The Communicator is alive and has transformed into what is now the Nokia E7. It has gone a long way — slimmer, lighter and faster while retaining that signature form factor. Check out our full review of the Nokia E7 after the jump.
If you’re familiar with the popular Nokia N8, the Nokia E7 looks very similar — a solid, metallic unibody design with a large 4-inch touch screen — but when you flip it sideways and open up the sliding keyboard, the handset transforms into something totally different and reminiscent of the N900 or the decades-old Nokia Communicator. It’s basically an N8 with a physical keypad.
The body is relatively thin (just a few millimeter away from the slimmer N8) and has a somewhat rounded edges with the top and bottom corners a chopped off to make room for ports and buttons — a USB port, HDMI, power button and 3.5mm audio jack is positioned on top while a slender Home/Menu button is placed at the very bottom of the front panel.
Since the Nokia E7 comes in a unibody casing, the battery is built into the device and is not user-replaceable. Likewise, the SIM card slot is accessible from the outside via a small cradle that slides out from the top right side of the unit. Beside it is a slider for controlling the zoom of the camera and on the far end, a dedicated button for the 8MP camera.
On the left side is a single switch that’s easily accessible by the middle finger or index finger that controls the screen lock. At the back is a non-descript 8-megapixel fix-focus camera with dual-LED flash (more on that later).
The slider mechanism is similar to that of the Nokia N97 as it is positioned in a titled angle once fully opened. Nokia was able to make this handset a bit thinner but carving out a few millimeters off the unibody which somewhat buries the display panel into the body.
The full qwerty keyboard is large and spacious although the individual keys are a bit buried into the surface and comfortably typing with both hands could get a little bit time to get used to (the review unit given to me has a different language setting so I’m still groping around with the keyboard ).
When closed, the touch screen has a virtual keyboard you can use to navigate and make calls or send text messages. Sliding out the full keyboard allows you to type longer messages at a much faster rate — like composing mails or even mobile blogging.
The large 4-inch screen is among the largest I’ve seen on a Nokia handset — it’s clear, bright and crisp, thanks to the AMOLED screen and Nokia’s ClearBlack display. The 360×640 pixel resolution seemed a bit low but that’s not noticeable most of the time.
The E7 is among the few Nokia handsets that have move on to using capacitive screen and the performance on this unit is pleasantly surprising. There are 3 home screens you can flip across with widgets and shortcuts you can customize.
Probably the biggest debate among smartphone users is the Symbian^3 OS that’s installed in the handset. It’s been a long while since I’ve extensively used Symbian so I’m not very familiar with the improvements. The last time I’ve really owned one was with the Nokia 5800XM (which was like 3 years ago) so when I’m force to compare it with this unit, I’d say there’s been very significant improvements. For Nokia N8 users, this is practically the same. In any case, if you’re very familiar with Symbian phones, this handset will not disappoint.
IMO, I’d wish they’d consider running Meego/Maemo on this unit like what they did with the N900 (which was on Maemo). If you’re into apps though, there’s the Nokia Ovi Store you can browse thru to download games and other apps. I like Ovi’s integration with 3rd-party email accounts and social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter though (of course, you’ll need to sign up for an Ovi account in order to set that up). The built-in browser isn’t the best we’ve tried but it’s simple and works just fine. Fortunately, you can just hope on to Ovi and download Opera Mobile.
Moving back to the camera — I was initially excited about the camera of the E7 and knowing that they have a similar genetic make-up as the N8, I was hoping to get almost the same photo quality. Unfortunately, they are miles apart — the 8-megapixel camera is fixed-focus and uses dual-LED flash instead of Xenon.
Photos take with the Nokia E7 are decent but not exceptional. General scenes, large and wide subjects are pretty easy to shoot at but once you come closer, macro shots are almost impossible. Here are some sample photos taken using the E7.
The HD video quality is pretty good though which is a bit of a redeeming factor for the unit that’s supposedly geared towards executives and the business sector.
Here’s a sample video taken with the Nokia E7.
Understandably, this is Nokia’s way of drawing the line between their business class E-series phones and the multimedia class N-series phones. That and probably cost savings on expensive camera parts which they can pass on to consumers.
