Nokia E7 preview
The built quality is brilliant. I can find absolutely no faults with the hardware design and the materials used. It feels solid. The slider feels great and I found the AMOLED screen with Clear Black Display to be stunning. But I can't help thinking what I am seeing here as what was a Nseries smartphone rebadged as an Eseries because Nokia either could not get another Eseries out in time or felt that marketing this as a Nseries phone would remind people of the much hated Nokia N97.
The specs are typical Symbian^3 specs in that it runs on a ARM11 680 MHz processor, which isn't a big deal considering how optimised the OS is with in taking advantage of the GPU. The 256MB of RAM does seem lowly in comparison to most modern smartphone, and while Symbian^3 does not require much RAM, power users will likely encounter situations when background applications are forced to close due to insufficient RAM.
Like the Nokia N8, the E7 comes with HDMI out function which, coupled with the ability to play 720p videos, is useful. This is especially true when used with an application like Nokia Big Screen. It also has 16GB built-in storage. Unfortunately the E7 does not come with a external memory card slot, so the 16GB is all that users will ever get. This isn't a big deal for most users (even the Samsung Nexus S comes with only 16GB storage), but multimedia addicts will likely want to look elsewhere. The keyboard is pretty good, and an improvement over the one on the prototype. While it is only a four row keyboard, the keys are well spaced and provide good tactile feedback.
The camera on the E7 is the EDOF type. First seen on the Nokia E55, EDOF has spread like a virus onto every none-camera focused smartphone, which right now is everything apart from the N8. As I carry my own dedicated digital camera almost 99% of the time, I honestly could not care less what camera the E7 has (in fact I do not care what camera the N8 has!). However, because of the price, Nokia should have at least included a better camera with it. An autofocus camera with macro ability would also be useful for business users (you know, the typical Eseries users) who would want to scan documents and business cards.
I will be using the E7 for two weeks. Expect a review in the next couple of weeks. If there are any questions please ask away, either here or on my twitter account.
The Nokia E7 is available now for a sim-free price of £489.99.
