Hello Everyone,
I recently received the Nokia E72 thanks to Nokia WOM World. Thanks a lot guys! This is the review of it. I absolutely love the device. Hope you like the review.
Please leave any comments, suggestions or question that you have.
Thank You!
Introduction
Nokia launched the ESeries back in 2005. The three models launched were the Nokia E60, E61 and the E70. The E60 was a business phone with regular candy-bar form-factor. The E70 followed the fold open QWERTY keyboard style of it’s predecessor’s, the 6800, 6810 and the 6820.
The E61 unlike the other two had a candy-bar form-factor with QWERTY keyboard and a landscape display. It was similar to the Blackberry and that was exactly what Nokia wanted it to be. Nokia realized the importance of a full key keyboard for a business person and wanted to grab the market that Blackberry had been dominating for quite a while.
The E61 fared better than its brothers. But it had its share of shortcomings and so Nokia released the E61i which corrected some of the problems of the E61, replaced the joystick with a navigation key and also added a 2 megapixel snapper (the E61 didn’t have a camera at all).
These changes did help to increase the sales, but it still wasn’t at a level where Nokia could feel satisfied.
After a lot of research, development and a year or so, Nokia was ready. It unveiled to us, the E71 which was a business and messaging device better than any blackberry around. Nokia struck gold. The E71 received positive reviews and a lot of awards. The success was extended with the release of the E63 which was a more affordable version of the E71 but with the added 3.5mm jack.
The E72 is Nokia’s 5th device of the same factor and the direct successor of the E71. With a very impressive specification list and still carrying the keyboard that won the hearts of many, the E72 was born.
Let us now take a look at the E72 and see whether it still carries the magic of it’s predecessors.
Positives
- Excellent Build Quality and Materials
- Good Audio Quality and 3.5mm Audio Jack
- Superb Keyboard
- Brilliant Camera Quality
- Excellent UI with Transitions
- Good Performance without Lags Thanks to the 600MHz Processor and 128MB RAM
- Amazing Battery Life
Negatives
- No Lens Cover
- Limited Video Recording Capabilities
- Speaker Not Loud Enough
Unboxing
The E72 comes is the same typical ESeries packaging. The contents of the box are
- Nokia E72
- Nokia BP-4L Battery
- Charger
- Headphones
- microUSB Cable x2
- 4GB microSD Card
- Leather Case
- Leather Lanyard
- Cleaning Cloth
- Manuals
No complaints about the packaging as it contains everything a user would require. But I really hate the length of the usb cable provided. The E71 had a short usb cable but the E72 cable is still shorter. The cable is only as long as the phone itself. This causes problems when the USB port isn’t always in the closest position.
The headphones aren’t quite good either but you would expect something like that with a business phone. Besides, you can plug in your own headphones thanks to the 3.5mm jack.
Click Here to See Unboxing Pictures
Design and Build Quality
These have always been one of the strongest aspects and it is what defines the ESeries. The E72 follows the metal tradition of its family. The battery cover, the outer ring on the front, speaker grille, camera ring etc are made from metal and have chrome like plating.. This adds to the weight and luxury feeling of the phone. It makes you think the phone is very expensive. The phone feels solid and of the right weight and size. Its slimness makes the phone seem small. It slips right into your pockets and doesn’t bother you much. The ergonomics are perfect and everything is in the right location. You can access pretty much everything with one hand itself.
The device is surprisingly a non-fingerprint magnet! The battery cover is glossy and you can even see your face when you flip it over. Well fingerprints are there, but it isn’t so visible. You have to try hard, keeping it at certain angles or under certain lighting conditions such as sunlight. Same is the case with the chrome ring on the front. Only the screen and the portion above it attracts fingerprints a lot of fingerprints.
The battery cover has the ESeries stripes on it which looks good and also provides better grip. There are no creaks except for the plastic part below the keyboard. This may be an issue specific to my review unit as I haven’t heard of this problem before. Overall, this is definitely the one of the best, if not the best ESeries phones in terms of build quality.
My review unit is the Black variant. it has a unique blend of black and silver. Quite eye-catching especially with the silver battery cover. It’s slimness adds to its fashion-able quality. There are other colour variants available including grey and brown. There is no news yet of more colour variants coming up like in the case of the E71.