Nokia E7 specs:
4″ polarized AMOLED display @ @ 640×360 pixels
Gorilla glass display & capacitive touch screen
680MHz ARM 11 processor
Broadcom BCM2727 GPU
16GB mass memory
350 MB internal memory
256MB RAM
1024MB ROM
8MP fixed-focus camera with dual LED flash
720p HD video recording @ 25fps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
HSDPA 10.2MBps, HSUPA 2.0Mbps
Bluetooth 3.0
FM Radio Tuner
GPS w/ aGPS support
1200mAH battery
What’s a bit disappointing is the lack of microSD slot and the 1200mAh internal battery isn’t at par with the earlier E-series Nokia smartphones like the E72. You’ll have to contend with the 16GB built-in storage for music, video and photo storage.
Really liked the USB-on-the-Go support and the TV-out via HDMI. The review unit did not include the entire box so I’m not sure what accessories come with the unit (will update this once they send me the entire box and all its contents so I can show them too).
Over-all performance of the handset is pretty good despite the processor being rated at only 680MHz (when other smartphones come in at a minimum of 1GHz). The dedicated mobile GPU also helped in video processing so that’s a huge plus. Video playback is good as well as the audio quality.
Here’s another shot of the Nokia E7 showing the hardware and user interface.
The Nokia E7 is supposed to arrive in the Philippines later this month but we’re not told how much the suggested retail price would be. I reckon it will be a bit more expensive than the N8’s SRP and lower than the N900’s SRP so that would put it somewhere between Php25k to Php28k. That’s just my guesstimate though.
Update: I’ve been told that pre-order for the Nokia E7 will be opened from March 14 – 22, 2011 and they’re giving away a free DC11-K charger. The suggested retail price of the Nokia E7 is Php32,000 (a bit off from my previous guesstimate).
Disclosure: Nokia Philippines is an advertiser on this blog and this handset was lent to me for review purposes.
I’m just asking, meron na ba Evernote for Symbian/Nokia? What about Instapaper? Ano kaya magandang google reader app, ung with full synchronization of read/unread/like/shared tsaka nag-cache ng images?
nokia’s switching to microsoft… they know the symbian OS cant compete with iOS, webOS or Android. They know that if they sticj with symbian they’ll continue going downhill. 2010 reports that ZTE, yes, ZTE overtook them, nokia’s not even in the top 3 mobile phone makers.
Here’s the 2010 statistics by IDC. You can check it with Gartner as well if you have any doubt.
http://www.worldtech24.com/business/gartner-android-smartphone-sales-surged-8888-2010
Symbian is the fastest mobile OS, the most feature rich, most power optimized and the most stable.
Those are non-disputable facts.
The problem with Symbian is that there has been too much focus on power optimization and the current generation of mobile buyers choose eyecandy above usability, stability, speed and power optimization.
I still have my old 5800XM with a custom X6 firmware that lasts a week or more on one charge – any apple, android or wp7 user would give their firstborn for such long battery-life in a touchscreen phone.
My wife has a N8 because, as a filipina she loves to take pictures of everything all the time and play angry birds so this was the best solution for her :)
Nokia has been too ‘sensible’ in their hardware and software choices while people have moved on to flashy eyecandy phones (iPhone and android) while don’t care that they have to charge it every single day.
This is why they are moving to WP7 to avoid being left behind trends again – while they obtained an agreement to be able to change ANYTHING in WP7 too their liking, which none of the other WP7 manufacturer are allowed to do.
nah.. am into HTC & BB right now. too late for Nokia.
nice! but i am looking into blackberry still. loving their product!
so gay the music.. california girls hahaha
I tried to listen to the song on the vid after seeing your post.
They should have at least tweaked the lyrics a bit to a guy’s perspective. I mean, the lines “the boys break their necks, tryin’ to creep a little sneak peek…at us” coming from a guy (even though he’s just singing it) is not really something that we can call “manly”. Haha!
Sorry for the off sentiments Sir Abe. Just my 5 cents (yung may butas). :)
Like the design considering the price, I’ll prefer owning an android of win phone 7.
