The Communicator and Eseries lineup has been instrumental in Nokia’s success. The range targeted executives who needed a phone that oozed professional looks, gave the ease of a QWERTY keyboard to type mails and of course business tools that allows users to do their work on the go. The latest entrant in Nokia’s business offering is the E7.
Package Contents:
Nokia bundles E7 along with a USB data cable, AC adapter, 3.5mm earphones, mini-HDMI cable, USB-on-the-cable and user manual and warranty card.
Design:
Design-wise, the phone is strikingly similar to Nokia’s multimedia-centric N8 and is a good thing because the build quality found in the E7 is top notch. The phone’s metal chassis gives E7 a premium look and despite weighing a bit, the phone feels good when held in the hand. All in all, an excellent industrial design, which we believe should be adopted in other devices as well.
However, Nokia had to differentiate E7 with N8, which is why they added a larger-sized 4-inch AMOLED display and with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. Other cosmetic differences include Home button moved to the center as opposed to N8’s left-hand side and also the key lock switch has been moved onto the other side.
The keyboard is hidden beneath the slider whereas the HDMI, power, USB and 3.5mm jack are found at the top. The back boasts an 8MP camera with dual LED flash.
Display:
Apart from the design, it’s the display that will attract you to the E7. The E7 boasts a 4-inch AMOLED ClearBlack Display, which is far superior to regular AMOLED displays. The black levels are deep and has good viewing angle along with rich colours. The colours seem washed out when using under sunlight but we think it’s a fair tradeoff considering the top notch legibility it gives outdoors.
Keyboard:
We’ve talked about its design. It’s display. And now it’s third USP – the keyboard. The keyboard can be used by sliding the phone horizontally. The sliding mechanism is really smooth and if you’ve used Nokia N97 before, you’ll know the slide and tilted display has been inspired from the predecessor. Of course, it is improved, which is why a little push on the side alleviates the phone to reveal the keyboard. E7 boasts a four-row QWERTY keyboard, which is one of the best keyboards you’ll find in a mobile device. Perfectly spaced out with chiclet keys make typing on the E7 fast and easy.
Software:
Nokia E7 is based on Symbian^3 OS and considering the solid hardware the phone possesses, the operating system is a letdown. Of course, the OS is largely improved when you compare it with previous touchscreen-based Nokia phones but the Symbian^3 lacks what other superior OSes like Android and iOS offer.
There’s a noticeable lag in some parts of the menu (like clicking Applications will wait for 1-2 seconds before showing all the apps) but one thing that Symbian does very well is multitasking. The phone handled multiple running applications with ease without showing any signs of running out of memory.
The next Symbian Anna update will bring a lot more to E7 like an improved browser as well as a much needed portrait touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.
Multimedia:
E7 scores on the multimedia front. E7 supports lots of formats to keep you entertained. The phone’s audio quality is really good and as for the video capabilities, it is capable to play up to 720p HD movies including the DivX and mkv out of the box.
Camera:
Nokia E7 has an 8 megapixel shooter and though the megapixel count somewhat affirms to the potency camera, there’s more than it meets the eye. For starters, E7 lacks autofocus which means close up shots will be something to worry about. But if macro photography is not your thing, the E7 camera could serve you well. It records videos in up to 720p making it a handy video recorder as well.
Other features:
E7 is integrated with a GPS chip and is pre-loaded with Ovi Maps. One thing good about Ovi Maps is the free Navigation support that allows you to get car as well as pedestrian directions for free.
The USB OTG (on-the-go) is a handy feature as well. The phone is bundled with the USB OTG cable that enables copying content from other USB devices to the E7. We didn’t get a chance to try out with a portable USB HDD but the feature worked flawlessly with a 2GB USB flash drive.
Finally, it’s the mini-HDMI port. After the N8, E7 is the only Nokia device to have the mini-HDMI port. More importantly, Nokia bundles the mini-HDMI cable that allows users to attach their regular HDMI cable to the phone and stream HD content from the phone to the HDTV.
Conclusion:
In terms of hardware and build quality, I would keep the E7 at the top of the table amongst other high-end devices. However, software is equally important to match the superior hardware and this is where Nokia E7 lacks. Symbian was a dominant smartphone OS few years back but given the strong competition from iOS and Android, Symbian is a no match. Hopefully, Anna update could redeem some of Symbian’s lost glory.
Nokia E7 is currently on sale for around Rs.25,000.
Rating: 
Pros: Build Quality, Display, Keyboard
Cons: Symbian OS
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