Nokia E75 Review

Introduction:

Doing business would be quite an uphill battle without cell phones or the services that the Internet offers. There are many mobile devices these days that deliver a growing number of functions, previously available on computers only. It´s been a while since you needed a mouse and keyboard to check your emails or enter the Web and read the breaking news. You can do all that with most of the cell phones today. There is a make to fit virtually any customer, no matter if they are high-tech buffs, fashion-obsessed savvies or, as in this specific case, business-minded people.

Today, we are bringing the Nokia E75 to your attention. One of the latest business series add-ons of the Finnish manufacturer was officially announced at the MWC 2009. It´s the current flagship model in their E-series and sources from the company have recently shared with us that the phone is the best messaging device they have ever made. Moreover, the manufacturer claims creation of the E75 has been heavily influenced by the experience they gained with their Communicator series. The phone sports a side sliding, full-fledged QWERTY keyboard and that´s a novelty feature on an “E” device. As you have probably guessed already, it is a high-end device that offers Wi-Fi, A-GPS, HSDPA and 3.2-megapixel LED flash camera that offers Macro shooting mode.

What's in the box?

Design:

The Nokia E75 looks like a successor to the Nokia E51 at first, because creates the impression that it doesn´t open and sports the same metal edging and back cover. But looks can be deceiving. We´ve got our hands on a silver-black unit, but other two varieties are also being offered, in red and copper-yellow. Its dimensions are acceptable given the “hidden” QWERTY keyboard and functions it offers. Truth be told, the phone is quite slimmer (14.4 mm.) alongside of other devices with similar design. It weighs hefty 139 gr. and we definitely cannot say it´s light as a feather.



You can compare the Nokia E75 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

It features a 2.4-inch display with 240x320 pixel resolution and 16 mln. colors. We need to point out it delivers very good image quality with saturated colors. Details look a bit worn out in the sunlight, but remain easily legible. The earpiece, surrounded by video call camera and light sensor, lurks right above the display. The navigation buttons and shortcuts aren´t quite easily discernible which may annoy some customers, but still most people will be able to get used to that quickly, since all buttons have a good travel and pressing them is distinctly felt. We have absolutely no issues with the keypad, since all buttons are large enough and pressing them is fairly easy to feel. On both its sides you have the microUSB and microSDHC  card slots, both hidden underneath snuggly fitting rubber flaps, the volume keys, voice recognition button (hard to press) and camera shutter. The more interesting thing is the 3.5 mm jack on the top side that makes for a nice extra feature on a business oriented cell phone.




OK, ok! Let´s open the QWERTY keyboard and no violence if possible! Sliding mechanism feels solid, but is fairly easy to push open. Buttons look optimally aligned, arranged in four rows and are large enough, so even people with thicker fingers shouldn´t have any problems with that. They are easy to get used to and pressing them feels clearly discernible. We were taken a bit aback when we first saw the metal band running along the middle part of the keyboard and ending just above the space button. The only remark we have doesn´t regard the band, but the upper button row that is located really close to the edge, because ended up pushing our fingers against it fairly often. As a whole, we are more than pleased with the keyboard on the Nokia E75 and we believe it to be one of the best we have ever used. Congrats, Nokia!

Interface:

The Nokia E75 runs latest version of the Symbian S60 3rd Edition OS with Feature Pack 2, developed for cell phones without touch sensitive screens. All told, its functionality is pretty similar to the version found on the Nokia E66 and Nokia E71, both of which utilize Feature Pack 1 with certain functions from Feature Pack 2 integrated by the manufacturer. Home screen can either look fairly simple or show the Home screen application. Like before, we again prefer the second option, since it allows easy access to the most used functions and important information such as upcoming events, unread emails etc. and therefore you can respond more promptly when it comes to business correspondence or scheduled events. The pretty nice function to switch between Business and Personal profile that is found on the home screen of both the Nokia E66 and Nokia E71 is also present here. Again, separate ringtones, running applications, theme and wallpaper can be assigned to each profile, so you cell phone gets transformed from a personal business assistant to multimedia center really fast.

In the phonebook you can store as many contacts as you need with the only limitation being the available free memory of the phone and each of them can be assign unlimited numbers, email addresses, date of birth, a photo, extra information etc. Searches are performed by both given and family names or company (if previously entered).



The calendar doesn´t take up the entire screen when showing all days in any given month. There is also some free space below the block of dates that shows the upcoming events. The other calendar views look a bit differently. If you pick out “Day”, a vertical list of events pops up on screen with timeslots clearly visible. You also have the well known “To-do” view and Agenda mode. If you select it, you will be able to see all events scheduled on that particular day, vertically sorted by starting hour.


 
The preloaded Quickoffice pack kicks in when you need to go over or edit Office documents and Power point presentations. Unfortunately it doesn´t support Office 2007 files, so you will have to spend about 30.12 EUR (about $40) if you need it. At least we didn´t encounter any issues opening large Office 2003 documents. There were no problems at all reading PDF files with the preloaded Adobe Reader LE 1.5 either.

Messaging:

Now, we have just made it to perhaps the most important feature of the Nokia E75 – messaging. Aside from the standard SMS and MMS functionality that bring nothing new to the table, email communication has acquired a brand new interface, thanks to Nokia Messaging. The Nokia E75 is the first model of the manufacturer to come with this application preloaded. It can be easily downloaded to other devices as well (see a list of supported cell phones and get the app from here).