Phones with this type of design were usually meant for men but the trend is now changing. I have seen women carrying the E71 so now it appeals to both sexes. Might be due to the slim profile, colours etc combined with the texting ability or for some other reason. But we do know that its market has now expanded to different groups compared to what we had when the E61/E61i was in town.
Keys and Controls
The E72 has the same style keyboard as in the E71 but the finish is somewhat like in the E63, which I felt is better. Typing on the device is a joy. In fact I typed out this review on the phone itself. People with large fingers need not be worried as there is no chance for mistakes. I got used to the keyboard in less than an hour. The feedback it gives is great and the clicking sound is less which is perfect for those who do not want to annoy others or while texting in a meeting etc. Due to the matte finish, no fingerprints appear and your fingers do not slip off while texting.
The E72 has the best QWERTY keyboard that I have ever used.
The front portion of the device is mainly covered by the QWERTY keyboard. But above this is the navigation region. Here are the two selection keys, the call/end keys and the four shortcut keys. On the left side is the left selection key, home/menu key, calendar shortcut and the call key. On the right is the right selection key, contacts shortcut, messaging shortcut and the end key.
The one-touch keys i.e. calendar key, contacts key and messaging key can be personalized according to your wish by setting different applications to be triggered instead of the default functions. Each key can be assigned to launch two applications, one with a single press and another with a long press. This helps to save time as you can launch applications without entering from the menu even if the shortcuts in the active menu are full.
Between the lies the directional pad which doubles as an optical trackpad again inspired by blackberry. The d-pad is the right size and the glossy plastic finish used makes it easier and smoother to navigate. The optical trackpad is also smooth and which is the reason for the glossy finish being used. The optical pad sounded good on paper but in reality, it isn’t all that good. You can only scroll a limited number of items at a time due to the small size of the trackpad. It is not as good as the trackball in Blackberrys. But it is a step in the right direction and so it is welcome.
The d-pad has another function which will be discussed in the camera section. The d-pad also has the notification light which notify you of any calls, messages or emails that you missed. It also becomes a breathing light when the phone is in standby/power saving mode. When it blinks fast, it means you have a missed event and when it illuminates slowly, it is in the standby mode. The notification lights and the trackpad can be enabled/disabled in the settings menu.
The chrome accents around the d-pad and around the shortcut keys reflect light giving the illusion of illumination making it easier to see the keys.
The keys are illuminated in white and the illumination is uniform. The amount of backlight is automatically adjusted by the built-in light sensor. The volume and voice command keys also have backlighting now.
The light sensor is located right next to the ear-piece. The accelerometer enables you to silence calls or snooze alarms by turning over the phone on its face. This too can be enabled/disabled in the settings.
The top part of the device houses the power button which is flushed into the casing. It can be used to power on/off the device, lock phone, activate power saving or change the profiles. The right side contains the volume up/down buttons and the voice command key. The keys are more responsive and easier to use than on the E71.
Screen
The E61 and E61i had big 2.8″ screens which were good but it made the phones too wide for use especially for people with small hands. So Nokia had to come up with a solution where the screen size was not too small but at the same time, limiting the width of the phone.
Thus the screen size was brought down to 2.36″ and since it had good usability for both the screen and typing, Nokia have used it in the models since and the E72 is not an exception. The screen’s landscape orientation makes it look bigger and also enabled the designers to fit a proper keyboard.
The screen displays upto 16 million colours at 240*320 resolution. The smaller size makes every detail crisp and clear. It is good for web browsing together with the QWERTY keyboard. Images and videos too look great on the screen. The light sensor works really well.
The built-in accelerometer doesn’t not support automatic rotation of the screen. This is because the screen is in landscape mode and the form-factor of the phone makes it tough to operate in any other way.
Legibility under sunlight is amazing even with brightness set to least. This maybe due to the higher quality protection for the screen. The plastic protection for the screen is very good and not flimsy or bendable. It feels strong and can withstand a shock or two.
Calls, Contacts and Messaging
The audio quality is impressive. It is loud and clear. No background noise due to the noise reduction technology. Video calling is also available when there is at least a 3G connection. You can use the front VGA camera for this purpose.
