Nokia e7 review

We all know what E Series stands for. Business phones. Nokia Business phones. And the Nokia E7 takes the line forward to the next level after the E72. The E7 comes as a definite upgrade for E71 and E72 users as far as I have seen and a worthy upgrade.

Main features
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA
Anodized aluminum unibody
4″ 16M-color ClearBlack AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash
720p video recording @ 25fps
680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
microHDMI port 720p TV-out functionality
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
16GB of on-board storage
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
DivX and XviD video support
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter
microUSB port with USB On-the-go
Flash and Java support for the web browser
Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
Smart and voice dialing


Unboxing :
The E7 comes in a very nice, well-sized box, with the same regular blue Nokia color. And the interior is well-equipped, might I say, as usual. Every extra you might need is in there. You have the charger, manual and data cable, the USB-on-the-go link cable which is a slightly modified microUSB jack on one end and a regular female USB port on the other, and a miniHDMI cable, which you can plug directly into your HDTV , for content streaming.

Finally, there’s the one-piece headset and some leaflets.

At this point you will notice that there’s no Memory Card included, which obviously mean… no external storage supported on the E7 sadly but there is 16 GB of on board storage.

Exterior:

The E7 is big.  With dimensions standing at 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm, the E7 is actually… huge. But that’s not it. With landscape-oriented physical keyboard devices, usability and handling is everything. And sincerely, the E7 beats the crap of any other device as far as usability and handling are concerned. And above that, its looks is a killer. Sliding its keyboard open and placing it on a desk has a definite eye-catching effect.

SLIM.

The E7 is thin. Surprisingly thin.

HEAVY.

at 176 g, the E7 cannot but be considered a heavy device. But hey, if I wanted a lighter device, I wouldn’t have chosen the E7. And guess what? We’ve got a fantastic aluminum casing which really looks heavy-duty. Not only looks… it is super heavy duty. As per our stress-test, the E7 can handle a 2-meter fall on plain asphalt without a single scratch. Certified.

Design and construction

Up above the display is a central earpiece, alongside a video-call camera on its right side. On the left are the ambient light and proximity sensors.

Below the display is the menu key. In our opinion, the menu key on the N8 looks better. Sexier maybe. Simpler.

The top of the Nokia E7 holds a power key, an HDMI port which is covered by a glossy black plastic cover, the charging microUSB port and the 3.5mm audio jack.

The microUSB has a nice tiny LED to indicate charging status.

The Nokia E7 left-hand side packs the screen lock/unlock slider.On the right, you’ll find a sliding volume rocker.

The dedicated camera key and the SIM card slot are on the same right side too.

The bottom of the Nokia E7 has nothing but the micro mouthpiece.

The back panel of the E7 holds an 8 mega pixel fixed-focus camera sensor accompanied by a dual LED flash.

Coming from a Nokia N8, you would feel a bit downgraded, but then again, this can be somewhat justified by the different category of users the E7 is targeting. Business users for the E7 versus multimedia freaks for the N8.

Then comes the loudspeaker along with the second microphone used for active noise cancellation and stereo sound recording.

The Nokia E7 has the same 1200 mAh LI-Ion BL-4D battery as the N8. and the battery isn’t user-replaceable.


So, all around, the E7 will give you a solid feel, a feeling of strength and security. It will just feel… well-built.

You cannot do better than that. Everyone will agree that the build quality is the best.


Sliding keyboard

Fitting a full QWERTY physical keyboard into a device as slim as the E7 is an achievement. . Nokia really did a great job on this one.

The slider and hinge mechanism used are roughly the same ones used on the N97 But its all metal and feels sturdy.You have to use your two thumbs to push the side of the display away from you. At first, still not used to it, I had the feeling that I was going to pop the device away. After  A little getting used to it got better and I can even do it with one hand now.

there is the nice comfortable keyboard with four rows of well-spaced keys, with a rubberish feel. The keyboard back lighting is very well done, with no gaps left to fill, so is overall looks and build. No cracks whatsoever, no weird sounds. Operation is smooth and silent.

Display:

The Nokia E7 has a 4” ClearBlackAMOLED display of nHD resolution. It is quite impressive, fact. More impressive than any HTC device, and can easily rank equally with the best Samsung out there.

What it does better than its predecessor, the N8, is not only the size. It also packs the new Clear Black technology Nokia is so proud of.

The E7’s AMOLED display is there to impress with image quality: outstanding black levels, ultra-wide viewing angles and good color renderings. Sunlight legibility is great. Direct sunlight won’t be that big of a problem.

The E7 screen has nHD resolution with 360 x 640 pixels. It doesn’t rank as good as other Android phones or the Retina Display, especially when viewing pictures and multimedia content.Concerning the touch sensitivity, it is pretty impressive. Above that, there’s the Gorilla Glass, which is really very hard to scratch.


Multimedia.:

Symbian music player

There is nothing to be astonished in the Symbian Music Player. Only bonus with Symbian^3 is the Cover Flow-like interface, adding some nice UI.

There are five equalizer presets, but you can’t create a custom one.

Quite naturally, the player can also be minimized to play in background, and control it through a widget on the home screen.


Awesome audio quality

The Nokia E7 is a loud beast.

I tried attaching the E7 to an active external amplifier (My living room home theater amplifier). It did awesomely great!

Headphones experience is totally enjoyable. No glitches to be pointed out here.

FM radio with RDS

The FM radio on Nokia E7 has a simple UI and supports RDS.

Good video experience

The E7’s video player comes with DivX and XviD support out of the box.

The playback was silky smooth on all files with a resolution up to and including 720p, which is quite impressive. We did our tests in this field with 720p recorded films. Many phones wouldn’t play it smoothly. Most of them in fact. The E7 nailed it right upfront. Good points there.

8 mega pixels – no Auto focus

The Nokia E7 sports an 8 mega pixel camera for a maximum image resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels alongside a dual-LED flash.

However, this is Nokia’s 8MP fixed-focus camera module. Quite a disappointment.Basic functionalities is there. White balance, color tone, exposure, ISO, contrast and sharpness settings are all present.Face detection is also available. Geo-tagging too. Auto-focus would have come in handy, especially on a device that expensive but I think Nokia wanted to keep the device slim so the trade off.

Video recording

The Nokia E7 shoots in 720p resolution at 25 fps and offers digital image stabilization.
The secondary camera is good for video calling and is of good quality.


What I think:

Well this is a great device and is a very good upgrade for any E series user with an older E series device. I will recommend this phone to anyone who wants a great business device and trust me it wont let you down on that front. It will keep you smiling when people admire its looks and you will feel good about the build quality. In short its a great phone with great signal quality and  build quality. There is also the USB on the go feature and it proved very useful to me at times and  it makes you forget that you are not having expandable memory as i even connected and used 16 GB pen drives easily.

If you have any questions or comments just email me or leave a comment