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Nokia E7 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £440
inc VAT

A beautifully designed, well-built phone with an excellent camera and a full QWERTY keyboard, but as the OS is on the way out there's little point in buying a Symbian phone.

Specifications

Symbian^3, 4.0in 640×360 display

http://www.simplyelectronics.net

Despite announcing recently that it would be switching to Windows Mobile as its primary smartphone platform, Nokia is still releasing phones running the Symbian operating system. Its latest, the E7, has a 4in AMOLED screen, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash.

Nokia’s hardware has always been impressively well engineered, and the E7 is another good example. It’s basically a slab of densely-packed electronics tapered at each end into a flat surface. The screen fits perfectly into a cut-away in the slab, and with a bit of pressure on the bottom edge, it pops out and back, sitting at an angle of 30 degrees to the keyboard underneath.

Nokia E7

Unlike some previous Nokia phones, the keyboard’s sliding action is a bit clunky. A rugged slider on one side of the phone toggles the screen lock, while on the other side a similar slider controls volume. There’s a small pull-out tray for your SIM card, and a dedicated camera button, while the ports – headphone, USB and HDMI – along with the power button are located on the top edge.

Nokia E7 top ports

Performance is excellent; we found the capacitive touchscreen smooth and responsive, and saw no lag when opening multiple applications. The screen’s 640×360 resolution is a bit disappointing compared to the 800×480 found on most other phones’ 4in screens, so detail in images won’t be quite as pin-sharp, but it’s incredibly colourful and contrast is outstanding.

Nokia E7 rear

Photos taken with the 8-megapixel camera are great, with balanced colours and sharp edges. There was far less grain and noise in dark areas compared to other phones’ shots, and the dual-LED flash did a good job of illuminating the scene. Videos were similar in quality, although zooming in produced tons of noise. There are plenty of options for the camera including face detection, white balance and manual ISO settings.

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Details

Price £440
Rating **

Hardware

Main display size 4.0in
Native resolution 640×360
Second Display No
CCD effective megapixels 8-megapixel
Flash Dual LED
Video recording format MP4, 3GP
Connectivity Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB
GPS yes
Internal memory 16MB
Memory card support none
Memory card included N/A
Operating frequencies GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G 850/900/1700/1900/2100
Wireless data GPRS, HSDPA, HSUPA
Size 124x62x14mm
Weight 176g

Features

Operating system Symbian^3
Microsoft Office compatibility Word/Excel/PowerPoint editors, PDF viewer
Email client POP3/IMAP/Exchange
Audio format support MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB
Video playback formats MP4, H.263, H.264
FM Radio yes
Web Browser Nokia Web Browser
Accessories headset and remote, USB data cable, travel mains adapter, USB adaptor, HDMI adaptor
Talk time 5 hours
Standby time 17.9 days
Tested battery life (MP3 playback) 46h 58m

Buying Information

SIM-free price £440
SIM-free supplier www.simplyelectronics.net
Details www.nokia.co.uk

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