Nokia E7

Nokia E7

The jewel in Nokia’s crown today was its E7. Introduced at the keynote as an evolution of the Nokia Communicator Series, there was a heavy emphasis on business placed on the E7’S conception and projected end use. Borrowing heavily from the other devices showcased, its aesthetics come straight from the Nokia N8 (anodised aluminium chassis) as well as its HDMI out. The E7 also takes the liberty of adding a few features to those of its counterparts, with 4 inches of AMOLED Clear Black Display covering the fascia, as well as a cavity in the device containing the landscape QWERTY when the screen is flicked out. The mechanism for the screen sliding is reminiscent to that of the N97, but on the whole feels more solid as the device is less plastic than its predecessor, and is better able to support such moving parts. As for the QWERTY keyboard, it is well spaced and sufficiently raised to provide comfortable use for a short time, though a conclusive report will come when we receive our test unit.

The Nokia E7 shouldn’t be a slouch for media either. With 16GB of on-board memory (non-expandable) there will be plenty of room for media, and the ability to upscale to 720p when outputting HD video and imagery through the HDMI, your media will look good off the E7, as well as on it. The music interface is also the same as that of the Nokia N8, so it basically adopts a cover-flow like view and extensive ways of enjoying audio content. Concerns surrounding the device tend to reside around its target market, which Nokia explicitly touts as the business user. We are convinced this could be a very popular smart phone for media hungry users in need of a QWERTY keyboard, however, not so convinced by its business device label. Out of the box, aside from a QWERTY keyboard, the consumer doesn’t appear to get anything more business oriented than a Nokia N8, or even a C6-01 or C7. In fact, while N8 users will get the USB reader – useful in an office environment, E7 users won’t. This lack of differentiation leaves us to assume that users would have to download customizations to ‘business-up’ their phone from OVI, wholly inconveniencing the user, unlike on a BlackBerry for example, where BBM and other business features will be available from the offset.

Overall however, while it is too early to speculate, our first impressions of the Nokia E7 have been positive. Good build quality coupled with a decent all-round spec-sheet and a very usable keyboard make it a promising device for Nokia on the horizon, let’s hope the final unit lives up to the expectation.