I'm a long time Nokia user, starting in the mid-nineties when the first GSM networks in the USA appeared. Back then, the Nokia user interface was much more comfortable than its competitors. I've tried many other phones since then, and I come back to Nokia because they tend to have the more desirable build quality, software, and performance for me.
Three weeks ago, I started a trial of the Nokia e75. I had been using a Nokia e71 just before that, and an n95 before the e71. I bought two e62's after losing one in a cab in 2007. I've spent a fair amount of time with Symbian s60 through a couple of revisions and this post is geared towards a practical approach to living with it as your top digital device.
With that in mind, let me introduce you to the e75, Nokia's business-oriented messaging device. Like the e71, the e75 shares a focus on messaging and e-mail with the inclusion of a QWERTY keyboard and a de-emphasis on multimedia. The e75 differs from the e71 in a number of ways, the most prominent being the large slide-out keyboard and narrow form-factor. The e71 is much thinner, but the e75 feels more comfortable in the hand during traditional telephone calls, and is faster on the fingers when messaging. It's hard to predict whether the design will catch on, despite the advantages of the larger keyboard. The robust design of the e71, and owing to its popular look and feel when compared to the Blackberry and several Windows Mobile models make the e75 look more like the "toy" phones handed out to consumers. From three weeks of use, I can assure most business-minded customers that this phone is as robust and feature rich as any of the traditional IT department favorites. It has also been stable and reliable with call handling, which is something I've consistently enjoyed about Nokia devices.
Living With... E-Mail
E-Mail is the killer app for mobiles today, whether you use them for multimedia or not, the Blackberry staked it's business on e-mail from Day One, and ever since then, devices have been struggling to provide an e-mail experience that works as smoothly as it works on the desktop. The Ever since I started with the Nokia e62, I've come to believe that Nokia's ability to produce a reliable e-mail client wasn't in the cards. Until the e75, Nokia's s60 bundled e-mail client performed poorly, requiring the user to wait while it deleted messages from the inbox over-the-air, and without downloading messages periodcally to ensure offline availability. If you were in the subway, as I frequently am, you were out of touch. With the e75, the embedded mail reader is much more responsive, although the developers opted for an animated appearance that bogs down the phone in sluggish animations and transitions. Developers must focus on making the mail client fast and robust, and responsive to the user on the move. The e75's mail client will do the job much better than the e71 for IMAP mail users. For Exchange users, where the Exchange integration provides a good offline experience, the mail client may make little difference. For myself, I prefer not to rely on "push" services for my e-mail. I don't see the advantage of adding another layer to the delivery chain, or worse, providing credentials to a third party for my mailbox. IMAP IDLE and 5 minute polling intervals are sufficient for my e-mail use pattern. For that reason, I desire a highly reliable, synchronization-friendly IMAP client. The e75's client comes close to this, and if I can sort out why it stopped automatically updating, I may have the exact solution to my needs.
HTML e-mails are handled well enough. Hotkeys are implemented to make page navigation a little easier, and message deletions don't require a lengthy on-line transaction wait as with the older mail client. The ability to choose either portrait or landscape screen orientations is a big win for mobile devices of this size, as some things tend to look better vertically. The e75 includes an accelerometer which can be used to orient the screen based on the device's orientation, or the user can simply open and close the keyboard slide to switch orientations. When a new message arrives, the phone can be made to sound an alert, or simply to pulse a white LED to remind the user that an unread message is waiting. One of the issues with the notification is that multiple mailboxes will all trigger notification. If a method for selectively shutting it off exists, I have not found it. In my case, I monitor two mailboxes - one for personal e-mail which I prefer to respond to quickly, and a less-critical mailbox that I use to answer group e-mails. I'd rather check that mailbox at my leisure, and notifications are useless in that context. The home screen widget for e-mail displays the unread count, and provides a quick link to the inbox.
