I upgraded from a Nokia E71 (which was an unbelievable upgrade from my previous experiences with Blackberry), and for some reason I was expecting that same leap from the E71 to E72. However, I soon realized, after using my E72 for the past couple days, that the E71 did in fact spoil me. The E72 is still no doubt an amazing phone -along with the E71 and other top Nokias, it's still in its own little league above the Blackberries and other smartphones -but I'll admit I was slightly let down.
If you are looking to buy a Nokia (or any phone) I'd definitely recommend the E72. If you are a huge Nokia fan, then fine, upgrade. If you're happy with your E71....then I'd really think about it (or at least get your hands on one in person). The E72 is much faster, the camera's awesome, and it's still a beautiful phone. BUT you should know a couple things:
-The construction is not quite as top-notch as the E71. It's a little lighter, with some metal replaced for a sort of heavy, hardened plastic. I've heard of the battery panel being loose, but I haven't run into the problem. Mine was made in China, while my E71 was made in Finland, although it seems there can always be problems no matter where it's made.
-The optical pad is a nice touch (it takes some getting used to) and, occasionally, it can misinterpret your choice to click to the side for a sliding movement. But overall I'm getting used to it (and if you really don't like it you can always switch it off).
-I do notice the slightest high pitched buzz when the volume is turned up and the sound coming from the other end of the call is on the loud side. The E71 never had this problem. I take it the speakers were either downgraded or because of the extra plastic there's some sort of vibration (could just be my model). UPDATE: Seems the speaker just needed some "breaking in" (strange, I know). This problem is no longer present. However, still not the best volume in speakerphone mode.
***Overall, I'd say if you're looking at the E72 compared to any top smartphone, this is an excellent choice***
IF you're looking at the E72 and E71 side by side, it is THEN that you start to notice the little details that I mentioned above. True, there are a few more plastic pieces than the E71, but when I think about the Blackberries and iPhones, you're never going to get the same quality you got with the E71, and the E72 is just a notch below that.
E72 is a 4.5 star phone. E71 will always be the best phone I've ever owned.
With one word: NO.
After owning and E71 for over a year, which for me was by far the best phone that I have ever used, I was really excited about getting the new E72 since it featured a 600Mhz CPU which seemed to be my main and only issue with the E71. However the CPU was the only upgrade in this unit and almost everything else seemed to be in fact a downgrade. As mentioned by another reviewer this phone has serious stability issues. The FP2 OS is extremely buggy and crashes, reboots and freezes several times a day. Nokia really needs to work on a new firmware to correct this. Below is every quality of the phone that I could think of as compared to the E71.
HARDWARE
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BUILD QUALITY: Definitely not as solid of a feeling compared to the mostly metal E71. The D-pad feels like cheap plastic and it has some free play. The back cover tends to move occasionally when you are holding the phone to your ear.
SPEAKERPHONE: Very poor quality compared to the E71. There is very noticeable buzzing near the maximum volume, even with high quality music files. Calls on speakerphone at max volume are plain annoying due to the buzzing. On top of that the speaker is not as loud as the one on the E71.
CALL QUALITY: Excellent call quality except at the maximum volume where the call speaker also becomes distorted.
KEYBOARD AND TOUCHPAD: The keyboard feels slightly better than the one on the E71. The buttons seem to give out somewhat of a better feedback. However the E72 is slightly wider than the E71 which makes it a little harder to type on with one hand. The new track pad navigation provides a very inconsistent performance and it is not even close to the one on the newer blackberries. Scrolling up and down is perfectly fine but scrolling sideways becomes an exercise. The good news is that the original directional pad like on the E71 is still there so you can just disable the touchpad if you hate it just as much as I did after a week of usage.
