back to article Nokia E7 Qwerty slider smartphone

The Nokia E7 is the company’s latest for phone for business and, in keeping with the styling makeover first seen on the N8, it features a sleek aluminium casing with tapered ends and a big 4in screen. Indeed, it could easily be mistaken for an N8 at first glance. Nokia E7 For business and pleasure: Nokia's E7 It’s only …

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  1. Paul Shirley

    WTF? :battery life on this phone is outstanding

    Is this new definition of "outstanding battery life" going to be rolled out to other smartphones? Which would mean around 99% of them have "outstanding battery life"!

    I charge my G1 every day and it rarely dies on me. I'd still say it has terrible battery life ;)

    More seriously a day and a half life for a Symbian phone is poor, what happened to Nokia's famous engineering talent?

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Efficiency and lower clock speed.

      Symbian is more battery efficient than other phone platforms. It was designed for mobile and much of the code is in C or C++ (all native code). As a result the CPU runs at a slower clock speed saving battery lift.

      iOS is based on an OS designed for desktops. It uses a combination of C, C++ and ObjC (all native). It uses 3D transitions that use up battery life.

      Android is again based on a desktop OS and the applications run a mixture of compiled interpreted code and some native code. (Mixture of compiled and interpreted code, slow and CPU taxing). It also uses 3D FX and has widgets that constantly updated which use up battery life.

      1. Paul Shirley
        Flame

        point flew right over your head ;)

        Nice explanation of why the Symbian phone *should have better battery life* for the 2 readers who didn't already know that.

        Care to move onto the actual point, why this Symbian phone has such a poor battery life? Why el Reg seems to think half the expected Symbian battery life is 'outstanding battery life'?

    2. Robert E A Harvey

      Nokia's famous engineering talent

      >what happened to Nokia's famous engineering talent?

      They were either sacked or ran away when Elop picked WP7

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Even worse...

    @ Paul shirley

    Remember how everyone was up in arms over the sealed-in battery of the original iPhone? Now, nearly every phone manufacturer does this, and suddenly it's more than acceptable. Same with the non-upgradeable memory.

    1. Paul Shirley

      sealed batteries, what new kind of hell is this

      Don't remember seeing any Android phones with sealed batteries. Or any of the admittedly few feature/dumb phones I know about. Has the infection really spread that far from its IPhone home?

      There's not the slightest chance I would ever buy a phone with a sealed battery. A spare battery's a hell of lot smaller than those emergency rechargers - mine fits in my wallet without bloating it too badly. I like having a working phone at night however hard I've misused it during the day!

      1. foo_bar_baz

        There's "sealed"

        Then there's "a torx screw under the HDMI lid". The E7 is the latter. But feel free to rage on about it.

        I'd prefer that my phone stays in one piece if I accidentally drop it. I had a Nokia Communicator some years ago and it fell apart when I dropped it on a hard floor. Nothing broke, but I found myself wishing the battery was secured a bit better.

      2. Wize

        Well...

        ...if there was any doubt in my mind, this has sorted it out.

        I was going Android in 2 months anyway when my contract runs out. The N97 has had too many hardware faults. A crap OS, underpowered processor (even the N8 was supposedly sluggish compared to most smart phones).

        But the number of times I've had to pull the battery to reboot this heap is a joke. If it was sealed, I'd have a brick within the month.

        Bye bye Nokia. Been with you for years. Its been fun, but its time to move on.

    2. DrXym

      Sealed in batteries are never acceptable

      I'd be disappointed in Nokia for doing this. There is no reason at all to seal the battery in except greed, to force people to dump a perfectly good phone and buy a new one when the battery goes. You'd think Nokia might have more principles about this than Apple simply from being a supposedly eco friendly company.

    3. Ilgaz

      we got mad at apple for giving bad ideas

      I really don't care about iPhone hardware or whatever app they banned today. They are a very influential company and once they get a stupid idea like that and their fans even cheer about it, others will follow.

