile. It makes for less incentive for software developers to further develop apps for the platform.
That said, thus far, I am still seeing new apps every now and then. And Symbian is feature rich enough that you don't necessarily miss them. Still, here are a couple apps you should get if you do get the phone.
Opera Mini / Mobile : Trust me, this will make your browsing experience much, much better. Nuff said. (also, please tinker with the setting.)
Swype : You don't really need it for this phone because of the hardware keyboard. But if you are lazy to flip it open.
Gravity : Facebook / Twitter client
JoikuSpot : turn your phone into mobile WiFi HotSpot.
Nokia Internet Radio / Tunewiki : Good for listening to Shoutcast radio.
Try out any of the apps from Nokia Beta Labs / Check out Ovi Store...
If you are adventurous, scour the net for various app out there in the net too (I typically go to allaboutsymbian.com for tips, etc)
Frankly, there is not much essential apps to mention for now.. I do wish we have a kindle app for the phone (are you listening Amazon?). Maybe Evernote. And maybe more games too. Again, here is an area where I have to say that I envy my wife and her iPhone.
What about the performance?
So far, the phone is snappy enough. The only time it sometimes seems to freeze is when I am installing new apps (it will resume to normal if you leave it, I just feel apprehensive whenever that happens).
So there you have it. The phone does have potentials. Whether it will meet your needs or not is another. I am done tinkering with my phone for now to make it works the way I want and am quite happy with it.
The slide-out keyboard is quite comfortable. I can also touch the screen to get the cursor where I want, no need to tap the scroll keys or reach for a mouse.
Push mail is now more convenient than ever (use multiple email accounts, choose Ovi Messaging, Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Mail for Exchange, Lotus Note Traveller, IMAP or POP).
Maps works even when you are not connected to any network (just pre-load maps of the geographic areas you need).
Camera gives excellent quality 8MP pictures and HD video. The lack of auto focus simply means I can't take close-ups of documents or displays.
MS Office documents can be created and edited (.doc, .xls and .ppt) while waiting at airport terminals and on airplanes.
Now I don't need to carry my laptop around for meetings and presentations.
Just an HDMI cable to connect to LCD TVs or projectors.
E7 can connect to external HDD...I have not yet been able to get it to work with my HDDs, but that may be due to my HDD partitioning scheme and filesystems.
Nokia looks to be at a crossroads of the mobile mindshare.
If Nokia wants to improve the User Experience or UX...they should seriously take a look at the MOAP UX used on Japanese Symbian smartphones.
In 2007, a long time ago in mobile mindspace, these Japanese phones with MOAP UX wrapped around the Symbian OS, had rich media, DVB-TV and push email.
The Nokia E7 shows that Symbian can still beat any phone OS available today with features like:
Networking
Multitasking
Efficient CPU and Memory Usage
Longer Battery Life
Multiple form factors (touch screen, QWERTY keyboard, T9 keyboard, or any combination)
There's a lot of BS going on about Symbian being 10 yrs old technology.
Technically, most "modern" mobile operating systems are repackaged with graphical interfaces wrapped around "old" operating systems.
Very few companies can claim to come up with a "new technology" mobile phone operating system...a lot of the "innovation" is the user interface.
Under the hood, Symbian is a solid tried and tested truly mobile phone OS kernel.
If Symbian is 10 yrs old then...
Android is even older (with the 20 yr old Linux kernel)
Apple iPhone iOS is 25 yrs old (iOS contains the Unix Mach/BSD kernel)
WP7 is 15 yrs old (WP7 contains the Windows CE kernel)
Besides putting in great graphics, animations and eye candy for the GUI...Nokia certainly need to take better care with doing a "task analysis" of the user interaction on each phone model (since Nokia have an abundance of phone models that are most likely designed, built and shipped by different groups within the company).
This should help bring about consistency with the key press and screen taps for
....different operations for related user actions
....steps to perform similar types of operations.This phone is a best looking phone on the market right now. I was so excited to get the phone and I set it up similarly to my N8, which I decided to keep as a backup. The hardware on this phone is exceptional better than any phone I've had before and it puts the iPhone to shame in terms of its looks, beautiful flip up screen and amazing keyboard which is so easy to use, but the O/S on this phone is not nearly as smooth or user friendly as it should be.
Basically the problem is that they have modified Symbian^3 from the Nokia N8 for this phone and whoever has done it has made a real mess of it. Once you have a decent number of apps on the phone ( incidentally much less than I put on my N900) the phone constantly lags, and even after a hard reboot, unless you turn off the online widgets freezes and needs rebooting all the time on average I am rebooting it 6 times per day with the widgets on. After hours on the phone with Nokia support they really can't offer any solid suggestions.
Until Nokia gets their act together on their O/S I would say that this phone will only serve a niche market and that really is a shame because it feels wonderful in the hand and has a marvellous display, but without a decent O/S it basically doesn't completely do what it's supposed to do!
