Ok, so it’s a month since I acquired the Nokia E72. So far the phone has been a pleasure to use. The N70 finally had to be retired after over three years of meritorious service. (Btw, does it qualify for a Padma award too? :-p )
As I went phone hunting, two handsets were on the shortlist; the Nokia E72 and the Blackberry Bold 9700. (E71 being on the way out). The Bold hasn’t been launched yet in India and I wasn’t keen on a grey market piece at Rs. 28K. Other options like the Apple iPhone were not feasible. There is a limit to what I’m willing to pay for a cellphone, and ~Rs. 40K is a bit over that limit as of now. Android phones were an option, as was waiting for Google’s Nexus One.
Finally, I bought the Nokia E72.
Running on a fast ARM 11 600 MHz processor and based on the Symbian 9.3 Series 60 v3.2 UI operating system, the E72 is a slim phone weighing around 128 gms, with a 5 mp camera (not Carl Zeiss, unfortunately) with autofocus and LED flash, QWERTY keypad, inbuilt GPS receiver and digital compass, 3.5mm audio jack (finally), tons of features and a browser with full Flash support. It has a screen size of 320X240 pixels with a 16 mn colour display. Internal memory is limited to 250MB but it can support a memory card upto 16GB (mine came factory fitted with an 8GB one).
Initially, it took me some time to get used to the QWERTY keypad, being used to the standard 3 letters per key format, but within a week, I was back to my regular speed when typing messages or entering other data.
At 5 megapixels, the camera is one of the better ones out there on a business phone, but I can’t help feeling my N70 was better in terms of picture as well as video quality. What really bugged me were the camera options though, as well as the time it takes to “process” each image after it was clicked. It has a second camera too (VGA) to support videoconferencing.
The battery in the phone is a standard battery – Li-Po 1500mAh (BP-4L). This is one of the best I’ve seen on a phone, and it’s capacity is amazing. I’m a heavy user running several apps, and often keep the GPRS connection on for a few days at a time. It supports a stand-by time of upto 480 hrs and ~ 12.5 hrs of talktime before it needs a recharge.
Browsing web sites is a breeze and the clarity as well as Flash support is fantastic, meaning that one can even watch a YouTube video without any hassles.
Listening to music is average though there is a tinny sound at times. The bundled earphones are ok. The presence of a 3.5 mm jack means users can choose their ear/head phones. Ditto with the radio. However, as I prefer my iPod most of the times, this is not such a big issue for me.
The phone comes with the mandatory business apps like the Nokia Messaging app, QuickOffice, Adobe PDF Reader, a ZIP file manager, a wireless presenter, which displays presentations via Bluetooth, a text scanner which captures text through the camera, currency converter, calculator, calendar and a dictionary. I’ve yet to try all possible email syncing combos and will update this post as I do so.
Some minor irritants – The USB data cable is extremely short. There is also a bit of backlight peeping out from the left navigation key, but all said and done, I think the E72 is VFM at Rs. 21,000.