One last point about mail - the e75 sports a dedicated "envelope" button which takes you to the email application, but not the inbox. A long-press of the button takes you to an e-mail composition screen. If you have more than one mail account, you can select which account maps to the button. A shortcoming of this feature is the inability to select the SMS or MMS inbox as the default. I find that I typically rely on the SMS text messaging feature than e-mail when I have a time-critical messaging exchange. I'd rather be able to zip to the SMS inbox from a dedicated key than to my e-mail box, as those messages tend to be more time sensitive for me.
Living with... Music
The second thing that I tended to do with my e75 was replace my iPod. I don't like having multiple devices to charge and care for. The iPod is low-impact in that regard, tethering to iTunes, automatically freshening music based on dynamic selections or new additions, and generally sports a fantastic runtime between recharging. It's still another gadget, and when a call comes, it must be stowed while you switch to the phone. Much better then to have the phone double as your music player. The e75 approaches the issue of playing music with the same media player that the other Nokia devices share. It's not terribly good when compared to the iPod or most desktop players. First, there aren't a great deal of things that can be done to a music player applet. One thing that should be done was set by iTunes long ago - track play counts, offer ratings, and share those statistics with a desktop library that can dynamically cycle out songs based on conditions. This is very important when you can only carry a small sub-set of your music collection. Th Nokia player works, but would benefit from these additions. When you first load music in the player, it slowly enumerates each song in memory. If you have hundreds of tracks, expect to wait awhile. Album art is displayed, which is nice, but the UI is neither fresh or exciting. All navigation is accomplished with the directional pad, although next and previous hotkeys are available.
The worst oversight of the music player is the lack of any shortcuts to advance the track when the music player is not in the foreground. When using the bundled headphones, or when using self-supplied headphones, it is very inconvenient to swap to the Music application in order to select another track. The Blackberry Bold, for example, offered a shortcut in the form of the volume control. Click it once quickly to adjust the volume up, or hold it for three seconds to advance to the next track. This functionality needs to exist in every Nokia device. For this reason, I have to insist that anyone who seriously considers this device for music should also purchase one of the remote control accessories, such as the Nokia Bluetooth headset BH-503 (~$60 at Newegg.com) which provides functional track control buttons. One really bright spot in the Nokia music player is the equalizer, which works very well when adapting headphones to the music. Note that the second generation Apple in-ear headphones DO NOT work with the Nokia.
Living with... Photography
Prior to the e71, I owned the n95. The n95 sports a 5 megapixel sensor, and a nice lens. The sensor was tiny, and tended to be really noisy in low light, and the autofocus was slow and prone to failure. Still, for a mobile phone at the time, it was the top of the line camera. But it was also marketed for that purpose. The e71 and the e75 are designed for business, and a camera is a social afterthought. Still, they included a 3.2 megapixel sensor with autofocus and an LED flash. The camera is even less low-light friendly than the n95, and still suffers from a poor autofocus implementation. Autofocus tends to give up easily, and works very slowly. Users should be presented with a manual focus option, and the autofocus software should be licensed from a firm which has a better implementation. Holding the dedicated camera button for five seconds invokes the camera software. Be sure to disable the "Show captured image" feature if you plan to take more than one photo at a time. The lag between snapping a photo and viewing a photo is substantial. Another nitpick about the camera application is the user interface, where selecting options such as flash or zoom consume the direction pad and don't release it for photographing until a short timeout elapses. In short, this camera is so slow that you'll likely miss a lot of candid shots.
Once photos make it into the phone, the gallery viewer is reasonable and works about as you'd expect. Geotagging is supported, provided you can get a GPS fix. This takes awhile. It would be nice if the phone would periodically grab the current GPS fix in the background so you'd be ready to go whenever you fired up Maps or Camera. The acquistion delay is horrific. I am encouraged that the geotagging functionality is part of the camera app now, however. Prior to this inclusion, a second applet was required to manage geotagging.
Living with... Tethering!
