Hands-on: Nokia E75 (hardware preview and pics)

Nokia E75 early hands on review

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a huge fan of Nokia’s QWERTY-touting E71 and currently use the device as my primary smartphone, along with testing a whole bunch of new handsets. That said, I’m as fickle as the next geek, and ever since Nokia announced the upcoming E75, which also features a full QWERTY keyboard but in a very different form factor to the E71, I’ve been eying it up as a potential replacement. Earlier this week I scored a pre-production unit (on loan only) and so rather than waiting to do a full review I thought I’d post my first hands-on impressions and a few photos to go with it.

e75-closed

I wasn’t entirely sure if I’d like the E75’s form factor, which is a little reminiscent of the old Nokia Communicator, but I was pleasantly surprised. The device combines both a numeric keyboard and slide-out QWERTY, and features a 2.4″ 320 x 240 pixel (QVGA) screen. When closed, this makes the E75 resemble a typical, albeit slightly tall, candy bar phone. Slide out the QWERTY keyboard, however, and the screen orientates to landscape mode, turning the E75 into a very capable messaging device. While the keys on the QWERTY are pretty flat – almost flush with the surface – they’re quite large and have just enough travel to give adequate feedback. Having said that, they do take a bit of getting used to and, for the time being at least, I still prefer the keyboard on the E71.

e75ve711

See also: Review: Nokia E71 (my favorite smartphone yet?)

The thing that’s really impressed me about the E75 is that Nokia has managed to keep the device relatively slim despite featuring a full QWERTY slider, especially compared to some of the company’s N-series phones and those of its competitors (I’m looking at you G1). In fact, looks-wise, the device has a really high end feel to it, just like the E71 (see above comparison shot) and all of the recent E-series phones, featuring metal trim lines and back cover, with a very solid overall build.

One area where the E75 definitely trumps the E71 is the 3.5mm head phone jack. And while I haven’t had a chance to test out the camera properly and don’t have the highest expectations – 3.2 megapixels, autofocus and LED flash – it is capable of shooting 30 fps video, up from a miserly 15 fps on the E71.

Over the next few weeks I’ll delve into the software – S60 3rd edition feature pack 2 – and bundled apps, along with testing the camera properly. If you have any questions in the mean time, leave a comment.

(Note: all of the above photos were taken with a Nokia N85 – see my hands-on)

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last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

2 Responses to “Hands-on: Nokia E75 (hardware preview and pics)”

  1. sain says:

    Hmmm, looks like it might be a good upgrade thanks for the find 😀

  2. Awesome phones great upgrade love the pics!

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