The good:

1. Call quality is excellent. Speaker sound from device is crisp and clear.
2. The phone has a nice weight. Feels good in hand in ‘candy bar’ mode.
3. All the settings options are now behind a ‘control panel’ icon.
4. The e-mail client is even further improved over the Nokia messaging version tested with the E63. It has better configuration options and graphics.
5. The build quality of the device feels solid and the internal QWERTY keypad has a good rubberised finish which improves accuracy and prevents sliding onto adjacent keys.
6. Has a great crisp screen with a nice bright finish which copes well in direct sunlight. Lacks the attractive FP2 transitions that the N86 had though.
7. The slide-out keyboard really has a ‘wow factor’ and impressed colleagues.
8. Best of all! The keypad tones are now off by default – the first Nokia I’ve ever tested where this isn’t the first thing I turn off!

The ‘not sure’:

1. If used flat on a desk with the QWERTY keypad open, the device falls backwards when the D-pad button is used.
2. With ‘tap to silence’ turned on the device only rings for a second or two before silencing (even if untouched on a desk) – could be a bug or user error, will check further.
3. No ‘full-stop and space’ feature on space-bar double-tap like the iPhone and Android.
4. Camera images are a bit too ‘contrasty’ with some colour over-saturated. So far ‘good enough’, but low light tests will be the decider (see the demo images below).
5. No charging via USB port – it’s only just being added to the more expensive N-series devices, but it would have been nice to see.

The bad:

1. When using the D-pad in QWERTY ‘mode’ it’s easy to hit surrounding short-cut keys such as Calendar or E-mail.  This seems much less of a problem in ‘candy bar’ orientation.
2. The E75, like the E71, is still a finger-print magnet – the patterned metal back is already looking mucky after only 15 minutes of handling.
3. My unit has a large gap at one end when the QWERTY keyboard is closed. Could be a manufacturing defect (although slide mechanism is rock-solid).
4. The memory card slot on this unit is so tight I can’t open it.
5. There’s no ‘leather’ sleeve like the E71 and E66 have – it might be a bit naff, but it saved my E71 from a certain death drop.

Overwhelmingly first impressions are good – including (and it’s been a long time since I’ve said this) the software enhancements which are beginning to address some of the usability / complexity issues Nokia and S60 have been suffering from for a while.

Here’s a few camera demo shots in good light.  Low-light ones (where most E-series struggle) to follow:

]]> http://benatmir.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/the_e75_very_very_first_impressions/feed/ 0 benatmir E75 closed #1 http://benatmir.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/the_nokia_e75_is_in_the_house/ http://benatmir.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/the_nokia_e75_is_in_the_house/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:57:38 +0000 Ben Smith http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/?p=15624 Continue reading →]]> Mobile Industry Review is among a small (but exclusive) group of bloggers to recieve a new E75 to test today!  In fact we’ve got two – Ben Smith and Jonathan Jensen will be reporting in on the devices.  What would you like to know about this new form factor from Nokia?  Put your questions in the comments below.

There’s plenty of video upcoming from our trip to Prague this weekend including an exclusive first-look at the N86 in real-world conditions – as you can see above it’s a tough life, this international playboy-blogger thing we’ve got going on right now…

But, Hi-Def video takes some time to edit and publish (see the MWC hands-on until then) so here’s a quick update on the N86 we took with us – the one you will have been able to see ‘in the flesh’ if you were able to attend our own man Whatley’s ‘Mobile Geeks‘ event on Thursday… The unit’s an early prototype so these are a few more general observations.

The good:

Materials and build quality – Even on this prototype unit the finish is excellent.  The new (introduced with the N97) metal bezel styling looks good and feels good in the hand.  The unit is well weighted adding to the feeling of quality, without being too heavy (in my opinion).  The minuscule holes in the metal menu button that are invisible until it is illuminated are a particularly elegant touch.

The number keypad – Silly small number keys are banished in favour of good-sized number keys with a pleasant action.  There’s also some haptic feedback too on menu button clicks which feels nice.

