As you may be aware, I’ve been playing with the Nokia E7 for a couple of weeks. Today, you get to read what I think about this wonderful device.
Let me start with this: we’re all different, and while a blogger/reviewer must make an objective and somewhat “geeky” analysis, the truth is that those who read reviews aren’t all geeks. This is what made me approach my review in a not-so-geeky way (probably not geeky at all, but I’ll leave it for you to decide).
First things first: The phone!
Specs:
- Pentaband
You can use this phone in any country on this planet (with GSM coverage), it will allow you to make calls and or browse the internet. What more is there to say?
Reception quality on the places I usually frequent hasn’t been an issue (except for the beach, but I didn’t go there), and as my network signal never lowers under max (take that), I can’t say if it’s better or worse than others.
- Anodized scratch-resistant Aluminum unibody
While far more resistant than the average plastic, or even regular aluminium, truth is this isn’t scratch proof. After a few months of usage, you’ll start seeing minor scratches, mostly on the back. Even so, this is definitely way better than any other mainstream material we’ve seen thus far from Nokia. (yes, not counting Titanium here :p)
As you can see below, this trial device from Nokia Connects (that has been trialled 4 times prior) has few usage scratches, and I believe folks who have been using it where careful enough.
- 4” CBD (Clear Black Display) Screen, with a 360×640 resolution, capable of displaying 16M colors. Multi-Touch capable, and protected by the well-known scratch-resistant “Gorilla Glass”.
While HD resolution isn’t what one should expect from a flagship 4” phone, I find it pretty usable and enjoyable.
As for colors, we all know what Nokia has got us used to, and CBD display just makes it even more astonishing. The screen is visible even on the brightest day with no need to tilt or hide the device in a shadow (how lame can it be?).
- 8 Megapixel Full-Focus EDoF (Extended Depth of Field) Camera with dual-LED Flash and 720p High Definition Video Recording at 25 fps
So here is the Achilles’ heel that many of “us” complain about.
Even not having the ability to take macro-shots, truth is this camera handles quite well any image we’d like to retain. I’ve made several tests based on *normal usage* and I haven’t encountered a single obstacle on doing it right.
In my opinion, this isn’t the perfect camera, but it’s a decent alternative taking into consideration that an auto-focus camera wouldn’t allow it to be such a slim device, so that makes me one of those who simply don’t really understand why all these complains. (ok, I do understand: they’re all hardcore users that want every single feature a phone can have.)
I’ll have few more words (and media) on this to publish in near future, but for now I’ll leave you with some comparison pictures taken by the E7 and the N8. Remember, pictures were taken just like any regular person, I haven’t messed with settings or used any photography app.
(N8 first, E7 second)
A visit to local Zoo, shame it’s a dying zoo but animals are healthy and that’s what matters.
Feeding the Hippo! As you can see, colors on the N8 are really awesome, while E7 gives us a grey”ish” feel, specially on trees. However, E7′s samples are good enough if you just want to save them to posterity.
N8
This isn’t a good photo, I know, but it does a good job showing the differences between the most powerful camera phone at the moment (N8), and the “so-called” worst camera phone (E7). As you can see, N8 is awesome, but E7 isn’t that bad at all!
N8
One more sample, the Lion(ess) cage! (Lion was sleeping hidden on a unspotable area)
N8
Here we can see the huge difference between sensor sizes. Sun was shining (monkey is looking at it, how dumb :p) so lighting was intense on this sample. (There was a glass division between me and the monkey).
N8
During a chat on twitter, a while ago, with a fellow mobile enthusiast, about the macro-shot “difficulties” of E7′s camera, I tried to show him that even not doing macro’s, the camera was perfectly able to retain any information written in a decent sized font. This is what I used then, and this is what I’ll use now again to show you guys that once again, all those rants on the web about EDoF are a bit “over the roof”:
As you can see, the picture looks a bit blurry and “unfocused” at the center of the page. But, you can read the entire page with little effort (as long as you understand Portuguese).