CAMERA: It is still a cell phone camera so keep your expectations low. It takes decent pictures and the quality is about the same as the E71 but with 5 megapixel images and slightly wider lens. The camera application now has built-in panorama mode. Video at 640x480 is plain horrible. The flash on this phone is actually pretty decent. One thing that was very annoying to me is that it uses a very bright focus light(AKA The flash) which makes focusing at macro impossible if you are trying to take a picture of something with brighter colors that reflect more light. There is no way to disable the focus light either, not even in macro mode. Nokia should think about this as well.
BATTERY LIFE: There is simply nothing like it. Except the E71. The battery life on the E72 is also exceptional. I am able to get 2 to 3 days of very heavy usage on it, including 2 to 3 hours of talking, 2 hours of browsing and some text messaging. I have not seen any other phone in this category which gets even close to these stats.
GPS: Works great and it gets a position fix generally within 5 seconds. It seems a little faster than the E71. The E72 also has a compass.
SOFTWARE
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This is the bad part.
FP2: Aside from unifying various internet connections I really did not see much if any of an improvement in this version of the Symbian OS. In fact it features some ugly menu transitions and it has a lot of stability issues. You would get out of memory error with a subsequent freezing at least a couple of times in a day and reboots and total freezes which require battery removal are not uncommon either.
APPLICATION UNLOCK: Yes, the phone is hackable with HelloOX 2 and up.
WEB BROWSER: The browser is definitely improved from the E71 afar as rendering and navigation goes. However I was never able to complete even ONE single browsing session without this thing crashing and just exiting in the middle of something. It would have been great if it did not crash.
E-MAIL: About as bad as the client available on my first T-Mobile Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2002. Although that one was a little better than what Nokia has provided. It is almost 2010 and Nokia still does not have an e-mail client which supports in-line HTML. The Nokia messaging software and service is plain horrible. After 3 days of usage I just cancelled my account and went to using webmail. It is really that bad and this is unacceptable for a supposed "business" device. As an alternative, I would recommend Emoze. Their software even partially supports in-line HTML. If you have Hotmail, you can download Windows Live for Symbian. It works really well.
PODCASTING & INTERNET RADIO: Missing!!!???! Very disappointing.
SIP CLIENT: Missing!!! The SIP settings are there, but there is no client. So forget about gizmo or any similar service unless you are using a third party client like Nimbuzz or Fring.
OFFICE APPLICATIONS: This is one positive category. Quickoffice features a free upgrade to open and edit Office 2007 documents. Nokia has also added Wpresenter, Multiscanner and Font Magnifier as standard applications.
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Overall the E72 is a mixed bag for me. It delivers on speed and the browser is well improved but the stability issues, missing software and some other quirks make this device seem like a downgrade. If I was aware of these issues it is likely that I would have stayed with the E71. So if you are in doubt, my advice would be save your money or at least wait for a firmware update which fixes the stability issues. I hope this was helpful.
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The E72 is one of the best phones ever created.... I am a proud owner of tons of phones and tons more over the last 10 years. The Nokia E72 is a beast.... and I save that category for the rarest of gadgets. Let me explain why (briefly).
Right now I have an Iphone 2g, Ipaq 910, Bold 9700, and the E72. All of my phones serve a purpose in my ever changing lifestyle.
The Iphone is probably the best pda device ever madeemails, sms, mms (now), apps, shortcuts, games, and ease of use. But its still lacking, to me, in various areaslagging, running multiple apps, camera quality, and battery. Most importantly, I hate going in and out of appswhen closed its closed.
The Ipaq 910is probably one of the worst devices ever purchased; yet when running, its the king of pocketpc's. It was tethering at speeds of 10.2 almost 3 years ago. Now everyone is trying to include 3.5g speeds. Sadly, the battery life sucks and it crashes more than a toddler on training wheels. I still have it and refuse to part ways.
The BB 9700 is hands down bb's best effort to me; I would say its the best mobile device on the market. I even added the droid interface and the droid ringtone to spice it up. The track ball is gone and the track pad is even more addictive. It now has a 624 processor and all the bells and whistles, needless to say the best email system going. However, I just get bored with it. I cant figure it out.
