Nokia E72 – Hardware Outlook

One Look at the Nokia E72 and you’ll immediately fall in love ,  the looks are stunning ( although borrowed from award winning E71 ) , the weight feels solid on the hand ,  the camera is impeccable and the optical Navi Key well Blackberry users eat your heart out .

Picking up the Nokia E72 , the first thing which catches the eye is the Black Optical Navi Key right in the middle of the D-Pad .  E72 is Nokia’s first phone which bring a bit of ‘Touch’ to the phone .  Instead of using the D-Pad Navigation keys , slightly slide your finger on the optical Navi Key to navigate around the menus ,  scroll the web pages etc.  Contrary to an earlier released video in which the impression was that you have to drag your finger ,  the function of Navi Key is very smooth and is responsive even to the slightest touch . 

To select an option , the Navi Key can be pressed like a button to select like in older D-Pads . An improvement suggested by Husnain Shaban during our interview of Trude Gajland -  E Series Head Nokia MEA was if instead of pressing the  button , we can simply Tap or Double Tap the Navi Key to choose  the option ,  Nokia it’s great user feedback , think about it .  Despite the Navi Key ,  the D-Pad hasn’t lost it’s functionality and the directional keys on it also work .  When I started using the E72 , mostly out of my E71 habit  ,  I used the keys instead of Navi Key but after some hours I got used to it so the learning curve like many Nokia enhancements is very very short . 

The D-Pad /  Navi Key also acts as Breathing Light a blink of light after every few seconds which shows that the phone is on while the screen is turned off .  It also acts as a Message , Missed Call and Email notifier with a quick blink . Another added functionality of the Navi Key is that it also acts the Camera Auto Focus  and Camera Key  .  Start the camera and a slight touch on the Navi Key turns on the Auto Focus and pressing the Navi Keys takes the picture ,  no more pressing of the letter ‘T’ like in E71 and as you have to press the Navi Key to take the pic , the Auto Focus will always work -  ingenious . 

 

Nokia E72 like Nokia E63 and Nokia E71 x borrowed it’s looks from award winning design of E71 but Nokia has made some positive changes to it making it even better .

The screen is of the same size and resolution as E71 , the Ambient Sensor and Secondary Camera has been placed together on the upper right hand side .  The Ambient sensor  automatically adjust the screen brightness as per the surrounding light conserving the battery life .

The Keys are where Nokia has made E72 standout from E71 .  There are 8  option keys i.e Two reprogrammable Soft keys ,  Menu Key , Calendar Key , Contacts Key , Email Key and Call Send and Receive Keys .  The keys now have more space i between and chances of pressing one while pressing the other are minimized  . However I personally think the space could better be used to make the QWERTY keyboard bigger

 

Nokia borrowed the keyboard not from E71 but from E63 , the keys are large the response is smooth and like E63 it also has a Torch function key which is activated through the spacebar .  You can see the difference between E72 and E71 keyboards below .  The bottom row now have 9 keys instead of 7 as in E71. The character set and key layout is the same but slightly larger keys requires a little practice for a seasoned E71 user.

  

The mics are placed at the Left hand bottom corner ,  I used the plural as E72 has two mics for better noise cancellation and they don’t malfunction like the E52

The right side of E72 has the usual Volume Keys and Voice Command key in the middle . The Volume keys does  not have up and down markings on it but solid bars and they also act as Zoom Keys for the camera.

 

On the left side are the Memory Card slot and Micro USB Sync /  Charge port .  Unlike the N Series as N86 , N97 and N97 Mini in which due to inbuilt memory , the Memory Card slot though hot swappable  is hidden behind the battery cover .

In E72 the easier access to memory slot makes data sharing easier . Nokia has also improved the Covers for these slots , in E71 they were made of Rubber and could be bent and torn off by the user, in E72 , they are made of solid plastic with rubber holders inside for tighter grip and rubber hinges to easily move it sideways.  I personally never had any problem with the older rubber covers , but the color matched plastic ones gives E72 a better outlook.

    

On the top panel of the phone ,  finally Nokia has given up on  Red Power Button ,  the color had been changed to Chrome giving it a much executive look .  Along with the power button there’s also the 3.5 mm Audio Jack , alas it does not work as a TV-Out else E72 would have been the perfect phone -  again a Suggestion to Nokia , an E Series with Tv Out will steal the show at a business conference .

The bottom of the phone has the mini pin charging port and strap attachment slots on left the side .  Nokia E72 does support charging by Micro USB so why they have added the Mini Pin Charging port ?

 

I think Nokia wants to give the user dual functionality , many users may have invested in the car charger accessory and the mini pin charging port makes them to still use it , what are your thoughts about it.

 

The back of the phone carries a big leap from Nokia E71 , a 5 MP Autofocus Camera with Single LED Flash and Speakers .  Some may think that with speakers on the back , the sound quality may decrease as speakers will be covered by the surface , Nokia has thought of that and made the Camera Housing protrude out which not only protects the lens but also prevents the speaker from touching the surface and distorting the sound .  A snap of E71 Camera is also given below for comparison

   

As in E52 , the Battery cover has a single latch to open instead of E71’s dual press on both sides . You don’t need to put any pressure on the latch just push it down and the cover pops open , slide it out a little and the covers are off . The battery cover is made of Stainless Steel and has the usual foam padding strip inside to firmly hold the battery .

  

Removal of battery is much easier and you can easily pull it from the top where a generous space is given .

 

I think Nokia is experimenting with the SIM insertion methods , first it was the slide in SIM Card slot as in E71 , than came the tray type as in N97 , than came the removable tray type as in N97 Mini and in E72 , the SIM Tray comes half way out with a builtin SIM holder slot , put the SIM in it’s ‘mouth’ and push the tray in and you’ll be all set . 

 

That’s all folks , the hardware review of Nokia E72 ends here , Nokia E72 is worth every penny spent on it , with use of premium materials , a high speed 600 MHZ processor , Optical Navi Key ,  5 MP Camera ( takes good quality photos without any purple tint )  and great speakers .

The reviews of Nokia E72 does not end   , it’s just the beginning  , I have many things planned so come back often and if you have any particular questions about the phone always feel free to ask in the comments