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There are an immense number of phone choices out there to fit the needs and desires of virtually everyone. For me, my choice has always been a Windows Mobile device because I have always found the OS to be the best for my needs. I have been pretty adamant about that choice and rarely have a desire to wander away that is until I had the opportunity to check out several Nokia devices over the past several years.
I have used a half dozen or so of the N-series devices and frankly have liked each one. The quality has always been outstanding and the functionality of each device has more than met any expectation that I have had for a device. A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I would like to try out the Nokia E75 and with all the positive experiences I have had with the N-series, I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to check out an E-series device … and boy am I glad I did!
This device has just about everything I want in a device. It has excellent email capabilities; it allows you to keep your Calendar and Contacts updated easily, keeps excellent notes and has an excellent Office Suite. In fact, I am using Quickoffice to write my initial draft of this document and then will sync it with my PC polishing it off using MS Word. In addition, the web capabilities are more than satisfactory so I expect to have a pretty good experience.
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I did not get an exact retail box but rather got an impressive reviewers kit that was designed to start an immediate interest in the device and in fact, it did start my experience off on a very high note. The E75 came boxed in a metal briefcase that had three boxes that ultimately led me to the device with its accessories. (Check out the video when I first opened it in Amish Country).
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Opening the case then finding a box inside of a box inside of a box sure led to anticipation. But then I opened the third box and this is what I saw.
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First impressions are lasting and opening the final box and seeing this surely raised my expectation level. I quickly wondered if in fact it would be as great a device as it looked but as soon as I started to handle the device I knew that it was about to be a terrific experience.
The Nokia E75 is a pretty impressive device offering quality construction and superior performance. It has a Side slider with full QWERTY keyboard measuring 111.8 x 50/80 x 14.4 mm and weighs 139 g. The keyboard action is very good providing a great feel as you open the device.
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The screen is a high quality QVGA display which has given impressive results on my initial usage. It is a 2.4″ TFT active matrix screen with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels.
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Serious input is easily accomplished with the full QWERTY keyboard and the T9 keypad has been excellent for making calls as well as short messages.
The E75 came with a 4GB microSD HC memory and is hot swappable with support up to 16 GB memory card. The device has 50 MB of internal memory.
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The right side of the device has (from R-L) a volume up/zoom in key, Mute/Push to Talk key, Volume down/Zoom out key and the Camera key. The left side has (from L-R) a Micro USB connector and a Micro SD memory card slot.
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The top of the device has a 3.5 mm headset connector and the bottom has a charger connector. It should be noted that the device can be charged via the USB connector but charge time is significantly slower.
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Looking at the back of the device we find a metal cover (rather than the plastic cover so many devices have that often breaks). I was really pleased to see that. The camera is a 3.2 MP with an auto focus that works well. There is a flash that is fine for close objects and a self-portrait mirror
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The battery is 1000 mAh Li-Ion standard battery with impressive results so far. The rated talk time is 5 h 20 min with a standby time of 280 hours. My talk time results for the past week have been significantly more.
WiFi is available with a built-in WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g. So far, I have had no issues and have been very pleased with the WiFi connectivity (especially while I have been at my lake house which rarely has cell coverage). The E75 can connect to my laptop so it can have Internet Access and serve as a data modem. I have yet to try the PC connectivity but I expect it will work well. As an aside, the rated time for WLAN is up to 130 hours and music playback has a maximum 25 hours. I have not tested times for the WLAN or music. Frankly, I have not had the need to do so because I always have battery power.
Bluetooth is available and the E75 is using version 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate . The Bluetooth profiles supported are: A2DP, AVRCP, BIP, BPP, DI, DUN, FTP, GAVDP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, HID, OPP, PBAP, SPP, SAP. Pairing with a headset (and my car) was a breeze.
There is printing available using the High-Speed USB 2.0 Micro-USB connector which also supports charging … a great feature if you left your charger at home.
I was pleased to see a 3.5 mm AV connector for earbuds and although I rarely use a phone to play my MP3 files, I have been using the FM radio almost daily with great results. The sound quality has been excellent (as long as I get a strong station). Unfortunately you do have to plug in the earbuds to listen to the radio (it serves as an antenna) if you want to listen to the radio via the rear speaker. However, the sound quality is greatly enhanced when you do use earbuds …. I guess it is a trade off but my preference is using the rear speaker when I am sitting at my desk.
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The included ear buds are of mediocre build quality but surprisingly the sound quality is decent. The inline remote on the earbuds is not very good and frankly, if I was going to use earbuds, I would prefer to use my own because of comfort and sound quality. What I did like (personal preference) is the cloth wrapping used on the wires.
There are sufficient ring tones, and themes to get you started and although folks like to find a myriad of additional tones and themes, I believe the average person will be quite pleased with what comes standard. Of course you can customize the profile between a personal (or business) setting for your home screen display.
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Email was easy to setup up and the device supports IMAP4, Mail for Exchange, POP3, and SMTP. For those that use it, there is also support for the Nokia Messaging service.
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I’m not an SMS person so I have not used that feature extensively but it worked well and I was pleased to see that there was the ability for multiple SMS deletion. I have been especially pleased with the input from the slide out keyboard which has worked extremely well.