Now E72 is my second Nokia... I bought the N97 in June but the price wasnt worth keeping. Nonetheless, it was a quality device. I read about the E72 recently and fell in love with the specs.
Pros-
Battery lifeis unbelievable! None of the aforementioned phones can last a day without dragging out a car charger or a wall charger. The E72 can last 2 days with running: emails, taking pics, creating videos, tons of sms, apps, and tons of phone calls.
Camerais great. I love the quality of the 5mp pictures. The quality changes at night I might add. I almost forgot the front facing camera too.
Phone qualityunbelievable calls...with headphones, bluetooth, or device calls.
smssure its not threaded sms but there are programs that can change the UI if needed.
Operating systemyes its outdated but its solid as a rock...I will take that all day long. Whats worst than having no phone? A phone that crashes... the symbian 60 is like a old BMW, period.
Track pad/clickertrack pad is not as good as the bb but combined with the usual Nokia E series clicker pad make a great combination.
Web Browserexcellent.. The best in its class.
Video Callingrecently Fring added skype video calling... I was blown away.
Audio messengingevery now and then when I am in a hurry I like to record audio messages oppose to sms...great addition.
Contacts, calendar interfaceits smooth...if you can marry with google sync...its even better.
tetheringno need to purchase a program, it does it for you. You can even add a 3rd party program to make it a hotspot....
3.5gits the fastest phone its class... and if you can buy it unlock, you can take advantage of the various network speeds. No need to buy wifi while traveling.
3.5mm headjack outletI ran my jbl desktop speakers and last.fm... unbelievable.
Nokia Office is a great program with Office and Pdf capability...
GPS with OVI maps is superb... now that its free, its a must have with any Nokia.
OTA upgrades,no more using the usb port to upgrade....
Cons-
*Email interface is cumbersome... but now that there is Nokia Email, its a lot better. However, I added Seven push email and its comparable to having BB push service.
*Email Links from BrowserI hate that I cant email a friend a good article from a website... maybe I am missing it some how.
*Nothing is in alphabetical order...when changing apps... Most are all over the place.
*LED flash is on the keypad not the top...I kinda miss the blackberry flashing light.
*On screen function icons too small-like sending a text or email, alarm, and bluetooth... are too small and if you need to know if a email is sent, you have to pay close attention to the sent icon or check the outbox...
*Must use signed aps if not, you can forget it unless you spend hours trying to get it signed...
*Usb jack and phone charger jack different....
Overall I still say this is the best gadget phone out...its a thinking mans phone because a lot of the capabilities are hidden and require work. However, once you have mastered it, you have a mp3 player, an entry level 5mp hotshot, great phone, pda, pocketpc, video camera, great gps, social networker (Nokia Facebook and Twitter Gravity, video caller, and a hotspot.
I highly recommend the Unlocked version oppose to ATT bloatware crasher versions....
Read Best Reviews of Nokia E72 Unlocked Phone Featuring GPS with Voice Navigation - U.S. Version with Full Warranty (Zodi Here
I was waiting for this phone since last 6 month after it was announced in Singapore. I had E51 and wanted to upgrade to a QUERTY business phone. I liked E71 and when i was about to buy e71 I found the news of E72.
I was one the first few to purchase this for almost 450$, But i am very happy with it till now. The features i liked most are
1. The digital compass. This is the most essential hardware/software you require if you really want to use GPS.
2. The Optical nav pad, This makes the scrolling really easy and enjoyable.
3. The latest 600 Mhz processor which makes it the best performing mobile.
4. The camera, finally Nokia's cameras are going to be useful. (I never liked Nokia's camera quality).
5. The accelerometer which can be used in step counter software.
6. The host of all the E series features.
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Coming from a Windows mobile phone (HTC tilt), I love this phone. I have been considering the Tilt2, but wanted to try something other than a WinMo (I didn't find myself using a lot of WinMo features/apps that called for another similar one). iPhone was out of question as I wanted tethering, better battery life and dedicated keyboard. I have been using it for 3 weeks now and liking it more day by day. Few things before moving to Pros and Cons of the phone This phone is not for people that like simplicity of touch screen phones (like iPhone). There is a learning curve in using this phone's features and the shortcut keys. But, imo once familiar with the functions/shortcuts one can do things a lot faster than a touch screen phone.
