Review of Nokia E72

Sun, 20/06/2010 - 18:56

Thanks to Nokia, i recieved a Nokia E72 for my comparison to the predecessor: the legendary Nokia E71.

This phone is available since November 2009 on the market, but it’s still fascinating the masses and after a short hands-on, i know why…

First: i am a big fan of the Nokia Eseries especially the QWERTY (QWERTZ in German) keyboard layout. Those phones should be an answer to the BlackBerry phones in the business category. Nokia started first with the Nokia E61 and was very successful with it. So they brought out the Nokia E71 as its successor and landed a really big hit with it. So the E72 has to follow in really big footsteps in design, in popularity and reliability of the E71.

Main features:

- easy setup for business and personal email
- enhanced PC-like email user interface
- Nokia Messaging lifetime subscription
- New Optical Navi™ Key for convenient and easy
scrolling through menu, emails, internet browser, maps and images
- Boosted Performance:
- 5Mpix autofocus camera
- excellent voice call clarity with active noise cancellation technology
- faster mobile broadband connectivity over HSPA and WLAN
- designed with quality stainless steel and aluminium

The first and obvious thing you can see is the keyboard layout. It looks a lot like the E63 keyboard with the smaller spacebar. The layout has been improved and the curved buttons are very good, even for big hands. (for me it’s still not perfect, though) The second feature is the optical Nav-Key, which reacts very good, but it’s far away from the optical mouse, you might know from the BlackBerry smartphones.

The display of 2.4“ (or exactly 2.36”) is still the same, but it seems a bit brighter and more colorfull than the display of E71. For me it was a bit strange to hold the E72 in my hands. The E72 is a bit bulkier at the bottom and the overall edges. But after some time the E72 lies very good in the hand with its 128g weight.

The sound of the speaker is a bit poorer, but whilst phone calls still acceptable for me.

It has all the apps you need on your business day and after changing the theme (this feature is been rolled out first on E71), you have all the nice apps in the „private“ or „personal“ mode. These modes are promoted on the US model of E72, the E73, nower days.

I like the FREE Navigation, which is released on the E72, too. It’s running the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (S60 3.2.3) and has lots of space for the user. I installed Gravity and other must have apps on it and was very surprised that there were still 200MB free :-)

The E72 has A-GPS with compass and Ovi Maps, Music player, Media player, FM Radio, WiFi, UMTS (3G) with 10.2Mbits HSDPA & 2Mbits HSUPA and the 5megapixel cam. If you need to update this device, you can use the FOTA (Firmware over the Air) feature, which is really easy to use.

If you are used to the E71 (like me), you will probably recognize the better and snappier performance, the faster browser and the ability to have the email with real HTML and push email option through OMA Email Notification (OMA EMN). The messaging abilities of the E72 are very amazing. This is a great improvement to the E71. I like the VoIP feature like on the E71, where you can use your SIP accounts even on 3G. but i recommend you to use the VoIP calls on WiFi because of the lagging.

Overall it’s a great device for anytime. It’s build for business (connect via Cisco enviroment, Mobile VPN, Enterprise Solution from Alcatel-Lucent and the ability to connect to Microsoft Exchange Servers or edit MS Word, Excel sheets or Powerpoint slides), but this phone is decent for personal use, too. In fact the big impact and success of E71 and E72 is driven by the personal use of these smartphones. I hope that Nokia will keep the good workmanship and the high-quality materials in the upcoming Eseries phones like the Nokia E5.

Verdict:

I think, if you’re searching for a smartphone with good performance, QWERTY keyboard, lot’s of features in messaging, push email with HTML, many business use cases and apps, great 5megapixels cam (with LED light) and the ability to expand your memory up to 16GB with MicroSD cards and don’t follow the touchscreen hype, then i can recommend the Nokia E72. But when you already own a E71, you could step up, when you miss HTML in your emails, a better performance overall, better cam and a optical Navi-Key, aswell :-)

Technical Profile:

WCDMA 850/1900/2100,
WCDMA 900/1900/2100
GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900
User Interface: S60 platform
Dimensions 114 mm x 58 mm x 10 mm

Category: Eseries

Dimensions: (L x W x H)
Volume: 65 cc
Weight: 128 g
Standby time: Up to 20 days (GSM), up to 24 days
(WCDMA)
Talk time: Up to 12,5 hours (GSM), up to 6 hours
(WCDMA)
Main display: 2.4” QVGA (320x240), up to 16 million colors

Battery: BP-4L, 1500 mAh, Li-Po
Memory: Up to 250 MB internal memory, 4GB micro SD in sales box,
support for up to 16GB microSD memory card

Camera:

Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2592x1944)
Video capture: Video recording in VGA quality
Video calls: VGA front camera for video calls

Instant Messaging:

• Microsoft Live™ Messenger, GoogleTalk, Ovi Chat,Yahoo! Messenger and more via Nokia Messaging

Data Services & Connectivity:

• HSDPA up to 10.2Mbits
• HSUPA up to 2Mbits
• WLAN (IEEE 802.11b/g)
• EGPRS multislot class 32 class A
• High Speed USB
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with
A2DP stereo audio enhanced data rates (EDR)

Additional Features:

• A-GPS with compass and Ovi Maps
• Music player, Media player, FM Radio
• Quick access to applications with one-touch keys
(Home, Calendar, Contacts, Email)
• High Speed connections with HSDPA and HSUPA
• Support for popular social networking applications
• 3.5 mm audio connector
• Voice Functions to manage your device without
touching it
• Built-in mobile VPN for convenient intranet access

• One touch modem access
• Security protection: HW accelerated data encryption
and remote lock and data wipe
• Quickoffice 5.3 with support for Office 2007

UPDATE:

there is one thing i nearly forgot to mention: the battery!

...and you know why? i had to recharge only once in 14 days!

Obviously, Nokia has done their homework and put some improvements into the OS and hardware. The battery is still the same 1500mAh (BP-4L) like it was in the E71, but now with even better powersaving states. f.e. when the battery is very low, a higher powersaving mode turns off the display background light after a few seconds and put every not needed task into sleep. So, you'll never miss when the battery is dying...

The battery performance on the E71 was great, but in E72 the battery is amazing :-)

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