Besides the User Guide, Quick Start Guide and other miscellaneous documentation there was a 4 GB microSD memory card, Nokia Stereo Headset, USB-micro USB Connectivity cable, battery and a High-Efficiency Charger AC charger included. Of course one always looks at what comes on the device for pre-installed programs. I checked the office application first to see what the potential was going to be for creating documents. A quick test of QuickOffice allowed me to create a Document, Worksheet or Presentation easily. It was so good that I have continued to write my draft on the phone. I was particularly pleased with the dictionary and the ability to switch between an open document and the dictionary easily.
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Along with Quickoffice, which included 3 applications (Quickword, Quickpoint, Quicksheet) and the dictionary, there was also a File Manager, Intranet, Converter, Zip Manager, Adobe PDF Viewer, a calculator with advanced functions and a Notes application.
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In the Applications folder, there were sub-categories of Media, GPS, Notes, IM, Clock, Search, PTT, a Barcode reader and Files on OVI. My intention is not to discuss each but to share what I caught my eye.
Under Media, there were 10 choices including: Radio, Music Player, Music Store, Video Center, Camera, Podcasting, Games (N-Gage), Share Online, Recording and RealPlayer. I chose not to download any of the N-Gage games since I was going to return this device within a 2 week period but there is quite a selection available; all having trials to test before you buy. I was disappointed that there was not a single game included on the device … I hope they start to include a few as they have done in the past.
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There were no music files on the device but adding music is a breeze and the playback quality is incredibly good from the rear speaker and excellent from the included headset. I added my music directly to the memory card and when I reinserted the card, the device searched for new music files and podcasts, found everything and stored all information in the Music Library.
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The E75 supports the following file formats: .mp3, .wma, .aac, AAC+, eAAC+ for music playback and has the following audio streaming formats: .rm, .eAAC+. For those that need to know, the FM radio uses 87.5-108 MHz frequencies.
The Camera works surprisingly well both with video and stills although I was not really impressed with the zoom function in either mode but it does work.
The rear camera has video at 640 x 480 (VGA) up to 30 fps, 320 x 240 (QVGA) up to 30 fps and 176 x 144 at 15 fps (QCIF). There is a digital video zoom and I was surprised to see a video light. I’m not too sure just how much it adds but it is there. The front video records at 176 x 144 at 15 fps (QCIF) with up to a 2X digital zoom. There is video sharing and of course playback on the device is excellent. Clearly, the screen size has a great deal to do with that.
The rear camera is a 3.2 megapixel (2048 x 1536 pixels) and supports image formats: JPEG/EXIF. There is an 8X digital zoom, autofocus and has a focal length of 3.7 mm and a focus range of 10 cm to infinity. The range of the macro focus is 10-60 cm. There is a LED flash that works well on closer objects.
I’m not a big camera phone person especially if you want a real quality shot but for those times when you do not have your camera with you and there is a must have shot, this camera does a very respectable job.
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Lake, direct sun to left
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Stream, limited sunlight
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Normal capture
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Zoom
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Excellent color reproduction
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For those that are camera buffs, the flash modes available are Automatic, On, Red-eye reduction, Off. The flash operating range is 1 m and the white balance modes are automatic, sunny, incandescent, and fluorescent. It has a center weighted auto exposure and the exposure compensation is +2 ~ -2EV at 0.7 step.
There are four capture modes: still, sequence, self-timer, video and the scene modes include: auto, user defined, close-up, portrait, landscape, night, and night portrait. The color tone modes are normal, sepia, black & white and negative. There is a full-screen viewfinder that is easy to use but difficult to see in direct sunlight. A little “playing around” gets you quite comfortable with the basic operations of the camera so you will always be able to get that “must have” shot.
Having a GPS on a device has become a necessity and the E75 has a very good GPS integrated into it. With Integrated A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) you are confident that reliable positions will be acquired even if signal conditions are poor. Added to that is the free Nokia Maps which are more than enough to fulfill your navigation needs!
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I did download and install Google Maps and have used it for the past few days with (as you would expect) great results.
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Final Thoughts
Over all, I have been impressed with this device and recommend it to those who want a very slim device that has both a QWERTY keyboard and numeric keypad. It is convenient; works well, has a “solid” feel and in fact, performs better than most devices I have used. The battery life has been exceptional giving me 2-3 days of worry free use before I even have to consider charging.
This device will serve all users well. The ability to set the device as a corporate phone and then switch it to a personal phone can have great value for many users. For those that use the Internet extensively, you will be amazed at the speed of the device for getting email and doing your casual surfing.
The following series of screen shots take you through the main home screen, Menu and a few of the key areas under the menu area.
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Calendar and Contacts are easy to access, simple to create and sync easily with Nokia’s PC Suite
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Log, Web and Messaging are not in this display of screen shots. Next we see Gallery for viewing Images, Video, Songs, Sound clips and Streaming links. The Office Suite gives you a variety of applications to make it easy for you to work while on the road.
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Quickoffice and the dictionary are great to have, work well and make life “on the road” just a little easier if you are traveling with just your phone. Yes you can work with just your phone! Is it as easy as using a laptop … no, but it is very doable!
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The Control Panel has a myriad of items for you to control what you do with your device. The icons displayed in the following series of screen shots are pretty self explanatory.
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The Applications are a great start to a positive experience with your device. Looking at the content under media, you get 10 options to work and enjoy your different media types. Be prepared to spend some time in this area!
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I have genuinely enjoyed using this device and wish I had a little more time with it to explore every feature but it has to be returned so with some sadness I am packing it up and sending it back. This is a perfect device for someone who wants (and needs) the ability to do that little extra that is required on the road as well as enjoy the features like music, video and the web when relaxing at home.