What new features does Nokia Messaging offer? If you happen to use any of the popular email providers, say Gmail or Yahoo!, all you need to do is punch in your username and password and device finds all relevant settings itself. When had to manually enter additional settings to get our office emails up and running, unlike on RIM devices. Still, the application offers some real functionality improvements. The interface is friendly and simple at the same time, so there is nothing to get you troubled or scared. We do like certain functions, like switching between email accounts (up to ten so far) directly from the application itself, the sorting options by sender, subject, priority, read status, attached files or size. They make the usage of several email accounts and piles of emails way faster and more comfortable to handle. You also have nicely implemented searches and not last you can read HTML emails, where enclosed pictures are a click away. Well, it doesn´t exactly feel like working on your computer, but all these enhancements allow improved efficiency in dealing with such communication. Moreover, Nokia Messaging offers push email functionality, although whether or not it works lies entirely with your carrier. Push email services are still unavailable anywhere in the world (information correct on date of first publication).



All told, Nokia Messaging leaves us with a positive impression and if your cell phone is on the supported device list, we highly recommend that you download and install the application right away.

Internet and GPS:

You have the standard Symbian S60 browser to surf the Internet and the app is great indeed. All pages and flash content, including the large ones, are visualized properly. The minimap function comes in pretty handy. It is displayed automatically during extended scrolling and if the page is large, you can also turn on Page Overview to navigate more easily. In case you need to read the latest information on a website and it supports RSS broadcasting, you set that up in two quick steps.



As we already mentioned, the Nokia E75 has got a built-in GPS. It didn´t disappoint us and performed pretty well. Cold start with no internet connection took about 9 minutes in cloudy weather, while hot start proved to be instantaneous. When we allowed data transfer, localizing fell to less than a minute on cold start and the second restart happened in a snap again. Moreover, the phone comes with preloaded Nokia Maps and three month free of charge voice navigation for the region, where the device has been purchased. We have already taken an all round view of the App and since it doesn´t sport any new features, we are not going to thresh out the issue further.

Camera and Multimedia:

Nokia E75 has a 3.2-megapixel camera with a mirror and rather small LED flash, so we didn´t expect groundbreaking performance, especially given its intended market audience. After we took a walk and photographed whatever came our way, we found out that outdoor pictures confirmed our expectations. The colors in some of them weren´t saturated enough, while in others they looked a bit surreal, but at least the overall quality was above the average. Taking pictures in artificial lighting produces even more noise, but again, we´ve seen worse… You are also able to capture videos at 640x480 pixels and 30 frames per second. We think they are of good quality and you can judge for yourself by taking a look at the test video below.

Nokia E75 sample video at 640x480 pixel resolution.
*Note that due to codecs support, you may not be able to play the file.





There is nothing much to talk about when it comes the multimedia capabilities of the Nokia E75. It sports music player and FM radio, both with rather ordinary looking interface. Yet, they offer a bunch of features and as a whole are easy and comfy to use. The earphones coming in the pack are not bad really, though they are a bit too soft and muted to our liking plus the sound quality is mediocre alongside of what music phones deliver. Still, don´t forget that the Nokia E75 has a 3.5 mm jack, so you can always plug in a better set. Moreover, you are able to watch videos at a relatively high quality at the native resolution of the device - 640x480 pixels, although you need to convert them into MPEG-4 coded MP4 files.

Performance:

The Nokia E75 is a capable device in term of speed, although we´ve seen better performing Symbian S60 handsets, including the now growing older Nokia 6120 classic. We have to admit we feel somewhat envious, since the device sport a 369 MHz. processor, while the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic has got a 600 MHz. one. We cannot complain though, because we haven´t encountered any delays, opening menus is swift and turning the phone aside to get it into landscape mode through the accelerometer is almost instantaneous.

Unfortunately, we are displeased with the in-call quality. We expected far more from a high-range phone such as this one. Voices of people when using the headset were muted and sometimes we couldn´t even properly catch onto what we were being told. Reception seemed much better on the other end, people could hear us loud and clear and claimed the sound of our voices was realistic and even though a bit sharp at times, we could be understood without difficulties. The built-in loudspeaker failed to impress us, it is not loud enough and it´s almost unusable. According to the official information, the battery should provide 5.33 hours of talk time or 280 hours continuous standby. Actually the Nokia E75 turned out to be quite a performer. We managed to scrape out almost two days out of the battery, despite our attempt to abuse the battery subjecting it to heavy Wi-fi use (about 4 hours in total), constant email writing and about 90 minutes of talks.

Conclusion:

After running all tests and hearing of every witness, the plenary session at PhoneArena adjourned and called a closed meeting to order. After a heavy, 3-day-long email writing session, it finally reached an agreement on the verdict. Everybody, stand up! Silence in court, please! We unanimously consider the Nokia E75 the best messaging phone Nokia has manufactured so far. It is thinner than any other side-sliding phone and features the best QWERTY we have ever used. Moreover, the new Nokia Messaging app makes your life easier in terms of email correspondence, giving you speed, comfort and ease of use. The thing is you will have to make do with mediocre in-call performance of the phone if you feel like putting the device and all its good features into your pocket. We have to admit we believe the Nokia E75 comes with quite a price tag alongside of the competing devices you might get for that amount of money. The Blackberry Bold has proved to be an extremely capable business phone. The HTC Touch Pro also features awesome keyboard, although it´s a bit bulky and quite larger than the Nokia E75.  The  Nokia E71 is also a cheaper, decent alternative that provides good in-call sound quality and can also run Nokia Messaging. We leave the final decision to you.

The software version of the reviewed unit is 100.48.78.