The screen – The OLED unit is crisp and bright (with one caveat below) – it looks great with what feels like deeper blacks and brighter whites.  Performance is snappy, but slick transitions enhance this sensation even further.  Transitions between portrait and landscape mode where also sensed quickly and rendered well – this stood out next to it’s older brother the N82 which has always been a bit slow off the mark in this regard.

The camera (probably) – Although not performing reliably on this unit a good number of the images we did manage to take impressed as did the sample images in Barcelona so this, at least, bodes well.  Nokia are shouting as loudly about the imaging system upgrades as much as the raw megapixels and the signs are good.

Call and network performance - Not a surprise with Nokia any more, but the N86 handled poor signal and jumping between 2G and 3G networks with style were other handsets where upset (notably the G1).

The bad:

The function buttons - The main D-pad assembly and menu  key are still a bit ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’, but either way work well.  However, the two function keys at the top are low-profile with little travel and difficult to press with anything other than a fingernail.

The OLED screen in daylight – In contrast to its performance at any other time, in direct sunlight the screen washes out to nothing where the iPhone’s comes alive. Most handsets struggle in this situation, but an imaging-centric handset like this will probably see plenty of action outside.

The memory card slot - It’s only accessible by taking the rear cover off completely.  Admittedly with 8GB on-board it’s going to be needed less frequently than on other devices, but the process to remove the back cover is a bit fiddly and more elegant solution doesn’t feel like an unreasonable request.

The software – Yes this old chestnut… The N86 is already looking like a brilliantly refined handset and the hardware seriously impresses – this will surely take the N95′s mantle and attract a huge following – but with the tweaks, extra features and options the software is still a maze of menus which don’t always feel consistent.  It’s a wider failing across newer S60 devices, but how many excellent features will users simply never discover because they’re buried in the menus?

Having been very disappointed with my first hands-on N97 experience recently, this restores some of my faith in Nokia – the N86 is already hugely impressive…. but where it’s a hardware tour de force, the maze of menus and settings disappoints.  This has to be the next area of attention for Nokia.

Watch out for our hands-on video from Prague coming soon and fire us any questions in the comments.

Backed by a £5.5m promotional spend on television, print and online media, O2 are hoping to make their 11.8m pre-pay subscribers feel special… and it wouldn’t hurt if customers of other networks noticed they weren’t getting prizes for topping up either.

…and whilst I’m looking forward to seeing the water-filled bus-stop panels with real rubber ducks, intended to ‘quack’ as people pass (we make our own fun ’round here), one of the most interesting aspects of this campaign is that it’s being powered by Italian-firm Buongiorno‘s web system – a company we made contact with recently after our trip to Rome (preview here, watch out for the full videos soon). We’ve fired them some questions over and will be publishing an introduction to this Italian power-house behind mobile entertainment projects in 53 countries and 100 network operators.

In advance of our trip to Prague tomorrow I met up with James Whatley and we talked Nokia Maps and whether Rafe Blandford’s comments about side-loading map data and pre-planning points of interest could be right.  We also waved a pre-release Nokia N86 about a bit for good measure.

Watch the site and our Twitter streams (Site feed: @MIReview, Ewan: @ew4n, Dan: @danlane and Ben: @bensmithuk) for updates throughout the trip.

I’m two hours into loading Nokia Maps 3, the PC suite applications and some map data onto my N82 right now… Guess how it’s going so far…

But there’s a bigger problem here – with both the operators and handset manufacturers now generating revenue from application sales old friends have now become competitors.  How will the operators feel about the Blackberry store offering competitive navigation or music store offerings to their own?  And will operators want to allow the handset vendor’s stores onto their branded handsets when they could keep that revenue for themselves?

Ask the people involved (and I have) and there’s much talk of partnerships, co-operation and marketplace-growth.  In face, if I hear the phrase ‘bigger pie, not bigger slice’ used once more it may turn nasty… but the question remains to be answered: Apple’s making hundreds of millions of dollars from app sales.  Those numbers are too big for this to stay friendly.