      Owning OSX, would I bother with app store? Of course not. I got mad against it because MS will copy it, in a very bad way to do very evil things.

    4. Steve Evans

      Re: Even worse?

      Are you sure about that?

      If you exclude Apple from the "nearly every phone manufacturer" list I think you'll find most have swappable batteries.

      Memory card swapping has always been a yes/no feature with Nokia. The original N95 had a removable MicroSD. The N95 8 gig didn't. The N97 did.

      Most recent Androids have removable cards too, although a lot of them have it tucked under the battery meaning that although the OS has the option to unmount the storage, you have to turn the phone off to physically remove it, which is a tad annoying.

      If a smart phone had a true 3 days worth of *real* running because they had squeezed a huge, but weird shape battery round all the internals, then I might be able to put up with it not being removable, but for less than that I'd prefer to be able to swap it for a bigger or fresh battery when required.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    smart phone or dumb phone?

    Do you have to hook up the phone to an on-line account to use the calendar? Are all the alarms switched off if you switch off the phone? Do calls sound metallic? Does it look flashy but you can't actually do anything smart with the apps supplied?

    No? Well, then it must be a Nokia Symbian smart-phone.

    BTW: Thanks for forgetting to mention these deficiencies and tricking me into buying an Android phone.

    1. BristolBachelor Gold badge

      Symbian and alarms

      Yeah, Simbian is great with alarms. The only way I can stop them going off on my old communicator (E90) is to take out the battery. Silence mode, power off, nothing else stops the thing beeping constantly for meetings (normally in 18 hours time!) alarms and the like.

      So yeah, this phone will be great when you go into meetings and cinemas. The only way to silence it will be with a pick-axe!

      I won't even compare the built-in apps in Symbian compared to the older communicators...

  4. James 51

    Title is required.

    That is a very positive review to recieve 75 percent.

    I hear the point about the battery and memory but it looks like there are a lot of people out there that don't care about such things and Nokia needs to fight back on design somehow.

  5. James 51
    IT Angle

    possible N900 replacement?

    i wonder if it is possible to she horn maemo or meego on it.

  6. nichomach
    Stop

    @Buck Futter

    No, it isn't acceptable; I look for replaceable batteries when I buy a phone, and that little "feature" is enough to put me off ever getting one of these for a user here.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Low standards of reviewer are low

    The e52 "smartphone" I already have sucks in more ways than I care to detail here, but at least it manages more than a few days of standby time. In fact that was a strong selection criterion and still is for any replacement. If it doesn't come with at least several weeks of standby and a working day of talk time it's not very good as a phone at all. The e52 is in fact a bit low, but the features would have made up for it except that they didn't, deeply disappointing me in nokia.

    Of course, bigger screens, touchscreen, and so on, and so forth, eat into battery life. So put in a bigger battery, next to improving efficiency. That sealed-in battery is similarly unacceptable to me, as would be the lack of an sd card slot. Except that even if you install anything on that SD card, the meta-info still gets put on the phone itself, meaning that if you swap cards the phone will think apps are installed that aren't there. This is more than a bit sloppy as it completely obliterates the point of swappable cards, at least for applications.

    The trend of sealing up as much as possible is akin to the cartel that pushed lightbulb lifetime from up to 15k hours to a measly 1000, forcing you to buy more of the crappy things. I'd rather have a good, usable thing that keeps a while. But then to corporations like nokia and apple we are but consumers anyway. And apparently this is entirely acceptable to us.

  8. Mage Silver badge

    Battery

    Doesn't it swap with a screwdriver?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Same as N8

      It's standard Nokia battery inside, and is removable with a Torx screwdriver - undo two screws, slide battery out.

      Not exactly sealed for life.

      Not sure why Nokia insist on the screwdriver, but hey ho.

      I have a Samsung with an allegedly replaceable battery - it's such a bad sodding design I cannot get the back off without prying it off with a screwdriver - and even that is a PITA. Compared to that, the N8/E7 are easy to replace.

