Nokia E72 Review

The Nokia E72 looks almost like a twin brother of the older and successful E71 series. With improved features and design, we’ve got a good hands-on with the E72 for a couple of weeks now.

The Nokia E72 has a more polished and elegant look with the faceplate made of aluminum in brushed-metal finish. From afar, you’d find it hard identify it apart from the E71 (the dimensions and weight are practically the same) but up close, you’d see some very fine differences.

I’d recommend reading my review of the Nokia E71 here first, then we go and enumerate a number of differences and improvements added to the Nokia E72:

• A shorter space bar that doubles as a flash light button.
• Two additional keys at the bottom row are added due to more space from the shrunk space bar.
• An optical trackpad in the center of the D-pad.
• A 3.5mm audio jack on the top end.
• The camera section at the back protrudes a bit more.
• Inclusion of an accelerometer.
• Faster 3G — HSDPA 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps
• More internal storage — 250MB vs. 110MB
• Speakers are found beside the camera at the back.

Here’s my previous photo comparison of the Nokia E72 vs. the Nokia E71 for a better perspective.

The 5-megapixel autofocus camera has somewhat improved in terms of photo quality but not by much. The AF is also a true autofocus (unlike before where you need to press the letter “t” to activate autofocus).

The optical trackpad that’s integrated into the D-pad is a nice addition but sometimes could be frustrating whenever you accidentally touch it and missed a selection. Fortunately, there’s an option to disable it.

Aside from the physical enhancements, the OS on the Nokia E72 was also improved (Symbian 9.3 OS Series60 3rd Edition w/ Feature Pack 2). The UI feels more responsive because of the inclusion of subtle transitions and, of course, because of the faster processor (ARM 11 600 MHz). That’s way faster than the 434MHz of the Nokia N97.

You also get a full suite of connectivity features — GPS, Bluetooth, 3.5G/HSDPA up to 10.2Mbps and WiFi 802.11 b/g. Surfing the web on 3G and especially on WiFi is easy and the pages are rendered faster. The default browser is also full-featured and can display Flash on the page (Flash Lite v3.0). Another nice addition is the integration of keypad shortcuts for browser navigations.

Battery life (Li-Ion 1500mAh) is as impressive as ever and can last an average 3 days on casual use. Running 3G and WiFi continuously will drain the whole thing in 3 or 4 hours top (I use JoikuSpot for 3G sharing over WiFi). Good thing though is that the unit can now be charged via USB port so you’ll never worry about running out of juice when hooked up to your laptop.

Is the Nokia E72 a worthy upgrade to the Nokia E71? I’d say yes, but a conditional yes. The Nokia E72 retails for about Php19,000 to Php22,000 in stores. It’s introduction brought the E71 down to just Php15,000. If you have the budget, I’d say go for the Nokia E72 because of the 62% faster CPU, UI improvements and additional features — all worth the ~Php5k price difference. The elegant design is just icing on the cake.

If you’re on a tight budget, the Nokia E71 will do. If you already own an E71 for a year like me, you can sell the unit at Php9-11K and a lot of people will grab the deal. You can then use the extra dough to get yourself a brand new Nokia E72.