Note: I have revised this review as I realized that the problems I was having relate to using the online widgets in a non-3.5/4G environment I will still keep this phone for the moment but will likely upgrade to the new Meego Nokia N9 phone when it appears.I'm writing this review from the perspective of someone who's had a Nokia epiphany with the E71 (some time ago) and a somewhat muted (at least, at first) yet ever-growing blast with the E72.
Essentially, the jump from a non-touch ~2" screen to a truly gorgeous 4" AMOLED touch screen (and the wonderful freedom it allows for Symbian to finally let loose) is just short of life-changing, and thus, if you're making the leap into the touch screen arena for the first time, you can expect to be just as -if not more -blown away as I am now. For those of you who've been playing with touch screens for ages now, even I can admit (and, so far, a good number of iPhone and various Android users, too) that this screen's size and brilliance is definitely at or near the top.
One more thing before I cover a few, select details: I had heard that Nokia's earlier ventures into the touch screen market didn't quite measure up to the fast, responsive, and flowy moves of iOS (e.g. N97, X6). This was a major worry, because I just couldn't imagine anything worse than being stuck with a physical button-less screen that jolted and froze as I poked around the Symbian interface. However, due to the difficulty in finding independent retailers that had any of the newest models of touch screen Nokias available for demos, I took a very cautious step out, bought the E7, and was most pleasantly surprised! It's a breeze, and even after the wonder of the screen's beauty wares off, the sensitivity, responsiveness, and class (yes, it's classy) will continue to make you ponder how Nokia's E7 could possibly still even have one of the best mobile keyboards ever built!! It's overwhelming...
Now, time to be short and sweet and name just a few ups and downs:
The fact that Nokia managed to squeeze the keyboard and screen into a mobile device whose hardware (as usual) is impeccable and truly some of the best Nokia's ever put together (which is saying something, trust me), and whose form factor is as fresh, slim, and eye-catching as a concept phone that's come out 6 months too early, is just unheard of in today's somewhat mundane mobile marketplace. And plus, the whole brick-like "communicator" style seemed to be out, but now Nokia has given it more than enough new and improved life to make the E7 also an incredibly unique piece. Tired of having to come up with new tricks and apps (what is that one.. Swype?) to type on a virtual, touch keyboard...and dealing with an unfortunately steep learning curve (which many times doesn't have a top)? Well, why don't I just pop up my screen to this curiously comfortable 30 degree angle and type on a real keyboard! How refreshing...
As always, phone's tend to seem they could use a bit more power. And, like any phone, I wouldn't complain if there was just a little more kick here as well. It's fast, but you'll notice just the tiniest inkling of lag when you're installing new programs (and, ofcourse, new software updates and whatnot, as mentioned by another reviewer here). I have to admit -being used to Symbian -I have become patient and understanding when my phones have seemed to freeze for a second or two when introducing new software to them, but it's not the end of the world.
Now that Nokia's officially jumping ship (or "platform"....) to Microsoft's mobile OS, one would (reasonably) assume that Symbian's essentially dead in the water. This idea went through my head for a second, but I've put it behind me. First of all, I think Nokia's done a really good job with Symbian^3, and considering that I've only come onboard a few months after the E7's release, there've been a good handful of serious software updates, and I have had nearly zero problems at all with the OS thus far (with only a minor problem installing some updates to Ovi maps and the Symbian search: they'd download, but would continue to fail in installation...but nothing a restart of the phone couldn't fix ... which tends to be an easy and simple fix for most things when it comes to Symbian). Therefore, I have a good feeling that this switch to Microsoft's WP7 will not be much of a problem at all (considering the following Nokia has in the Symbian world), at least, not as much as what it will probably bring to the OviStore (which is also debatable). **UPDATE: Symbian "Anna" will be available for the E7, sometime soon (as of April '11)**
Also about Symbian: for those of you who know the OS, I think Symbian^3 on the E7 will be a lot of fun; although I'm definitely used to the ins and outs (however, I'm surely not a pro), I still had to do a little internet research for the usual hidden tips and tricks, and some basic how-to. Those who know Symbian will know what I'm talking about. Symbian isn't about dumbing things down so that everything is as clear as day (and simultaneously taking the customization and uniqueness to the chopping block). There is no one place for all your phone's preferences, for instance. So if you can't find how to change something, don't give up. It's part of the fun and once you figure it out, it'll slowly all make sense, and a wonderful map of a world known as Symbian^3 will slowly form into a coherent, simple, straight-forward and truly logical OS.
I'm still discovering plenty on the E7, and I'm still doing double takes at it's distinctive elegance, refinement, and true artistry, as it sits on my table with it's slightly tilted, thin, brilliant face looking up at me over a streamlined keyboard and award-worthy body. If you have yet to jump into the world of Nokia, this is the top of the top and one hell of a place to dive in. For those of you who have anything at the level of an E72 and below (essentially anything but the N8, C7, and, perhaps, the C6), this is definitely a worthwhile upgrade.
I'll be back with some pointers!
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