Nokia E72 review: The business of messaging

Gsmarena have posted their review of the Nokia E72. Here are the phone's key features, main disadvantages and their final impression.

Key features:
Quad-band GSM support
3G with HSDPA 10.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
Landscape 2.36" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution
Comfortable full QWERTY keypad
Optical trackpad on the D-pad
Symbian 9.3 OS, S60 UI with FP2
600 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB of SDRAM
5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology, DLNA support
Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS support, digital compass
Accelerometer for turn-to-mute
250 MB of internal memory, microSD expansion, ships with a 4GB card
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP support and microUSB v2.0
FM radio with RDS
Remote Wipe
Great battery life
Office document editor (including MS Office 2007)
User-friendly Mode Switch for swapping two homescreen setups
Smart dialing
Full Flash support
Great audio output quality
Lifetime Nokia Messaging subscription

Main disadvantages:
Optical trackpad is not as handy as we'd like
Limited camera features, no geotagging, video recording maxes out at VGA@15fps
No DivX or XviD support (can be enabled, possibly requiring a purchase)
No TV-out functionality
No dedicated camera key (trackpad compensates for that)
Poor loudspeaker performance

There was a time when phones were just phones and mail was delivered by hand. In comparison, the Nokia E72 seems like a space craft communicator. It handles just about every means of communication available today - from voice calls, through video calls, VoIP to texting, email and IM.

So do a lot of other phones but there's a key difference. Most phones can handle email, but it's not necessarily an enjoyable experience. For the E72 email is second nature, as easy to use as making calls. It's not just the software or just the hardware, it's how they work together that makes for the excellent experience.

Speaking of hardware, the "cheap plastic syndrome" is the curse of some of the most capable smartphones. Blazing fast wireless connectivity won't make up for the cheapish looking plastic. But the Nokia E72 has the cure - metal - and it looks as good as it performs.

So, the Nokia E72 is king of the Eseries but whether it's the best choice for you is another matter. The Nokia E71 is still something to be reckoned with, though E72 brings a few important improvements, the chief of which is the upgraded camera (and probably the 600MHz CPU).

The Nokia E55 offers just about the same software and the half-QWERTY doesn't lag too far behind the full keyboard of the E72 once you get used to it. But while the two phones are a match at build quality and centimeter-thin bodies, the E55 is compact and - more importantly - cheaper.

Those who don't like Symbian will perhaps want to check out the WinMo alternatives by Samsung B7320 OmniaPRO and B7330 OmniaPRO duo. The B7330 especially is trying to come across as a Nokia E72 equal, so it will probably boil down to whether your current phone is running Symbian or Windows Mobile.

We're talking QWERTY messengers and there's always a BlackBerry Bold to try and spoil the day for Nokia. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is sure hoping to be the E72 nemesis, just like the Bold 9000 was dogging the E71. Despite their recent dabbling in the popular phone market, BlackBerry phones are still the epitome of a business phone. And that sets them on a collision course with the Eseries.

So, the Eseries have done it again. You can help yourself to another messenger of steel. The Nokia E72 won't be just the next in line though; it's keen to take the lead. It will be a while perhaps before Nokia decide to retire the E71, but they are making sure there won't be an empty space after it.

For the time being the E71 takes one step down the rank and continues to do its job. The E72 sees to it that the lineup is up to date. Nokia is betting on two horses in the QWERTY messenger race and everyone is happy. That includes us - users. Business as usual in the Eseries.