The phonebook remains same as on most S60 devices. It has unlimited contacts capacity and each contact can have various information such as email, telephone, mobile, workphone, address etc. Each contact can also be personalized by assigning their own ringtones and pictures.
You can choose to display contacts from the phone memory, sim memory, service numbers or combinations of two or even all three.
Camera
The E72 has a 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. The E-Series had never been good in the camera area, most not even having autofocus, only the E75, E90 and maybe the E71 had above average quality. The predecessors of the E72 in particular were among the worst. The E61i had really high noise levels and so did the E63. The E71 fared better but was still far away from N73 standards.
The E72 however turns the tables the other way around. The camera is stunning, not just for an ESeries but very close to the N95 and N82 level, sometimes better.
The camera interface is similar to the other S60 5th edition Feature Pack 2 phones. you can adjust the contrast, exposure, colour effect, brightness, white balance and ISO levels. You get to customize the toolbar etc. There is no dedicated camera key in the phone but in this case I like it not being there!
Instead of a dedicated camera key, you get to use the optical scroll key and the d-pad. On the E71, you had to autofocus by pressing ‘T’. Now just like the camera shutter key, you can activate autofocus by a slight press and hold of the optical key. Pressing it fully will take a picture. Moving the d-pad up/down zooms in/out. The zoom is digital but I have no complaints. After all, this is a business phone and zooming wont be required in most cases.
Why I like the optical key as a camera shutter is mainly because of the feel. It feels good to use it because of the smoothness and ease. Also, the optical key is centered on the device and since the optical pad is more sensitive than the confirming button of a regular d-pad, shaking of the device is minimized.
The self-portrait mirror from the E71 is missing but I don’t miss it.
The LED flash is sufficient in most cases except when it is dark or at night when at least Dual-LEDs are needed.
Hope you guys remember the E63 flash which could be used as a torch. Well, it has been carried over to this phone and this is one good aspect of having an LED flash. If it had a Dual LED or Xenon flash, the torch light feature would not have been such a good idea due to the high battery consumption and temperatures high enough to burn a hole through your phone. The torchlight can be activated in the standby screen by pressing and holding the spacebar key. Same procedure to switch off the light.
Autofocus is very fast and picture preview loads very fast too. There is an added panoramic photo function. People who have used PanoMan on their N95 or N82 would find the interface and process quite similar. There is option to set the resolution 5 Megapixel, 3 Megapixel or 0.3 Megapixel for MMS.
It felt like a dream to have such a good camera on an ESeries. Then when I saw the video recording, I realized that no device is perfect. The E72 records VGA videos alright but at a disappointing frame rate of 15 fps. There should have been 30 fps video for QVGA resolution at least. The LED flash doubles up as a video light and together with 30 fps video recording, it would have been a killer.
I know that there will be many who don’t require 30 fps video recording, but nowadays every device seems to have it and top device shoot HD Ready videos at 30 fps or VGA at 120 fps! Also the video recording ability was 15 fps in QVGA resolution in the E71 and naturally, we would expect to see improvements apart from the higher resolution.
In the video mode too, you can zoom in/out, set the scene as automatic/night, set the colour tone and white balance.
The is a forward facing VGA camera which can be used for taking self-portraits and making video calls. You can even take videos, but what’s the point? 
The camera lens protrudes from the casing and the lens is unprotected. Thus it is prone to smudges and scratches. But like the other ESeries phones without lens protection, this too is resistive to smudges and scratches to a certain point. I remember how my N95 8GB got smudged. The E72 lens also has a silver border around it which is above the lens level and it might have something to do with scratch protection and also looks. There is a metal ring around the whole camera unit too.
Memory, UI and Performance
The phone has 250MB of internal memory and can be extended using the microSD card slot which supports upto 16GB. It may support 32GB cards as well but it should become really slow when filled up due to the 128MB of RAM. Not that a business user would require such high capacities. There is a 4GB card included in the sales package instead of a 2GB one that came with the E71.
The phone is powered by a 600MHz processor which is even more powerful than the ones used in the N97 or N97 Mini. The other Nokia phones with similar processors are the Nokia N900 and 5630 XpressMusic.
The phone runs on Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition-Feature Pack 2. The UI is very attractive and I love the transitions. The transitions have become even better than previous ESeries devices. The transitions do not impact the performance at all. Everything loads very fast and it handles multi-tasking excellently as well.