I won’t say the E7′s camera is awesome, but i just can’t understand why everyone keeps complaining this much about it.
Taking pictures is easy, super-fast and even not being as good as a point and shoot camera, they’re good enough for me to keep them for the future. Afterall, a camera in a phone like this isn’t meant to take artistic photos.
- Symbian^3 Operating System on a 680 Mhz ARM11 CPU with 256MB of RAM, 1Gb ROM and 16GB internal storage. There is no memory card slot available on this phone 
This line would be good some time ago, but nowadays…
Symbian: Its death was announced Feb’11… there’s no denying that even being supported until 2016, it’s not a platform with future.
Symbian handles all the tasks I (read: I) need it too, and it *is* the best at it, but.. there’s just a lack of quality in most of the apps for it. I really don’t know if it’s a limitation of Symbian, or if it’s developer’s stubbornness, but almost every Symbian app is too much basic.
- ARM11 CPU clocked at 680MHz: This doesn’t sell a lot.. in fact, it may even scare those “spec-lover” costumers away, even being capable of handling every task you want it to. I’m yet waiting to see someone complaining about lagging games or apps on the E7 (N8/c7/c6), so I guess this just proves my point: It’s enough, but doesn’t help on selling the product.
- MMC: There’s no MMC slot on this phone, and for some that can be really bad, but USB-OTG can really make you even forget that MMC’s are still used! I don’t mind if Nokia stops using MMC’s, as long as there’s USB-OTG. (really)
- A-GPS with Turn-by-Turn Voice Navigation and Digital Compass support
I’ve only used the built-in GPS (along with wonderful Nokia Maps application), but as a long time Nokia user, it’s nothing new to me. We get a signal lock in less than a few seconds (hey, maybe 5), and the accuracy is just plain awesome. Having the ability to pre-load maps into the device is everything a user could ask when data-plans are simply crappy all over the world (yes, except few awesome countries)
- Wifi 802.11b/g/n
I didn’t have the opportunity to try out 802.11 n, as my current router simply doesn’t support that, but I guess it isn’t that important, 54MBps are ok..
Antenna reach is good enough (I live in a duplex, and never lose signal inside home, so that says it all).
- Bluetooth 3.0 (with A2DP)
Another of the features I wasn’t able to test. I’m not much into “mobile music”, only listen on the car, or at home..
- Stereo FM Radio with RDS support
I was surprised with the minimalist FM Radio interface on the E7, simple yet effective, and *could not be better*. A radio is a radio, not my twitter timeline, so the less information on the screen, the better (except for RDS info).
- Micro HDMI port with 720p High Definition
This is the best feature this phone has, no doubt about it.
Even only supporting 720p resolution (that’s not really an issue, but could be better), there’s no denying this is just awesome.
Accessing it tough, can really be a mess. I don’t really understand what’s the physical difference between E7’s and N8’s HDMI cover, but while N8’s is easy to open (as it should be),E7’s one isn’t, pure and simple. (and unacceptable)
- 3.5mm Standard Audio Jack with active noise cancellation
Didn’t extensively test this (as mentioned above, not a mobile music fan), but sound is, putting it simple, good enough.
The headset bundled with the E7 I received is the WS-205. I just can’t understand why Nokia bundled such a poor headset with a flagship device (they made the same thing with the N900).
- Built-in Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Not much to talk about in here, accelerometer just works without lags, and proximity sensor does its job. I remember that some touchscreen phones from Nokia had issues with proximity sensor before, but i’ve seen nothing wrong with this one.
- MicroUSB port with USB OTG (“USB on the go”) support
Particularly handy on the E7, as it has no MMC support.
I’ve used it a few times to share some videos, and it worked. Nothing much to add, you simply plug-in your usb stick, file browser pops-up, and you copy whatever you want to. (just like… a computer?)
Bad point here for Symbian is not being able to support different file formats, and leaving us stuck at a 4Gb max.