  9. Leona A
    FAIL

    Would have been a nice phone...

    if it didn't feel like it was stuck in 20008! I had pencilled this phone in for a replacement for my ageing Tytn 2, but it seems that even after 2.5 years of use, my Tytn still has better battery life (4 days), removable batteries, a card slot, and even though Windows 6.1 is really old, putting SPB Mobile Shell onto it, would make it more uable and fresh and this Sybian offering. (and when I get bored of that, I can run up Android). Oh well, nice try, will wait for Sony's Xperia Pro.

    1. Cameron Colley

      I think you misunderstood the reviewer's battery life comments.

      Looking at the spec for the Tytn it has up to 200 hours standby and up to 4 talk time listed. The E7 has about 450 hours standby and around 9 talk. So, unless you've a double-sized battery this thing will outlast your Tytn easily.

      I think the reviewer probably charged the phone overnight and played with it on an off all day, then found the battery showing half when he got home.

      Perhaps more clarification form the author is needed?

      1. Leona A

        You are correct

        Of course I meant 2008 not 20008 (0 key got stuck :) )

        and yes I have replaced the original useless 1300mAh battery with a 2800mAh one which gives me the 4 days, but you can not do that with the E7 can you? no 'cause its sealed up, hence fail! I would rather have a bigger phone that lasts longer than one that needs charging every 5 minutes.

  10. chuckc
    FAIL

    Another opinion

    Engadget reviewed this today:

    http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/11/nokia-e7-review/

    They mention that the browser is a complete mess and that you're better off ignoring it altogether. How bad is that for a modern smartphone? I for one use the browser an awful lot on mine.

    And you need to decline terms of service to setup a gmail account straight from Google's IMAP server's? What year is this, 2005?

    1. Ilgaz

      as engadget, they are missing something

      I think E7 will be way better in couple of firmware updates but let me tell you, a symbian default browser doesn't matter that much. You have coding piece of art Opera Mobile for instance, a real browser, not some joke of itself because of app store.

      Chinese also came up with UC Browser, which has the most amazing UI I have seen to this date with very crazy/functional UX tricks.

      Nokia is extremely conservative with device browser, part thanks to anyone can install any browser using any channel (web,app store or even bluetooth).

      I don't recommend any Symbian device anymore but lets not ignore the ignorance of engadget or any US site regarding anything non Apple or Google.

      1. chuckc
        WTF?

        The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

        You have to be kidding. I know Opera mobile is a decent browser, so are the WebKit based iOS and Android browsers, but I insist, if Nokia wants to recover lost ground, they need to bundle a great browser with the OS, not everyone goes hunting for browsers in app stores as soon as they turn their phone on.

        1. /\/\j17

          Let me get this straight...

          You're criticizing Nokia for not spending loads re-developing the web browser they bundle with Symbian in the 18 or so months before they ditch it from their high-end phones for Windows and, inevitably IE...?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      I guess you also use Internet Exploder

      The good thing about smart phones is you can install your own software on them. Like Opera.

    3. /\/\j17

      Built-in browser useless?

      Yes, but that's why everyone uses Opera on Symbian phones...

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Engadget? Seriously ?

      I'm not impressed by the E7, namely because of the lack of expansion and fm transmitter plus the edof camera, but Engadget aren't exactly known for their fair and unbiased reviews.

      As for the browser, no it isn't the best but it's soon to be updated, plus you can readily install Opera.

      1. chuckc
        Go

        Yes, engadget. Seriously.

        Take a look at their coverage of the latest Symbian phones announced by Nokia today. They praise the hardware and criticize the software, just like everyone else in Europe and the world. I expect a decent browser to be bundled with an expensive smartphone, and so does every user in the world in this day and age.

  11. Dazed and Confused

    Browsers

    I saw one last week in the phone shop. They had some trainer from Nokia down to do demos and training on the N7 and I noticed he'd got Opera on his home screen. So the browser doesn't seem much of an issue.