Most of our iPhone users won't know what tethering is, thanks to AT&T and Apple's oversight of this critical feature. Windows Mobile users on AT&T were limited to USB tethering, and Blackberry came late to the game with Bluetooth tethering, but have since done very well at offering the end user an easy experience getting online from a tethered laptop. Nokia was always on top of the connectivity game, offering users the choice of infrared, Bluetooth, or serial tethering from early on. Today's models can offer USB or Bluetooth tethering out of the box, and with the addition of JoikuSpot - a third party software application - users can enjoy Wifi sharing of their 3G connection, much like the portable hotspots outed by Verizon and Sprint, but without the high cost. I was able to tether my Mac and my Vista PCs to the e75 without significant effort. The Mac automatically configured the connection via Bluetooth using the Bluetooth Assistant, and the Vista machine worked flawlessly when paired with the new Nokia Ovi Suite over USB. Tethering is a must-have feature that led me away from the iPhone early on.
Living with... Phone calls
The Nokia e71 and e75 sport contact lookups from the keypad on the home screen. This type-to-search feature is a boon for anyone using a phone and is standard fare on the Blackberry. User portraits are shown during the call, and the call control features are sensible and easy to reach. The phone includes an easy VoIP setup for Gizmo users, and when connected to a WiFi access point can be used to make and recieve VoIP calls. As I use Gizmo at home instead of a traditional landline, this was a big asset. Placing calls to contacts over the VoIP service is as easy as placing traditional mobile calls. Opening the keyboard slide during a call places the phone into Loudspeaker mode. This can be disabled. I didn't try it with a headset attached, but I assume the audio would only change to loudspeaker if there was no headset in use. Signal quality is fantastic, even in difficult situations, and is much more robust than the radio in the e71 in my experience.
Living with... Synchronization
Nokia has been catching up to the iPhone and Windows Mobile when it comes to integration with desktop applications. The iPhone is a paragon of desktop integration, taking data from iPhoto, iTunes, Contacts, Calendar, and Mail without substantial user effort. Windows Mobile and Blackberry integrate easily with the office suite, although I don't believe either of them have had as robust media synchronization as the iPhone. Nokia provides a product for the Mac which does a fantastic job of mimicing the iPhone's integration. Nokia Multmedia Transfer presents the phone as if it is a camera device to iPhoto, making photo imports easy, and easily syncs music from iTunes. Apple's own iSync handles contact/calendar synchronization - and both functions are easy to do frequently. It even supports syncing over Bluetooth. On the PC side, the Nokia Ovi Suite provides similar functionality, but does so by providing its own photo and music management applications. I'm not sure I appreciate this approach since most users will likely invest in Windows' own media management tools and doing things twice is often unwanted. Additionally, I found the Nokia Ovi suite to be sluggish to react on my quad-core Intel PC. Some of this is likely related to the way the user interface interacts with the background programs that manage connectivity to the e75. Regardless, when it works, it does a fine job of bringing media off the phone and into the computer, if a bit slowly. It also appears to support Bluetooth, although my Vista PC lacks a Bluetooth radio.
When all else fails, you can connect the phone to the computer and access its memory as a simple storage device. Media Transfer Protocol is supported, which may offer a richer synchronization experience for media - but I haven't time with this mode. Linux users will be happy to note that FSpot detects the device as a camera when used in Image Transfer mode.
It is not unreasonable to expect that this device will become tightly integrated with your desktop computer. I have had great success keeping my dynamic data in sync between the two. Nokia offers an online service via their Ovi brand which permits the user to synchronize the phone with an online contact/calendar service and upload photos for public sharing. There is also an "Ovi Files" application bundled with the phone that offers file sharing with the public as well as access to files on the user's desktop PC provided the PC is actively running the Ovi Files client program. I had reservations about allowing my PC's files to be accessed online so easily, as there was no assurance that the level of security afforded by the applet was sufficient to protect my personal data from leaks or corruption. The product did work as advertised.
My issue with the online edition of Ovi was that it seemed to have no integration points with the desktop Ovi suite, and no assurances that synchronizing contacts on Ovi would not corrupt contacts stored on my Mac or on the Vista PC. Multiple synchronization relationships can introduce corruption in contact records if the method of determining which contact is unique is different across the synchronization systems. I would advise most people to decide to keep their synchronization between just two systems and avoid using the online service. If you do not tend to use a traditional computer to maintain your phone contacts, then the online service is a good choice. Either way, you need to locate a means to back-up those contacts in case the phone is lost or stolen.
