Review: Part 1 (Video & Pictures)Part 2 (Specs & Features)Part 3 (E71 vs E72)

Hey all,

This is the second part of my review, if you haven’t seen the first part, you can see it here: Part 1

I’m not going to just list every single spec, as you can easily find that over on Nokia’s E72 page, rather go over the main aspects of the phone.

With a lot of phones, you might find that manufacturers state 2 or 3 key features which make the device what it is, but like with Nokia’s N-series devices, it seems that they really packed a lot into this “business” orientated device, and on Nokia’s own feature page, you see that they highlight 8 major aspects of the device which make it what it is, a truly all round great device. Nokia’s own description of the phone really does make this point as you will soon see:

Nokia E72 is a high-performance device tailor-made for seamless business and personal communication.

Messaging

The first thing Nokia have listed is the messaging, and for a device with a full QWERTY keyboard, they have rightly done so. The phone is able to cope with up to 10 personal emails, has full support for push e-mail and Mail for Exchange. There is also support for Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN messenger as it used to be called), Google Talk, as well as several others, plus with the active homescreen and true multitasking capability, you can have most of not all these things running at the same time!

There are also support for things like Lotus Notes Traveler, and if you don’t have a personal e-mail, you can always sign up to Ovi Mail (which will soon be powered by Yahoo! thanks to Nokia and Yahoo! agreeing to join forces not too long ago).

SatNav

As you hopefully already know, back in February, Nokia announced that they were making Nokia Maps completely free for life not too long after they acquired Navteq. This shook the satellite navigation world, but now means that all new Nokia Symbian phones (and some S40 ones too) will get worldwide SatNav available at their fingertips and if you are worried about data charges, then you can even pre-load all available maps onto your device, so no matter where you are (within reason), you should never get lost again! (All the available maps come to only about 5.5GB which is quite reasonable but you can always just load the ones you want)

For added convenience you can also head over to the Ovi Maps website, log in, so you can plan and save your routes and manage your favourites, then if you have set your Ovi Maps on your phone to auto sync, next time you start the maps application, it will update it straight to your device, which means it will take all the things you saved on the Ovi Maps website and synchronise it with your phone, so no more need to fiddle around with your phone, trying to plan a route, or add new addresses!

Ovi Maps (maps.ovi.com)

The phone is also A-GPS compatible which means it uses your phone network to help pick up your location a lot quicker, but just note that there are some small amount of data used for this, so you may get charged, but you can always turn the “network based” GPS off in the settings, which will just means it takes a bit longer to find your position.

Ovi

The Nokia Ovi brand is basically all of Nokia’s services rolled into one nice and convenient  location, and can be accessed by heading over to www.Ovi.com

One of the great things you can do from your device is download apps from the Ovi Store so if it’s not already on the device, I’m sure someone has put the application in the store, whether it be free, demo or premium, these are available from: store.ovi.com (just select your device from the top right of the page, or log-in if you already have a Ovi account)

All of the Ovi services currently available include:

  • Ovi Files – Access your files from anywhere (Being discontinued as of 1st October 2010)
  • Ovi Calendar – Back up and edit your calendar
  • Ovi Contacts – Back up and edit your contacts
  • Ovi Maps – Plan your trip on our computer and sync your route to your phone
  • Ovi Store – Get apps, games, videos, and more
  • Ovi Mail – E-mail
  • Ovi Music – Music Store
  • Ovi Share – Share your photos and videos

Ovi.com

Performance

The E72 is able to hold it’s own, and is able to cope with multitasking with ease as Nokia have given it a more then ample 600Mhz processor, and as always, to switch between running application, just hold down the home/menu key. You also get 128MB of RAM and a very good 250MB internal memory which means smooth running and you are less likely to run out of space for your messages, e-mails and other files, but don’t forget Nokia have included a 4 GB memory card so you have plenty of space for your pictures, videos, documents, and other things like your maps.

Design

A lot of this I covered in part 1, but I just thought I’d highlight how the stainless-steel trim on the phone makes the phone feel nice to hold, the hard plastic on the back isn’t really the best material they could have made it out of, but it’s not the worst either and looks fine. Either way, I’m sure most people will be concentrating on the front so much you’ll soon forget about the back.

The device keeps a uniform theme around it, with the memory card slot and USB port cover’s made out of the same material as the rest of the plastic on the phone, so when the covers are closed, they don’t stand out, and all the buttons have a metallic feel which is pleasing on your fingers. The plastic it’s self is coloured rather then painted which means that if you are unfortunate enough to scrape it, or after a lot of normal wear, you won’t see bit’s of different coloured plastic beneath the top layer.

Some of the nice touches to the device and things like the optical pad, but Nokia have kept the 5-way navigation key’s is a great idea as it allow people the opportunity to use both or whichever one they prefer rather then being forced to only having one option like you have on blackberry’s.

The QWERTY keys themselves, are nice to touch, although personally, I have got used to bigger keys like those on my N900, so it took me a day or so to get used to the smaller layout, although I have almost got used to it (typical, just as I have to give it back!).

One thing which I did mention in the video in part 1, is the torch function, which is really useful to have right there, built into the device without the need for third-party apps (which don’t always work or only light up the screen!). To activate, when you are on the homescreen, just hold the spacebar key for about 2-3 seconds, and it will turn on, and stay on until you do the same to turn it off. You can even use it without unlocking the keypad, but to prevent accidental turn on, you have to keep the spacebar key held down while you are using the light, when you release it, it will turn the light off.

Photos and video

The E72 has a great 5 megapixel camera which is capable of taking pictures at 2592 x 1944 pixels and sports autofocus and flash. To focus all you have to do is place your thumb/finger over the optical pad without pressing, and the phone will try to focus, which is equivalent to half pressing the camera key on normal digital cameras, then just press the select button to take the picture, it’s simple and really intuitive when you try it yourself! If it is not able to focus (i.e. shows a red or orange box instead of green), just move your thumb/finger away, then move back to try focusing again.

Internet

The web browser on the E72 has good HTML and Flash support (via Flash Lite 3.0) and is capable of up to 10.2 Mbps over HSDPA (3.5g), dependant on network availability, and you can also connect via Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g.

Browsing is made smooth and easy thanks to the optical pad but you always have the 5-way navigation keys if you prefer and as I mentioned above you get access to services such as Ovi, Windows Live Messenger, etc right from the device.

Applications

The phone comes with some nice applications including a full version of Quickoffice so you can view and edit Microsoft Office 2000, XP, 2003, and 2007 documents (DOC, XLS, and PPT file formats) and also view PDF’s on the phone. To add to this, with the PictBridge compatibility, you can even print without needing a PC (on a PictBridge compatible printer – This might only work for picture, but possibly even documents!).

If what’s on the E72, or any Nokia for that matter, is not enough, you can also head to the Ovi Store for the latest apps, widgets, games, themes and everything in between to keep you going!

Ovi Store (Store.Ovi.com)

Continued in part 3

Review: Part 1 (Video & Pictures)Part 2 (Specs & Features)Part 3 (E71 vs E72)