Design
At first glance, the E70 looks rather like any other candybar form factor mobile phone, albeit a touch bigger and chunkier at 117 by 53 by 22 millimetres and with a carrying weight of 127 grams. That's hardly surprising for a phone that sells itself on its business savyy, where having a super-slim form factor is less of a concern than whether you'll be able to synchronise to your e-mail client.
The main physical feature of the E70 that separates it from the candybar herd is the flip out thumbpad that rests behind and underneath the main dialling pad; you flip the dialling pad to the "top" of the phone, and it reveals a small split QWERTY keyboard underneath. At the same time you do that, the perspective on the 352 x 416 pixel screen flips from a vertical to horizontal perspective, indicating the correct way to hold the E70 when using the keyboard.
In exactly the same style as the Nokia E61, the E70 features an astonishingly small joystick selector just underneath the screen.
The E70 features a single 2-megapixel camera, and while it's 3G capable, the lack of a second camera means it's only recommended for video calls for the exceptionally shy/ugly/one-sided conversationalists -- delete where applicable.
Features
The E70 is a tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900) and 3G capable phone with connectivity options for Bluetooth, wireless LAN, USB and infrared. For the truly connection-crazed types, it can even manage 802.11g, Bluetooth, USB and infrared at the same time, according to Nokia's specifications, although we struggled to come up with a scenario where that was even possible, let alone desirable.
On an operating system side it runs on Symbian OS 9.1 with 64MB of internal memory and support for miniSD cards to expand that out. One minor quirk here is that the slot for the miniSD cards sits underneath the battery cover, which could make changing cards a touch on the difficult side. The single camera on the E70 is a 2-megapixel model that's also capable of video recording, although as previously noted you won't be making too many interactive video calls with it.
Applications that the E70 supports include push e-mail -- and yes, BlackBerry Connect is amongst your options -- as well as push-to-talk, instant messaging, VoIP calls via WiFi as well as what you'd think of as "normal" phone functions, such as SMS, MMS and music playback. As always with Nokia phones, PC connectivity is via the provided PC Suite software.
Performance
From a basic phone performance viewpoint we were happy enough with the E70's performance during our test period. Nokia rates the E70's battery life on a per-network basis (GSM or 3G), and given the roaming nature of most mobile users that means that the battery life could vary quite a bit. Talk time is rated from 3-7 hours -- depending on the network and whether you're using the VoIP capabilities -- and standby time is anywhere from five to fourteen days. In our testing in a mixed mode environment we averaged five days between recharges on a moderate usage pattern, which is acceptable for a phone with this feature set.
There's definitely a market for a BlackBerry-style phone without the inconvenience of the BlackBerry form factor, and the E70 fits the bill quite well. Like Nokia's other faux 'Berries, we're not taken with the joystick which has a tendency to overclick when you're scrolling down lists, although we were surprised at how generally easy the keyboard is to use for most typing functions. The single exception to this is if you need lots of shift key usage. While there are shift keys on both sides of the keyboard, getting your fingers around hitting shift and another key still requires lots of dexterity, and in our case plenty of knuckle-cracking noises.
The E70 fits in a good space for those wanting Blackberry style business features but who don't want an obvious brick making bad creases in their jacket pockets or lumps in their handbags.
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Rich
19/08/2007, 02:37 PM
rating
8/10
So many features! however the abilities of the phone are really limited by the provision of your corporate network (eg wireless, vpn, blackberry, push Exchange). I work at a university that has Exchange and Blackberry servers running. However they won't register 'non-Blackberry' brand devices on their blackberry server and their still on an old version of exchange server so no Push Email through Exchange. Their Exchange server is only accessible through WiFi on campus and not over 3G. Aditionally web access through wireless on campus is via VPN (rather than registering the MAC on the DHCP) and they haven't bothered to create a Symbian profile for access to the VPN - so no web access through campus wireless - not even to the uni intranet! Also they don't have any SIP/VoIP either.
This is not to criticise the phone, more to emphasise that many of the advanced features depend on your corporate network and message and collaboration environment.
Pros: -It can run Fring (www.fring.com) for free voice and chat on Skype, Google Talk, MSN, SIP and ICQ on your home WiFi or even out and about on 3G (though watch out for data usage)
-Good music quality
-keyboard makes email, sms and IM way easier
Cons: -A bit slow
-Takes a lot of button presses to do anything
-Nokia desktop software is a bit dodgy
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tgif.nl
25/12/2006, 11:14 AM
rating
10/10
Simply perfect
Pros: It's got everything you need.
Easy working WLAN, great keyboard, replaces an iPod with my 2GB miniSD card, good camera, great internet browser...
Cons: Perhaps the camera could have had a flash light, but that's all...
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zengarden
12/12/2006, 10:22 PM
rating
4/10
Unreliable. Slow. Too annoying. Not good enough Nokia. Lift your game.
Pros: Folding keyboard.
Cons: Not developed and polished enough.
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celios
06/12/2006, 11:14 PM
rating
9/10
I have tried most mobile phones (inc the SE P990i) and the E70 offers the best balance.
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skaven
23/10/2006, 07:33 PM
rating
8/10
Not perfect, but it worth buying!
Pros: Great resolution & battery life time. Simple but strong design, fast proccesor speed & great s60 3rd edition applications. Very stable and new OS.
Cons: Body becomes very weak, after a month using device. After first fall of a approximately one metre height many scratches appears without a hope to restoration. Also, i would not recommend to use it for listening to music - comparing to low-price iRiver devices E70 plays mp3's much worse. Finally, there's no possibility for comfort work with office documents, because of small screen and not stable enough standard office applications.
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Nuges
18/10/2006, 09:33 PM
rating
9/10
Great Phone
Wish the screen was larger, need more icons on display in standby mode. What would make me drop this phone for a new model - A camera that could also act like a scanner (SE P990) and a touch screen (Nokia 6708)
Pros: Everything is spot-on, crispy screen, waooo form factor, all you need mobile software intalled. Great keypad opened or closed
Cons: No front camera and only 2mp with no flash. FM radio wouldnt hurt for long jurneys.
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ajitsu1
13/10/2006, 01:20 AM
rating
9/10
Very Happy with this one!
Pros: Previous reviewers have said it all. I had some concerns about the the delay in display change, but that got fixed with the on line firmware update.
Cons: Nothing is perfect, so one can always crib. Screen could have been bigger, and at least a 4 mp camera. I will check out N95, but this one is great value for money.
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10/10/2006, 08:17 PM
rating
9/10
verey good
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Koenig24
07/10/2006, 12:21 PM
rating
9/10
Excellent choice
Great phone. M600i has no camera and its keypad sucks. This phone has everything you can ask for in a smartphone.
Pros: Qwerty, mp3, good form factor.
Cons: Slow when changing to landscape mode.
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28/09/2006, 01:39 AM
rating
9/10
look no further 4 a great productivity phone
This is an outstanding phone for almost any professional user. It allows me to make voip calls and recieve them, browse the web etc all via wifi and 3g if i want (or can afford) to. I can't recommend anything better if you need something to leave the lappy at home and get the odd bit of work done on the way. Fantastic if almost everywhere you go has a wireless network like is the case for me. Just for those who care, voip is best set up with pbxes.com (a free service). direct connection to your voip service provider may be troublesome
Pros: good screen, wifi, voip, voip is nat transversable even if nokia say it's not, functional keyboard, good application set (word, excel, powerpoint), email functional, quality sync (syncml with scheduleworld etc), the list is endless...
Cons: can't think of any except its big but hey what more do you want from a smartphone... you've got to put the stuff somewhere. Maybe battery life a bit average if you use wifi alot like me.
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