Living with... Applications
Applications are a strong spot for Nokia, as Symbian has a long history of an open application marketplace. Recently, Nokia launched the Ovi Store, which, like the Apple iPhone app store and the Blackberry stores offer a trusted list of applications for both no cost and for licensing fees. The full breadth of the Ovi Store is something to discuss in a different post, but it suffices to say that the e75 is a more compelling device when paired with applications from the Ovi Store. For the e75, must have applications include the Twitter client, "Gravity," and the JoikuSpot Premium WiFi Hotspot. You'll be the envy of your friends when you use your phone to provide everyone with Internet on the go. Other must-have apps for any Nokia user include Google Maps and the YouTube applet.
Living with... Care and Feeding
The Nokia e75 sports USB charging. This feature, finally available and highly desired, allows the user to drop the power brick from their bag when traveling. Instead, use your laptop as a power source. Keep a micro-USB cable handy. Battery life is fairly good considering the amount of versatility this phone offers. Don't expect it to run forever if you're moving a lot of data or running several busy applications.
The Nokia includes a slip case with a clever ribbon which ejects the phone from the tight fitting sleeve. The slip case lacks a belt clip, and while it works for most folks who slip the phone into a bag or oversized pocket - the phone is simply too thick to really benefit from pocketing. This model phone would benefit from a belt clip. Since this was an evaluation, I did not bother tracking one down. If you tend to keep your phone in a bag, the slip case is just fine for preventing unwanted scratches. Use the keyboard lock religiously to avoid unwanted calls, though.
Things to watch out for:
The rubber port covers over the memory slot and USB port are poorly designed. They fit very tight, but the material tears easily with use. As the device is likely to see a lot of USB connectivity, it would be better to avoid this plug for the USB port. A redesign of this part is recommended, either with a less snug shape or a material that holds up to the fingernail better.
The slide mechanism is very solid, there is nothing to watch out for here.
The device can be a little slippery, so be careful not to drop it. The e71 is exceptionally prone to dropping.
The keyboard layout is a little nitpicky. Quotation marks are hidden beneath the Character alternate button. Choices have to be made about what keys are primary and what keys require additional modifiers, but I'm not sure the quotes deserved to be depreciated that way.
When selecting a ring tone, if you have a large number of music tracks, you'll have to scroll through them all. This software feature is present on all Nokia phones and is not unique to the e75, but it would be nice if Nokia would rewrite the selection feature to allow the user to filter the selections based on type of file and whether the file is on the memory card or internally located.
Internet connectivity on this device is a little unusual. When you launch a legacy Symbian application, it will present a list of Internet access points to use. This may include a WiFi hotspot or one of a number of mobile service provider APNs. Newer Symbian applications which leverage Feature Pack 2 will be able to auto-select. The phone now provides the ability to define APNs and WiFi hotspots for Internet, Intranet, MMS, or WAP access purposes. As new applications use this networking code, it will be less troublesome to get individual apps online. This feature is sorely needed as the manual network selection behavior was cumbersome and prohibited effective use of a lot of background applications.
CONCLUSION
The e75 is an excellent phone. It is solidly built, feature-rich, and with the exception of some very minor shortcomings can provide anyone with a robust communications and media device. A larger discussion on Symbian s60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 is out of the scope of this post, but the phone's hardware design coupled with this latest release make it a compelling choice over the now older e71. The forthcoming e72 will be out soon which levels the software field a bit, and the AT&T branded e71x already sports the same software load, but the real decision one has to make between the models is whether the form factor makes sense. For most users it will be a style decision rather than one of function. Typing on a micro keyboard like the e71 is reasonable for most people, although it is certainly more comfortable to type on the expanded keyboard provided by the e75. The e75 does not fit within the popular look and feel of the e71/Blackberry models that dominate the US marketplace, but the slimmer design of the e75 may be compelling enough for those who don't appreciate the wide form factor.
If you're in the market for a new phone, it is well worth your time to research the e75. If you're a business user, this is the phone for you.
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