Fresh produce

Nokia E7…. 6 months on

Since getting my E7 in November of last year it has been my everyday smartphone, so I’ve gotten to know it well enough to post this final review.

Hardware
I said from the beginning that this was a real nice piece of hardware and I still stand by that statement. It is beautifully designed and built very well; its taken a lot of abuse over the last 6 months including being sprayed with WD40, and dropped off the top of a shipping container onto concrete, and the only damage it has is a small chip on the casing and an almost invisible crack in the gorilla glass screen which hasn’t effected the screen at all.

The slide-out full QWERTY keyboard was an absolute pleasure to use and the mechanism is as good now as the day it came out of the box. Since getting a phone without one, I have very much missed it…and physical buttons in general for that matter. 

Also worth a mention is the HDMI output, and USB input, both really nice little feature that worked very well, though I never really used them much at all. What I could have used is a Micro SD memory card slot, though I never filled the 16 GB of on-board memory.

Interface
Seriously Nokia, your still pushing Symbian? I don’t care how many times they update it, it makes me want to eat my own face. The antiquated OS is aesthetically dull, sluggish, buggy, glitchy, inaccurate, and unreliable; it crashed on me countless times. Apps are almost non-existent and equally unreliable too.

The one saving grace of Symbian for nokia is the FREE sat nav app. When the app is working, its fantastic! Turn by turn directions, traffic updates with re-routing, it even had an awesome surfer dude custom voice that always amused me even on the longest journeys. When using the satnav whilst streaming music via bluetooth, it even turned the music down, played the instruction through my car stereo, and then turned it up again. Routes were pretty accurate too, though the auto-zoom option did make it difficult to see turns in time.

Camera
Another redeeming feature of this phone was the camera. As smartphone cameras go it better than average and worked reliably most of the time. Low light photos weren’t great but but it had enough settings to get it to do most things, as well as shoot very good video in 720p. One feature which I felt was lacking was a macro (close up) setting, and maybe a interval setting (which my old N95 had).

Final Impressions
Much of my original opinions about this phone remain unchanged, only exacerbated. Its a beautifully designed and built piece of hardware with some great connectivity, and a lovely keyboard. The camera is very good too, and the Sat Nav service is fantastic for a paid app, never-mind the fact that its free.

I love this phone, I really do, and like any great relationship, I can accept its minor flaws like lack of micro SD slot, and certain camera settings. However, the one thing that ruined the whole experience for me, that meant I couldn’t wait to get another phone after less than 6 months, is Symbian. Come on Nokia, put the old girl out of her misery once and for all.

NEW PHONE REVIEW!

Long story but I’ve been without a smartphone for 3 months and have just received a brand new Nokia E7 on warranty and thought I’d write an initial review on it as a designer and then another when I’ve had it a while.

First impressions:
Woo! An actual keyboard! Its heavy in a good way, feels sturdy and of good build quality with is metal case. The screen is huge, bright with a good resolution, and the touch screen is very responsive. The slide mechanism is kinda tricky at first but feels sturdy. Also, Its gotta be one of the sexiest and unusual phones and slide mechanisms on the market.

The full QWERTY keyboard works real good too, the keys are big enough without being too close together. In the box there is also a cable with a USB socket on the end for plugging in flash drives, thats right, it can read flash drives. Jesus christ!

Interface
Its quick, not sluggish at all for a single processor device. I’m not gonna lie though, its not very intuitive…at all. Though it does have a handy search feature which helped me find the Bluetooth. It also comes pre-loaded with loads of apps, which personally I hate. It shouldn’t come with any, apps are a very personal choice. Uninstal, uninstal, uninstal. I like the home screens though, which are easily customisable, and I like that the menu key does what its supposed to do.

Camera
I’ve only had a quick play but I’m impressed; 8 megapixels, thats plenty, especially on a phone, I don’t care what anyone says. Face recognition, also good, no macro setting though. 720p video too, which is perfect for streaming via the HDMI port to an HDTV.

Overall
All the other reviews are right, at first glance the symbian UI has got nothing on android or iOS interfaces, however I get the feeling that once I get used to it, I’ll struggle without it.

Although at first it takes some figuring out, the sheer amount of settings and customisation options are epic and not dummed down at all. The technogeekists will like the fact that its not idiot-proof (cough-iphone-cough).

Its gonna take some getting used to, but with the hardware spec and massive feature list (including free sat nav, HDMI out, HD video, QWERTY keyboard, USB slot) I think I’m gonna like it.