It wasn’t all that long ago, that if you wanted a decent messaging device your choice was pretty much restricted to a BlackBerry device. Particularly in the corporate market, where access to email on the move has done so much to change the way we work, BlackBerry are the dominant force. But recently, other manufacturers have been eyeing up this lucrative market, and in particular Nokia have done much to make themselves as dominant here as they are in the consumer market, with their excellent E Series devices. From the early days of the E60, E50 and E51, Nokia have developed a brand that has come to be synonymous with quality build and numerous top end features.
Of the recent E Series phones, the one that has come to capture the attention of the corporate market like no other before it was the Nokia E71. Amazing high quality material build, solid performance and packed with features, with a battery life that topped all rivals, the E71 propelled the E Series to the fore of the corporate messaging market. Never one to rest on their laurels, Nokia have now come up with the E72, a nailed on successor to the E71. We’re going to take a closer look at this device and see if it has what it takes to be as popular as its predecessor.
When you see the E71 ‘in the flesh’, as it were, it is hard not to see why this device has such high appeal. Ultra slim at just 10mm, the quality material used in the build shows that this is a device to be taken seriously. One of the first, more noticeable differences to the E71 is the redesigned keyboard of the E72. The two menu soft option keys and send/end keys are now part of one piece, and is a much flatter style than the keys on the E71. The four shortcut keys are not so close to the main central navigation key, and the whole look gives the impression of more space and a less cramped design. On the bottom row of the QWERTY keypad, there are now 9 keys instead of 7. To accommodate this, the space key has been made smaller, although it is still the size of two standard letter keys. A lot more information is shown on the keys, too, indicating the double up functions available. For example the Symbol key also has the Bluetooth icon, showing that this key can be used as a shortcut to activating and de-activating Bluetooth on the phone. Now, anyone who has owned an E Series device in the past will know that Bluetooth can be activated by a long press of the # key and the E71 was no different. By including the Bluetooth icon, this is now demonstrated to those who may not have realised.
Aside from the keypad, there is little to tell the E71 and E72 apart. The other enhancements are internal, and the major one of these is the inclusion of a 5.0 megapixel camera, over the E71’s 3.2 megapixel camera. There are no other camera improvements, and although this is a much requested enhancement from the army of E71 users, I question the logic of upping the pixel count on the camera, without improving other areas relating to image capture. After all, pixel count isn’t the be all and end all of picture quality.
The other two noticeable improvements to the E72 are the option of using S60v3 FP2, which offers additional features in the operating system, such as being able to view all open applications from pretty much any where in the menu, and also the option of turning on transitions for animated icons in the menu, plus the E72 also includes a 3.5mm audio output jack instead of the 2.5mm option on the E71.
The main differences apart, the E72 shares much with the heritage of the E71. So we find the inclusion of such features as an internal GPS receiver, with aGPS support, and many high speed data connectivity options, including WiFi, HSDPA and HSUPA for quick document downloads and uploads on the move.
Internal memory storage on the E72 is a very impressive 250MB, with the option of increasing this with the support of Micro SD memory cards, up to 16GB. And thankfully, Nokia have included the same battery on this device as that found with the E71, which offers fantastic standby and talk times, just what the modern mobile professional on the move needs.
So, overall, the Nokia E72 gets a thumbs-up. Incorporating the same design and feature set that made the E71 such a firm favourite, it seems Nokia have listened to their customers and offered all the features that were requested from the previous model. With other E Series devices such as the E75, E55 and E52 currently available, never has such a choice of quality messaging focussed devices been available to choose from. Expected release date for the Nokia E72 Q3 2009.