Pros
****
1. Looks sleek and professional. Call quality is excellent and plenty loud.
2. Keyboard feels very good even though the keys are slightly smaller. They have a nice feedback when pressed.
3. Shortcut keys! There are quite a few shortcut keys on QWERTY keyboard to control phone functions and inside applications. While this feature has a learning curve, I found it very useful once learned.
4. Snappy performance. Very fast and responsive.
5. OVI MAPS for Free! this is simply awesome. Now you can have a GPS with maps for as many countries as you need, for free!. Below is a mini review for this feature to explain it better.
a. The GPS locks on the position very fast while using A-GPS. Most of the time within 10-15 sec I have a lock on the signal.
b. GPS interface is very good and user friendly (I have used the latest Garmin and Magellan).
c. Features include lane assistance, auto zoom in/out based on turns/directions, voice guidance, Speedometer, 2D/3D maps, route overview etc.
d. The map size while getting driving direction is a bit smaller on E72, due to smaller screen. Pretty much only 2x2 inch space is used to show the
map and rest is used for other information. It might look better on Nokias with larger touch screens. In spite of this, the auto zoom in/out makes it
easier to view the map details.
e. I compared it side by side with my Magellan and found it to be pretty accurate. E72 was faster in getting the signals (perhaps due to A-GPS)
6. Wifi Works wonderfully and connects to my home network with WPA2 security without any problems. Once connected, I can turn off scanning to save battery Life
7. Screen is very bright and readable in direct sunlight.
8. Battery life I can wait for 3 days (may be 4 if I wait for the phone to die on me) before I have to connect it to charger. I use Push emails (18 hrs a day) and stay connected to my home wireless network most of the time and occasional use of phone for talking. Even with heavy use I expect it to last at least for 2 days.
9. 3.5mm headphone jack
10. Comes with a 4GB micro SD card.
11. Decent 5MP camera and nice outdoor photo quality. Indoor photos are just OK (most cellphone cameras are the same).
Cons
****
1. Screen resolution is not great when compared other similar type phones (E.g. Blackberry bold). Would have been nice to have higher resolution on such a bright screen
2. Speaker phone volume is not loud enough
3. Mail for Exchange The version on phone is not bad, but it could be better. This is the only application that runs slow on this phone. It takes good few secs for it to open a mail. As it does not load the mail in HTML format automatically, the readability suffers. I had to scroll 2-3 pages to read a few liner mails. Got Roadsync (version 5) for discounted price from OVI store and loving it. It addresses all the problems with Mail for Exchange.
4. Optical trackpad is not very useful (even after setting sensitivity to high). I found using the D-pad quicker.
5. Micro USB connector and shortest cable the USB cable that came in the box is approx 7inch long. For such highly priced phone it would have been nice if Nokia included a good quality longer cable. Also, I would have preferred a Mini USB instead of Micro. Micro USB feels a bit fragile and I feel like I might break it if I'm a bit careless when connecting. Perhaps, the thinner case was a limitation to include a mini USB.
The phone crashed only once till date and that was when using the Mail for Exchange. I blame it on the application for the crash and not the S60 platform. Browsing experience is not as great a touch screen phone/phone with larger screen. But, there is always a compromise on size vs. features.
After loosing the phone (samsung 807) which came with my cingular contract, I was on hunt for a cheap, nice phone with not many internet features. Because the guy who stole my phone made huge bill using internet.
