Nokia E7 Slider To Hit Europe This Week

Nokia will start shipping its flagship qwerty smartphone E7 to select European markets this week, but Brits might have to wait a little longer to get their hands on the device.

Although unable to confirm the release date in the UK, the Finnish handset maker has promised “broader availability building up quickly in several markets”.

The much-anticipated E7 comes with a price tag of €495 (£420), sporting a full slide-out qwerty keyboard, an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, and a 4-inch ‘ClearBlack touch-screen display’ designed to improve outdoor visibility by removing unwanted reflection.

“Its black is blacker than black,” described Nokia’s former head of smartphones Anssi Vanjoki, also adding “nothing beats a real keyboard”.

Symbian^3-powered device

Similar to Nokia’s flagship model N8, the E7 runs the latest version of the Symbian operating platform, Symbian^3, which promises home screen improvements, next-generation graphics, better data networking and a better entertainment experience.

According to the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, the top-of-the-range E7 is designed for business. It provides easy access to email and allows users to manage office documents and view PDF files with Adobe Reader.

The device also offers 720-pixel HD video recording capability, a front-facing camera for video conference and HDMI connectivity to project files, videos and images onto large screens, including PowerPoint presentations.

Delayed shipment

Initially slated for launch in December last year, the rollout of Nokia’s flagship smartphone E7 were postponed to early 2011 to “ensure the best possible user experience,” said a Nokia’s spokesman to Reuters without further elaboration.

However, there were reports of “an unspecified hardware issue that is causing durability problems” as the root of the postponement.

The news also echoed the unexplained postponement of the N8’s rollout in early 2010, not long before Nokia admitted the model experienced power problems with some handsets not turning on after recharging.