Black Beauty - Nokia E72 First impressions & Physical Overview

[Micky]

From the moment of opening the E72’s Box, and taking out the device, the first thing I noticed is the obvious similarity to the E71; it has the same great build quality, but in my opinion, better looks. It's really a stunning device to look at. As you can see from my photos, the E72 I have for review is the E72-1 Zodium model, which consists of black and chrome finishing on its front, with the area directly below the lcd having a kind of brushed black aluminum finish. There are 13 buttons directly below the screen, these including the optical-navi key, which I will talk about in part two, which will detail the software of the E72.

Once the battery is fitted into the E72, the device does not feel too heavy in the hand it actually feels very comfortable, and perfect for one hand operation.

On the top of the E72 you will find a single button, this being the expected power on/off button, which at first looks like it illuminates, but it don’t, it actually has a reflective coating to the on/off symbol, which in certain light gives the impression it’s illuminated. Also you will find that all important 3.5mm Headphone jack.

Moving to the right side of the E72, you will find the volume up and down buttons which are separated by a third button in the middle, which is for voice dialing, pressing, and holding this central button, prompts you to speak now, and it will search your contacts for your spoken name search. These three buttons on the right side are illuminated around the circumference of each button whilst the lcd is on. There is no camera capture button on the right side. This is due to the N72 using the Optical-Navi button for focusing, and actually taking your photos.

Moving to the bottom of the device, you will find just the 2mm Nokia charge port. I was surprised to see this considering that most devices now come with the MicroUSB charging standard, but I’m happy to say, the E72 does indeed allow charging via its MicroUSB port too. So why the 2mm port too? No idea, maybe for charge dock.

On the left hand side of the E72, it’s very plain, with no buttons, but two small doors, one for the MicroSD card, and the other for the MicroUSB Charging, and data port. I found the door for the MicroSD card to be a little cumbersome as if not pushed in square; it would eject your memory card accidently.

The rear of the E72 mainly consists of the all too familiar chromed, pattered stainless steel battery cover similar to the E71. This shows fingerprints very easily sadly. The battery cover however, fits nice and tight, and shows no sign of working loose.

Above the battery cover you will find a matt black area, with the external speaker grill to the left of the 5MP camera, and single led flash. The camera and flash don’t sit flush here, and actually bulges out from the black area around 4mm, which does effect the operation of the qwerty when faced flat on a table, and I found myself having to use my second hand to stead the E72 when using on a table, but as said earlier, the E72 does work very well in one hand.

The front of the E72, as mentioned earlier, has those 13 buttons directly below the screen. From left to right, working down order. These are, Menu, Camera, Home, which takes you to the Menu, Calendar, Optical-Navi, up, down, left, right, and select in the middle. This has a breathing light, which acts as a notification indicator also, Contacts, Messaging, call, and end call keys. There is some light leakage around the Home, and Messaging buttons.

Below the array of buttons below the screen you will find the qwerty keyboard, which consists of 39 keys similar to the E71, but with the E72, the spacebar is also the on/off flashlight switch, which uses the single led as a torch. The Microphone is located just below the Shift key.

Still on the front of the E72, but this time at the very top, you will find the central ear speaker, and to the right of this, the ambient light sensor, and secondary camera.

This concludes my first impressions, and physical overview of the new Nokia E72, which in my opinion, is the next natural upgrade to the already superb, and very popular E71 device. Keep your eyes peeled right here at Nokiausers for my second E72 article, which will be covering the software on the E72.



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[Bartmanekul]

Hmmm. It's not a CZ lens though is it? I'd be interested to see comparision pictures, between that and say a N95/97. Especially in different light, I wonder if it has the affliction all the E series have - very poor grainy pictures in low light.

I also notice a little flashlight image on the spacebar. Which means the LED can be used as a torch. This is so incrediably handy, it should be standard on all models.

[buxz777]

ggod spot on the flashlight bart :-)

was going to buy the e72 but went for your omnia hd instead :-)

the e72 is looking extremley good though

about the pics bart the ones ive seen have looked very good in normal conditions outdoors i havent seen many indoor or evening shots though taken with its amera

[Micky]

Regarding the camera.

Photography
* 5 megapixel camera (2592 x 1944 pixels) with autofocus and flash
* Image formats: JPEG, Exif
* CMOS sensor
* 5x digital zoom
* One-touch autofocus key
* Focal length: 4.7 mm
* Focus range: 10 cm to infinity
* LED flash
* Flash modes: Automatic, On, Off, Red-eye reduction
* Flash operating range: 1 m
* Automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
* Automatic, Manual exposure compensation +2,0 ~ -2,0
* Capture modes: Still capture mode, video mode, panorama mode and sequence mode
* Scene modes: Auto, user defined, close-up, portrait, landscape, sport, night mode (w/o flash), night portrait
* Colour tone modes: Normal, sepia, black & white, vivid, negative
* Light sensitivity modes: Automatic, low, medium, high
* Show viewfinder grid
* Still image editor
Video
* Main camera
* VGA: 640 x 480 at 15fps
* QVGA: 320 x 240 at 15 fps
* QCIF: 176 x 144 at 15 fps
* Up to 10x digital video zoom
* Front camera:
- Up to 2x digital video zoom
* Video recording file formats: .mp4 - default (VGA, QVGA) or .3gp (QCIF for MMS)
* Audio recording formats: AMR, AAC stereo
* Automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
* Scene modes: Automatic, night
* Colour tone modes: normal, sepia, black & white, vivid, negative
* Clip length (maximum): 90 mins (High or Normal quality) or limited to MMS size approx. 30 seconds (Sharing quality)
Note: Clip length is dependable on available memory
* Media player
* Real Player
* Video playback file formats: .mp4, AVC/H.264, .wmv, RV, Flash Video, H.263/3GPP
* Video streaming: .mp4, AVC/H.264, .wmv, RV, Flash Video, H.263/3GPP
* Video calling (VGA) 15 fps
* Video ring tones
* Video editor on device
* Ovi Share for sharing your videos and images

Originally Posted by Micky

the spacebar is also the on/off flashlight switch, which uses the single led as a torch.

Not really a good spot on the space bar, as I do mention this in my overview.

I will put together some comparison photos for you today.