  12. Ilgaz

    I won't upgrade to E7 from E71

    Nokia, when announced Windows switch has killed the software support for this very advanced device with very specific (no amateurs) development needs.

    In all these years, I have learned to ignore clueless symbian flaming but this time, it is different. Especially if you are an advanced symbian user, buying this device to get effectively abandoned after 1 year will really make you down.

    Symbian os demands very advanced and power/memory limit demanding code. That is how your average "lets buy mac mini,install xcode" windows companies won't even dream on developing for it. Established companies/developers wasted millions of dollars and time for qt, they won't say it but they are extremely pissed off. It even effects Windows phone adoption.

    So if you can live with lack of software, some popular software missing, idiot friends talk about iphone (a touch device) comparing it to a micro laptop (9000 series,this one), buy it.

    Otherwise, don't. Go for Blackberry touch/type hybrids which are qnx upgradable or if there is a real business device shipped, android.

    Trolltech qt is the key. If qt isn't available for windows, nobody will care to develop for that device. And there isn't even smallest chance for ms allowing qt in windows phone. Nokia already said it, it is just if you are hopelessly optimistic.

    Just lately, qt 4.7 shipped for symbian and guess what? E71/72, ancestors of this device, while still on sale, are unsupported. That is the company we talk about.

  13. Bad Beaver
    Grenade

    I so wanted this one

    Back when they announced it. Honestly, Nokia outdid itself with the wait this time around. And then they kicked this phone into the trash mere days before its release with the Windows thing. Good bye!

    I like my Nokias. I always did. They work. I wanted this one for the great keyboard. But it is too little and too late, and it is too frickin' expensive for what you get. I also fail to see a single raving review. So I'll wait for the Palm 3 with its likely shoddy hardware, because Nokia MESSED UP BIG TIME.

    1. Ilgaz

      HP forgot something

      Earth is a huge planet, not just consisting of USA. We, Symbian users are looking for non android/ios devices but if I don't have even an app store in my country, even Holland and Poland (mobile developer heavens) misses it, I won't really bother.

      Compare Nokia OVJ chart to RIM (blackberry) since the day Windows switch announced, you will see where are all E series run to. I have seen Nokia shop getting 400 E72 orders cancelled/switched to BB 9800 myself, while buying a S40 phone as gift.

  14. Tom 35

    What's with the home screen colours?

    It looks like an old CGA monitor.

    1. Ilgaz

      Eh change it

      Nokia insists on a common colour scheme and a basic theme for default phone settings but anyway, Symbian runs World's most advanced UI layer which can be changed with "themes", of "windows blinds" complexity, all vector based and scalable.

      I don't even use my Nokia stock font anymore, Monotype sells system fonts being set with 2 clicks, on nokia ovi store itself.

      again... Poor symbian.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    More power?

    I know Symbian OS doesn't need a grunty CPU to be smooth (it's old, why would it), but lets face it a 680MHz ARM11 is crap for web browsing and slow for apps. If I'm spending £500 on something I expect a faster CPU, it's 2 generations out of date, there are better CPUs in budget smartphones.

    Especially as it doesn't seem to have improved battery life much this is just pathetic. My N900 can manage over a day (just) with Maemo and a Cortex A8...

    Nokia, why u no good anymore???

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RIP Nokia

    The early Symbian phones (7650, 6680) were the best phones I ever had.

    Wouldn't even consider a Nokia phone today.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Won't be getting an E7 but do like the latest Symbian

    I'm running an N8 and it's neither slow for browing (Opera Mobile and Mini) nor when running apps (eg I regularly multitask with Ovi Maps, Viewranger and Sportstracker all running simultaneously with no problems).

    I often get 3-4 days with maybe an hour or so browsing a day, plus a bit of gaming and checking mail etc. Your mileage depending on your usage may vary. I do a lot of camping and trekking so I just carry a small screwdriver and can change out the battery in a few minutes, it's no big deal.

