Its been a few days with the E72 and we are really impressed with this phone. You must have seen the unboxing video and the Camera samples. We are working on a full blown review of the device and this is just a round up of our initial thoughts
Things we love
- The Build Quality is just amazing and it feels really nice to grip this device. The judicious use of metal is worth appreciating. The Volume rocker keys are made of metal. The microSD card slot and USB port are covered with plastic.
- The SIM Card tray is the best we have seen on any phone
- The QWERTY Keypad is pretty good and it feels great to type on. The feedback from the keys is really nice. Also we love the Bluetooth and Torchlight shortcuts.
- The 5 MP Camera might not have Carl Zeiss optics but just check out the proof of the Camera performance. E-Series users can finally take pictures which are worth sharing ! We really hated using the T-key on the E71 to focus. You can touch the Optical Navikey to focus on the E72. Although it has a small learning curve, it’s pretty cool.
- The Optical Navikey is actually a tricky feature. Some users might love it but some users might barely use it. We had been spoilt by the E71 and ended up pressing on the joystick rather than using the new Optical scrolling. But later we discovered that this Optical Scrolling thing is actually pretty useful when scrolling through lists or when going from tab to tab like in Gravity for example. The integration of this key with the Camera application might make focusing easy for most users and might irritate a few. Luckily Nokia has given the option to disable the Navikey if you wish to do so. You can also adjust the sensitivity
- USB Charging in addition to a normal 2.0 mm pin charger is actually a brilliant move by Nokia. This was first seen on the E75. While charging over USB is slower its better than being left with a dead battery.
- 3.5mm Audio Jack – When E63 was launched was launched with this Audio jack it drew E71 users crazy. Luckily Nokia has not disappointed us with the E72. You can plug in your iPod earphones or even a BOSE if you wish. The audio quality over headphones was actually loud and decent. Also you get a decent pair of ear phones in the retail package.
- Nokia Messaging actually works
- 600 Mhz CPU is amazing for multitasking
- Snappy UI due to S60 3rd Edition FP2. It’s still Symbian but feel
- Loads of Free Memory
- The Torchlight – This feature is damn useful when you have a power cut or you are inside the garage searching for the keyhole.
- Uses the same battery – BP-4L 1500mAh as the E71 and N97
- Power Saving mode
Things that fail to impress us
- Call and Call end keys lack the Green and Red color found in most phones even the E71 and E75 got it right .
- No Dedicated Camera key – You gave a pretty good 5MP Camera but no dedicated camera key. How about using the Voice memo key to fire up the Camera ?
- Space bar is a little short – This should not affect most users but coming from a E71 which had a large space bar took us a little time to get used to this.
- Loudspeaker is at the back of the phone near the camera. Although the speaker is louder than the E71 we would have loved to have it somewhere else other the rear. We assume this is due to the 3.5 mm jack on the top.
- No TV out ( may be we are asking for a bit too much)
- Really short data cable ( Do all Business users connect the phone only to a laptop ? )
As you can see the positives clearly out weigh the cons ! Stay tuned for a full review coming up on FoneArena soon.