N86 First Look At The Launch Event from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

During filming we noted the handset was labelled as ‘N85 8MP’ and speculated whether that was a late change in naming (extending the N85 range like the N95 did with several variants) or just a disguise or an error. Having spent some more time with the device and noted the ‘N85′ term cropping up in some of the software config (the Exif camera data – other areas use the anonymous ‘NXX’).

We now think a late branding change is the most likely explanation – possibly to extend the life of the current N85 and highlight the sheer number of differences between the two devices (which go beyond just the imaging components).

Other winners at the awards were the BBC for mobile iPlayer, Nokia for Sportstracker and the government of France for government leadership.

Nokia have launched the E55 and E75 business handsets – Like so much of their recent announcements the hardware of these devices really impresses.  I challenge anyone not to be impressed with the build quality and attention to detail…  The E75 is as widely leaked.  The E55 is a pleasant surprise – even thinner than it’s older sibling the E51, it packs a huge battery and an almost Blackberry Pearl-like keyboard that’s 5 keys wide (each one serving as 2 characters across a QWERTY keyboard) with the central 3 laid out in a traditional 1 to 9 block.  In the hand it feels exceptional.  Software is improved – Nokia have finally included the improved mail client out of the box – but compared to the exceptional hardware build it’s still to easy to get buried in menu systems or the complexity of the S60 OS.

Nokia and Microsoft have launched the Ovi Store and Windows Marketplace respectively – To complete the set (Android announced paid-for apps yesterday), today the last two major platforms added their official ‘market places’.  The Windows Marketplace was announced without fanfare… a box-ticking exercise amidst higher-profile news (Windows Mobile 6.5 and MyPhone).  The Ovi store came with more details – notably operator billing, the inclusion of ‘content’ (games and media) and a social recommendations engine, but questions about user experience and quality assurance of the applications remain.  Ultimately this is unglamourous news, but signals (if ever it were needed) that app discovery is going to get great deal easier for consumers very soon.  It’s ubiquity, however,  will mean it’s not a factor that will attract consumers to any particular platform.  The cynics amongst us (and there are a few) wonder if, given the slow speed the idea has been taken up whether it will be another 2 to 3 years before we see them well executed.

Android news is really thin on the ground and Microsoft are everywhere - There are rumours of an HTC G2 Android device being announced later during the show and Huawei have a non-working prototype of their forthcoming handset, but otherwise we’re set to wait until later in the year for LG and Samsung’s Android offerings.  Conversely, many are noting that both have instead made significant announcements of handsets running Windows Mobile 6.5 with Toshiba and Asus also in on the act.  With Steve Ballmer fronting the Microsoft press event it was slick, if not a bit cringe-worthy at times (they’re not employing the cream of comedy script writing), but it’s worth noting that we’ve seen absolutely no presence from Google here at all representing Android.  At all.  And with this many developers attending that seems really odd.

Day 2 looks promising with another widely-leaked Nokia announcement due and some opportunities to meet a few less high-profile companies.

But it’s far from a dead-loss… the real value of these events is the unplanned meetings.  Like Andrea, the Italian industry analyst, we met this morning whilst marching around Barcelona’s marina event in search of a Nokia event.  Fresh back from Rome, I still couldn’t understand why there was so muh talk of mobile TV (DVB-H) from Italy, but little evidence of any real usage.  Andrea assured us we should believe our eyes – Vodafone and TIM were leaving their mobile TV offering to go stale… un-marketed and un-loved.  Three, although more actively pushing the service (as we witnessed in their stores) was struggling financially.  The official subscriber numbers, he said, were misleading – they represent customers receiving free access to mobile TV services as part of a subscription, not a source of additional revenue for the operators.

And so, in 5 minutes, more useful information than all of the heavily scripted and stage-managed Microsoft event that followed… Perhaps we should scrap all our briefings and hang round the bar a bit more… Hmmmm….