The phone has two modes-business and personal. You can switch between the two modes with the press of a button. You can have different themes, application shortcuts, stand-by, ringtones etc for the two modes. It’s just like changing from formals to casuals when you leave work and reach home.
The profiles remain same and you can create your own profiles. There is the option of timed profile to use a specific profile from a fixed time to a fixed time in the future. This is extremely useful in case you forget to change back your profile from silent to general say, after a meeting or if you are lazy!
You can also change the audio themes apart from the visual themes. The three audio themes are Hip-Hop, Nokia and Orchestral.
The phone is very stable in the firmware version that I am using and it has never restarted or hung up yet. The firmware that I am testing is version 022.007 released on 10th December 2009. While I am writing this, I have received news that the version 023.xxx has been released. But I’ll go ahead and complete the review with the current firmware as there are no problems. I will post an update to the changes the new version brings in after I’m done with the review.
Connectivity
It is equipped with the usual long list of connectivity features such as EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,A2DP, GPRS and micro-USB. The micro-USB port and the microSD card slot are located on the upper left side of the device. Both are covered with hard plastic so you don’t have to worry about dust getting in.
On connecting to a computer, you will be given choice of different connection types including PC Suite, Mass Storage, Image Transfer, Media Transfer and Connect PC to the Web. The data transfer rate using mass storage method is very fast and miles ahead of what you would get using the N96 or N95. It is even slightly faster than the E71.
For updating the device software, you have to connect using PC Suite mode and update via Nokia Software Updater. You can also use over the air update but you will have to connect to the internet on your phone.
Music
The music player is nearly identical to the ones used in NSeries phones. You can view your music collection in groups classified on the basis of artists, album, genre and composers. Alternatively you can view all songs together or via the preset or custom playlists. The default playlists include recently added recently played and most played.
The music player supports equalizer and comes with 6 presets- default, bass booster, pop, rock, jazz and classical. You can also create your own presets. The audio settings allow you to adjust the audio balance i.e. much % of the audio come from which side. You can also enable/disable the bass booster and stereo widening.
There is a lack of equalizer which is usually there on NSeries phones. Shuffle and repeat play modes are available.
Searching for your tunes is very easy thanks to the QWERTY keyboard. You can also use the optical trackpad to browse through your collection. Changing the tracks is easier now with just a swipe or two over the optical trackpad.
Gladly, Nokia have added the 3.5mm jack to the E72 after seeing it’s use on the E75 and E63. It is located on the top portion of the device beside the power button. It isn’t protected however like in the E63. This may lead to dust entering but nothing too serious. My 2 year old N95 8GB has a perfectly working jack even though it is unprotected. The E63 had the cover but since it wasn’t attached to the body, it was easy to lose it.
The jack allows you to connect any headphone or audio device such as a music stand etc which has a 3.5mm cable. You will be given the option of choosing the accessory when you plug it in the jack. The jack’s position is different and hence the audio out connector looks slanted. Looks kind of cool this some, something away from the ordinary. You will also have to give a bit more force than usual jacks. At first when I inserted it, I tried pushing and it appeared firm and the headphone was detected. But there was a loose connection that could be experienced when the music was played. So I pushed it further till a big locking sound was heard.
The E72 delivers surprisingly good audio quality. Very good, in fact and the loudness is nearly as much as my N95 8GB. The bass is excellent and distinguishable. It is clearly the best audio from an ESeries device that I have experienced. With the right set of earphones to complement it, you wouldn’t mind replacing you MP3 player. A thumbs up for this achievement.
The speaker however fails to live up to expectations. The speaker is located at the backside of the device to the left of the camera unit. The location is better from previous devices on which I used to constantly cover the speakers on purpose while using it. it hasn’t happened on the E72. The sound quality through the speakers remains the same in the E71 as it was in it’s pre-decessors and some other ESeries phone. The loudness is nowhere near enough and the sound will most definitely fade out in a noisy area. There is no distortion however even at maximum volume so you have some relief.
Since A2DP is supported, users will be able to connect their Bluetooth headsets and stream music. The quality won’t be as high as the 3.5mm jack but it is a bonus for those who prefer to go without the cords.
Images and Videos
The image gallery remains pretty much the same bar the optical trackpad influence and the transitions.