- Dimensions:
123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm, weighting 176g, at first sight this phone is nothing but big and heavy.
If you tend to read what I write on twitter, you’d know by now that I’ve said numerous times that 3.7” was big enough, and also complained about the weight of my N900 (181g).
I was wrong about the size, and the weight…well, my impression is that as with the slider, if the phone wasn’t this heavy, the premium feel would be gone. (just try to compare a Breitling watch to a “regular” watch, and you’ll get my point).
So, this phone is heavier than other similar phones, but the extra weight on the E7 makes it even better, trust me.
- Multimedia:
Ok, this device is capable of recording at 720p 25fps with true Stereo sound, and boy believe me, it is really that good! Noise cancellation is awesome, except on a really really loud scenario like an airport, but no one really records airplanes taking off, right? errr..
The device has a single loudspeaker, placed at the bottom back, so this is a bit tricky when you place it atop of a table. You’ll barely listen what you want to, and quality is miserable this way. (although on normal conditions it handles it “ok”).
Like I said above, one of the best features of this device is the HDMI output. Putting it simple, you have in here the substitute for your Multimedia Center (ok, not if you’re lucky enough to own a 55” LCD).
- Phone:
A lot of people tend to forget the main aspect of a mobile phone: Phone calls.
Except for those cheap s30 Nokia phones, I can’t remember any phone from Nokia that I could complain about the calling quality. It’s this simple, it is a pleasure to make a phone call using a Nokia device, but on this one it gets even better, thanks to noise cancellation!
You can perfectly hear what the person on the other end is telling you, and even on loud places like a busy street can look like home. I’ve made quite a few phone calls from the E7 to my brother’s N8 (thanks to my carrier’s tariff and its free calls), and not in a single one I had any sort of difficulty on hearing, and got amazed every time noise cancellation did its work. It’s astonishing.
Bad note for video-calls, not because of Nokia I believe, but 3G video calling is sh….ty (yet, sometimes really useful).
- Stamina:
Yes, there’s no way for us to remove the battery on this. Personally, I think it’s just stupid, but I do understand that there had to be compromises.
The 1200mAh BL-4D battery is apparently not much, but as Symbian is awesome at this particular point, you can use it all day long that it’ll all be good. (of course it will get drained faster if you browse the web while listening the music/etc non-stop).
Another positive note goes for the AC-10X Mains Charger.
We’ve been seeing what Nokia has been doing on the “Green” part of mobile, they’re not only exploring solar charging alternatives to our phones, or using green materials on new phones (worth reading), but also they’re investing in the classic wall charger that (looks like) no one cares anymore.
Just look at the (said by many) best current phone, “Samsung Galaxy SII”, it packs a huge 1650mAh battery, but its charger can only boost 700mAh.
Nokia’s AC-10X wall charger has a 1200mAh output, and that makes it almost 2x faster, thus 2 times eco-friendly than the one present on the Galaxy SII.
I know this is boring for many of you, and probably you simply don’t care enough with the environment to have this in mind when you buy a new phone, but it makes me happy to know that even if we don’t worry about it, Nokia does. Also, the more mAh your charger boosts, the faster your battery gets charged, so it’s a win-win situation!
I know I’ve been mostly positive on my impressions until now, but this is mainly due to the fact I am not a geek (or am trying to). Just like I said in the beginning, this isn’t a nerdy review, nor a geeky point of view, but simply a regular user’s view on one of the best phones he had the chance to use to the day (thank you NokiaConnetcs!!)
To some extent, I even regret I didn’t buy this phone the moment it got launched, I got scared by the reviews and that played a huge part. Nowadays, I just won’t buy it co’s I need to consider really good my choices (yes, world crisis) but if before I refrained myself from advising someone to buy it, today this changes.
So that’s it, these are my findings on the Nokia E7! I hope you had fun reading it, cause I surely had fun writing it. In a c, I’ll publish another post with an in-depth look at the slider mechanism of the E7, and also a few more words on EDoF, so stay tuned!
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