    I have no problems with the 'outdated' UI, but I've been using tech for 25 years and have no problem adapting to new UI's. In fact I also have alternatives such as Voyager Home Screen and SPB Mobile Shell installed along with various iphone imitations and the like, but keep finding myself going back to the standard, but with a different theme. If people don't like the look they're free to change it (that thing in the screenshots is hideous imo).

    When other phones have cameras as good, built-in fm transmitters, usb-otg, hdmi out, expandable storage, decent battery life, the freedom to change the UI any way I want, and don't tie me into some piece of shit like Itunes or Zune for transferring files, then get back to me.

    Those are all features I find extremely useful, so in the meantime I'll do without so called 'sparklier' or 'fluider' interfaces or ten squillion apps that I neither want nor need. At the end of the day it's a tool to get things done, and I'll pick a drab workhorse with good functionality any day over some supposedly desirable prancing venetian covered in slap.

  18. Mark .

    Re: as engadget, they are missing something

    "but lets not ignore the ignorance of engadget or any US site regarding anything non Apple or Google."

    Indeed - we should remember in general, it's hard to trust any reviewer when it comes to operating systems. If a site claimed that they'd done a review, that OS X was better than Windows, does it mean that that must be true? Or what about the reverse?

    There's so much fanaticism in operating systems, even more so for phone OSs, that anything should be taken with a pinch of salt. On top of that, you've got the problem that most of the media seem to hate Nokia and love Apple (especially in the US, where Nokia have little presence, but it spreads worldwide too where Nokia are number 1).

    Personally I find the Nokia 5800 browser just fine, but also have Opera too. If I had any phone, I'd still want to use Opera - so I'm glad I'm using a phone that lets me do that.

    Whenever the Iphone misses a feature, it's "Why would I want to do that? There's another way to do it." Well, why not apply the same logic for Nokia? If you expect a "decent browser", well maybe I expect "decent multitasking, 3G, copy/paste, Flash, video recording, Java etc" - could I add all those in for free to any Iphone?

    chuckc: "if Nokia wants to recover lost ground"

    Recover what ground? They're number one, and sales have continually increased. No sales have been lost. The browser is fine. Is Windows doomed, because some people choose to use Firefox instead of IE, and think it better?

    Five Hats: Good for you. I wouldn't consider phones from Apple. Different people like different phones.

  19. Jemma
    Badgers

    Et tu, f**kwit

    Another symbian bashing from el reg... a poor rating (for the reg anyways) on the basis that you couldnt work out how to open a phone that you'd never seen before...

    And mentioning that it could do everything a 'droid or 'iOS handset could do with half the clockspeed, and then wingeing its got a slow processor... and then orgasming about the fact of its good battery life...

    You cant have it both ways

    Personally I probably wont be buying a Android/WinPho 7 handset next time, because I dont see the point - all the ones Ive had cant get a signal where a 6 year old E70 can - with dual processors no less.

    Personally I'd just slap Opera mini/mobile on there and be done with it - does exactly what I want...

    But the the 260mhz Qtek 8500 phone did everything I wanted bar WiFi

    Symbian has its place - and that place is powerful, effective smartphones with long battery life - that wont give you 2nd degree burns when you pick them up

    With android, iOS and WinPho we are seeing what happened with windows all over again in minature - bloat bloat and more bloat, leading to more and more power requirements - it was bad enough in full size machines, why are we accepting the same thing again?

    Dont even get me started on the battery thing - its a ploy to make cellphones throw away items - we winge non stop about the environment - and then we let companies do this to us... dont ya just love hypocrisy... no? well, i've news for you, you're a walking talking advert for it...

  20. Spiracle

    Psion?

    Can we look on this as the final iteration of the Psion organiser?

  21. RobinHunter

    Nokia e6

    Thats the way forward, not the E7

  22. Ben Rosenthal

    Are all the alarms switched off if you switch off the phone?

    I hope so, if I wanted it to do anything, I would not have turned the bugger off!

    To each their own, but I don't fancy yours much :D

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