Nokia E70 review

This is however, the first time that the form factor is used for a Symbian Series-60 phone as all the previous incarnations were done using the Series-40 platform.

In the box

Handset Transceiver

Battery (standard battery)

Charger

Headset

Data Cable

User manuals

CD

Exterior
This is another of the latest batch of Series-60 phones with a full keyboard. Unlike with the E61 where the keyboard is on the outside of the phone, the keyboard here is revealed by flipping up the number pad and folding it down until it clicks fully-extended into place.

The E70 phone sports dimensions of 117 x 53 x 22 mm and it weighs 127g. It is slightly larger than your usual Nokia candybar phone but you have to factor in the full keyboard that hides in the centre of the device. However, the downside of a phone like this is that it is virtually impossible to find a protective casing for it.

Buttons/Screen
The buttons are cut out of silver coloured keys, and the backlight is white in colour. The small little plastic window which is the counter to the power key on the other side of the earpiece shields a light sensor. That is how the phone detects whether or not to light up the numberpad and the keypad.

There is no volume toggle button, but a hotkey on the left side of the phone just next to the battery cover activates the voice recorder automatically for making quick audio notes to yourself.

The screen is a high-resolution one with 352 x 416 pixels at a colour-depth of 18-bits. Just as in its earlier Series-40 counterparts, the screen on this Series-60 phone also swivels to landscape when you flip it open into full keyboard mode.

However, the contacts on the top of the phone are gone now, so you will have to tap a key to get the keyboard to light up when you have flipped the phone open. Previously, the contacts would touch its counterparts on the swivel help of the keyboard and light up automatically.

Software/Messaging

The E70 supports IMAP, POP and SMTP email protocols, just like in nearly every other email-capable device currently on sale in the market.

BlackBerry Connect, Seven Mobile and Visto are also built into this phone. Apparently, devices with the full keyboard are very suitable for messaging on the go.

PIM
Once again, the E-Series type of device comes with Document, which is the mini word processor built into the phone. With a full keyboard, there is little that cannot be done and you can just whip up letters and documents on the move and print them straight to a compatible printer if necessary.

The Sheet application allows the user to view and edit Excel documents. Finally, we have the Presentation application which gives the user the ability to edit or to create a presentation from scratch.

The Screen export application can be used to display the contents of the phone¡¦s screen elsewhere. You need a compatible data projector for this, and you can then make the connection via Bluetooth. Of course, you can hide the screen export application itself after it has started, so that you can show other programs or screenshots.

Finally, the E70 also supports the PDF document format. You can get to this via the Adobe PDF reader found in the Installations folder.

Camera/Video
The camera on this device is a two megapixel one. It shoots pictures of up to 1600 x 1200 pixels and has a digital zoom of 8x. Images are then saved in the JPEG format.

The video resolution is a little lower at 352 x 288 pixels, recorded at 15 fps and saved in the H.263 format. The E70 also supports the playback of MPEG-4 videos and RealVideo 10 too.

Multimedia/Voice
Voice calls are not a problem with this device, although your finger tends to rub on the camera lens when you press the phone up against your ear. The reception is quite good, and there were no problems during the few conversations I used the phone for.

There is a vast array of multimedia options as is found in most Nokia Series-60 devices. There is a Flash Player and a Music Player in the media folder, together with the RealPlayer application that we mentioned earlier.

Connectivity
The E70 comes with both Bluetooth and infrared connectivity. The infrared port is on the right side of the phone just next to the line made by the battery cover. A Pop-Port USB connector is found at the bottom of the phone, just next to the mini jack for the charger.

This device supports the 802.11b and g protocols for WiFi, and it is also a WCDMA 3G phone. It comes with HTML and xHTML browsers and also has a WAP browser if you prefer it. The device supports EGPRS or EDGE and can be used in the absence of a 3G network.

Games
There are no games preloaded in this device, as befits an Enterprise-type device.