Nokia E75: A Very Capable Qwerty

The keyboard itself is truly excellent for something tucked into a package this small. The keys are smooth, not raised like the E71 butm spread along the length of the phone, they have become much larger. This makes for more reliable thumb-typing. We’re well away from anything you could touch-type on, but I was surprised to find I could use more fingers with the phone down on a flat surface – someone with smaller fingers, could probably develop a creditable typing speed this way.

The phone software copes well with the slider – rotating the screen, and still allowing the conventional keys to be used.

In use – a nice experience

Using the phone feels good. There are no compromises in the phone itself, and features like Wi-Fi have evolved to become simple and almost second nature to use. Some functions are buried in the menus, but can easily be brought to the fore in the customisable home screen(s) – it can hold two separate “modes” for business and personal use.

Email is very easy indeed to set up, either using the in-built Nokia software, which handles Outlook Yahoo, gmail, Pop and IMAP, or downloading an application such as the Gmail client. I found Gmail easy to use with the phone closed for scanning and deleting, only opening the phone when I get to the stage of actual replies.

The phone has GPS which works well, and can be used either with Google Maps or its own map application, whichcan include directions.

Internet telephony can be set up easily – and given the smooth way this phone operates over Wi-Fi, should be worth doing, perhaps with Truphone or Fring.

I found the calendar responsive and intuitive, along with its To-Do list. The built in voice recorder also worked well for handling interviews and meetings, which could be played back on the phone or copied to a PC for transcription.

As well as the music player, the phone includes a very nice FM radio, which can be easily preset, along with an Internet radio – best listened to over a free connection such as home or office Wi-Fi – which found a large variety of station (my current favourite being Egypt’s Radio Hat).

Web browsing is the only time you miss a touch-screen, but the Navpad works well, and the browser is a good one, refined through several generations of E series machines.

The camera is nothing special, though better than the iPhone’s. It’s got 3.2 Mpixels, along with a digital zoom, autofocus and a flash which can avoid red-eye. It also takes video, obviously. Like all smartphones, there’s a camera on the front for video conferencing which will most likely go totally unused.

Trying all these things, I found the battery tended to last about two days on a charge, which seemed very good.

Conclusion

This phone does everything I want, and would make a sensible business phone for pretty much anyone. The shape and design gives you a good keyboard for messages, without making the phone very large. It also has all the extra features you might expect, designed well so you can get to them and use them quickly.