The optical trackpad allows a cover flow type of browsing that allows you to check the next picture by swiping your finger to the left or right on the trackpad. Swiping it upwards/downwards skips to the 5th next/previous picture.
The transitions include the automatic change of views when browsing your pictures. But what I like the most is the transition while zooming in/out of pictures. It zooms in/out slowly but not taking too much time. What I mean is that the zooming is smooth and not all of a sudden.
You can group the pictures on the basis of month, captured, albums, tags etc. You can also view all together and share them online.
You can view the pictures in portrait by clicking the portrait button in the sidebar. The slideshow is nice too giving you the ability to choose the song, gap between pictures and the slide effect. You can also choose to play the slideshow forwards or backwards from that photo.
The default video player is RealPlayer. Supported formats include MP4 and 3GP. There is no support for DivX or XviD out of the box. This is a setback for most Nokia phones and only the N900 has support for the two formats and many other formats too. DivX and XviD formats allow users to have high quality videos in smaller sizes thus making efficient use of the memory available on the device. Besides, it is a very popular format for video.
There are many 3rd party applications such as CorePlayer, DivX player etc that do the job just fine but they all come at a price. So it would be a great sales booster to have supports for the formats.
Videos of the supported formats play just fine and the screen size is good enough for enough a little longer videos. But watching a movie or anything else as long would strain your eyes a lot.
The videos start playing at full screen by default. There aren’t many settings that you can adjust. Just the play/pause, stop, rewind/forward, previous/next and the volume up/down functions.
Web Browsing
Being a business phone, it is important to have good web browsing. The E72 with it’s vast range of connectivity options, landscape screen and QWERTY keyboard provide a very good experience.
Browsing speeds are great and pages appear as they would on a PC thanks to the landscape orientation of the screen.
You can use the d-pad or optical trackpad to navigate through the web pages. But I found the d-pad easier to use. You can also zoom in/out of web pages and while scrolling, you get a preview of the web-page in a window in the corner.
File Manager
The file manager is really excellent. It is very fast in browsing files and it too has transitions. Lovely transitions in fact, with the fade out effects when deleting a file or when moving from one folder to the other.
You can choose to view the phone memory or the memory card. You can search for a particular file, back up the phone memory etc.
Applications
The E72 comes pre-loaded with several applications.
Pre-loaded games include solitaire and blocks cascade which is basically tetris with better graphics and a different name.
Vlingo allows you to access the phones functions such as calling your friend, sending a message etc by voice communications over an internet connection.
FontMagnifier helps to magnify written material. WiPresenter helps to give wireless presentations using Wi-Fi. Multiscanner helps to scan business cards or written text into text on the phone. Zip enables you to compress and decompress files.
There is a dictionary for your vocabulary needs. World traveler gives you the latest weather and travel related information about different places. Notes allows you to jot down your thoughts and active notes enables you to add pictures, videos or ,usic along with your notes.
Quick office allows you to create and manage documents, workbooks and presentations.
You can install and uninstall applications using the application manager. There are may 3rd party applications available for the phone which can be found everywhere on the net.
Battery
The E72 has a 1500 mAH Battery. It is a very powerful one. This is the 5th day running of my review of the E72 and only 2 bars have dropped in the battery level indicator since the first charge.
I tested all aspects of the device for the review including calling, messaging, camera, music, videos, images, Bluetooth, web browsing etc over the past 5 days and having about 75% of the battery life is really great.
Battery life is one of the most important things in a phone for a business person when they need to take and convey make/break decisions.
The phone uses Nokia’s 2.0mm charger for charging. But the great thing is that Nokia have included USB charging as well. So your phone gains additional charge instead of losing charge when transferring stuff onto the phone.
Conclusion
Nokia set out to create a Blackberry killer and slowly but surely Nokia has been edging closer to the target. The E72 does just that.
I used to look at ESeries as more serious, business oriented phones focusing more on communication and the NSeries as more fun and entertainment oriented. It always seemed that grass was always greener on the other side.
With the E72, there is no other side. A brilliant device that can steal the show from almost any other business device out there.
This is one device which I would choose to replace my trusty N95 8GB, though I don’t know when I’ll get the funds ready.
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.
Written by erazer007 on February 18th, 2010 with no comments.
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