To all nokia haters, if you’re judging an OS based on the amount of apps there is on their respective app stores, take a look at the current content of the OVI store. It has gone through a lot of improvements and plenty of programs found in apple’s app store and android app store are already found in OVI.
Well the browser currently sucks, just like with the N8. But, that’s what my laptop and pc’s are for.
I value stability over eye candy.
you equate symbian with stability and android with eyecandy? tingnan mo naman quality ng mga applications sa ovi vs android market and appstore, ang layo ng diperensya
Yes, Symbian (as it’s called now – there are no ^1, ^3 anymore) is rock solid and my wifes N8 is blazingly fast once you turn off the eyecandy.
The browser is not super but Opera Mobile 10 is okay until the Symbian update in April where Nokia is switching to a webkit (like Chrome, Safari etc.) based browser with full support for HTML5 and Flash 10 :P
hmmmmmmm waiting for wp7!!!!
hmm… pass…
It resembles like a little laptop, nice. http://iloveyou-mydear.blogspot.com/
@Eingild – he never said the Nokia 5800 ran Symbian^3. Read again and learn to understand english. Where did your brain go? =)
Lol! The article was already edited. If you were able to read this a little bit earlier, you could see the statement, “It’s been a long while since I’ve extensively used Symbian^3 so I’m not very familiar with the improvements.” He already edited the meego/maemo issue. Mr. Yuga, please tell Ric that I am telling the truth and that He’s mistaken for questioning my English comprehension. And for you Mr. Ric, you’re too arrogant for questioning my capabilities to understand English.
yuga may typo sa title ng site ,philippine nakalagay
Considering Nokia is going to abandon Symbian, I dont know why anyone would even think of buying a Symbian phone.
Better to wait for their WP7 phones
sad but true. tinkered with an HTC HD7 a few weeks ago… WP7 is miles ahead of Symbian. wouldn’t buy one yet, though. i’ll wait for it (WP7) to mature some more. droids still have the edge. :-)
Nokia is not going to abandon symbian (for the near future) as they need it for their entry to mid-level models. development for it is another matter. :(
ciao!
@Eingild: you should check your facts as well. as per gsmarea.com & softpedia.com, nokia 5800’s OS is Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5.
You made me laugh out loud dude. S60 5th is the same as Symbian^1. Please make sure that you’re aware of other general terms other than specific ones.
Symbian OS – (self-explanatory)
v9.4 – firmware version
S60 – Variant of Symbian for smartphones (S40 for non smartphones)
rel. 5 – edition of the variant used (for example, S60 Rel.3 was utilized for E72 while S60 Rel.5 was made for touch screen smartphones such as XM5800 and N97.)
whatever floats your boat, brainiac. i’ll sleep well tonight knowing that valuable piece of information. ;-)
Sir, you have to really update your knowledge regarding cellular phones. XM 5800 does not utilize Symbian^3. Instead, it uses Symbian^1 5th edition optimized for touch screen handsets. Lastly, Nokia N900 is not running on Meego but Maemo. They are two different things. Meego is the product of the alliance between Intel and Nokia. It is yet to be released this 2011.
i lost enthusiasm already to Nokia. Though they are still the no.1 manfacturer, surprisingly.. nice web design by the way!
i lost enthusiasm already to Nokia. Though they are still the no.1 manfacturer, surprisingly..
Naman. To burst your bubble, walang direct relationship ang any action you do with the place of Nokia in the mobile industry.
i want one !!! but my N8 is only 3 months old, my husband will kill me if i buy a new cel :p
Gah, Horrible UI, and looks too slow in the video. And this is supposed to be much faster eh? Browser sucks as well. *sigh*
What a waste indeed.
nice sleek design, but my eye is for android nowadays…
Android? na maximum number of unknown recipient (wala sa phonebook) sa messaging is sampu lang…
Di gaya ng nokia… you can send to 1,000 or even 10,000 recipients sa mga high end series nila.
how many people actually need that feature? that’s nitpicking
baka isa sya sa nagtetext ng
“congratulations, you won 1M pesos from Philippine Charity Foundation”
:D
LOL
I think it is very unwise to buy a s^3 powered phone now since nokia is slowly killing symbian on its high end phones and slowly migrating to windows phone 7. Article here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/rip-symbian/