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Gmail’s menu above the inbox. Now, I’m wondering, how easy is it for someone to accidentally mark a mail as spam instead of archiving it? Should it not have read Archive, Mark as read, Report Spam, and Delete – in that order?

As promised, I’m back with part 3 of what is turning out to be a very long review. I’ll keep this one short. As I mentioned earlier, I was not too happy with the few test shots I took on the Nokia E75 camera, though after using the N82, one tends to expect too much from the camera on a mobile phone.

A 3.2MP, Carl Zeiss with single LED Flash. Not top of the line camera hardware, but then again its a business phone. With these specs, it should be capable enough of taking above average photographs during the day, and the Nokia E75 does not dissappoint.

The camera interface is the standard Nokia Interface we’re so used to already. The options list on the right, controllable via the D-Pad, and Location Awareness built into the firmware. I could not see any differences here between the N82 interface and this, probably there are none.

In bright clear conditions, the Nokia E75 somewhat surprised me with the clarity, as can be seen in the three photos below.

E75 Landscape

Random shot.

Close Range Shot.

I could not see any of the purple tinge that the 3.2 MP camera of the E71 was so notorious for. Pretty good printable photos, if you ask me! The colour reproduction, though not as good as the N82, is a great improvement over all the other E-Series phones. I can safely say the Nokia E75 camera blew the Nokia E71 camera right out of the water, from what I’d seen until then.

Now, encouraged by what I saw above, I tried to test the Macro-Mode on the E75, and the result is alongside. Not too bad at all, quite a lot of detail. A very good score in this regard too!

Skoda Logo in Macro

I was pretty happy with what I’d seen so far, and what remained was to test the video recording. VGA Quality recording at 640X480, and the video quality was about as good as the N82!

As a final test, I decided to take low light photos just to complete the whole camera review. As expected, the LED Flash generates at best average photos at close range. If you’re looking for brightly lit subjects during the dark, you should not expect the E75 to deliver on this count at all. Pics below, just so you can see for yourself.

Night Mode - Incandescent Light in the background.

Night Mode - My car from 10 feet away.

Macro Mode at Night - Car Logo from 12" away.

So, as you can see, if you’re carrying only the E75 at night and happen to see something worth capturing, you’re really going to regret the fact that you left your standalone digital camera at home. I can’t help wonder why Nokia did not include a Xenon flash instead of the LED Flash.

I did not even bother testing the front camera, or the night mode video recording after what I saw above.

To conclude, as I said earlier, the Camera does not really do justice to this device. Its good if you’re carrying it around during the day, but the performance is seriously lacking at night. If you’re looking to save some money by having an all in one device, this is most definitely not it. I’d not rate the E75 camera very high, inspite of it taking good day photos, but it is a sure improvement over the E71 camera, by far.

In the final part of my review, I’ll look at all the stuff I’ve missed, and dwell over whether this device is worth the upgrade if you already have an E71. Hope this was not too long!

Yesterday, I shed light on the overall device, and my impressions about it. The looks don’t exactly bowl you over, and are not singularly the reason for anyone to buy the E75, and rightly so. Digging deeper into the device, this is what I’ve observed. I want to do full justice to the camera part of the E75, so I’ll have a dedicated post just for the camera on my off day tomorrow. I’ll focus on most other standard aspects one would consider before buying the phone, below: -

The OS: - The Nokia E75 is the first E-series device to ship with S60 V3 FP2. How much of an improvement is this over the FP1 on the E63, E71 and the others? Miles, if you ask me. Little gripes that anyone would have had with earlier versions seemed to have been ironed out. I’ve covered this (pretty comprehensively, I hope, in my earlier post about the FP2 screenshots), and I’m sure it would be agreed that the OS is a vast improvement. It does feel a little slower than FP1, but that could very well be becuase I’m running it with Menu transitions and other theme effects on. I somehow think that FP2 has something to do with improved battery life on the E75, even though it has a 1000mAh battery. I could discuss the OS itself at great length, waxing eloquent about how impressed I am with it. FP2 could probably be the only reason why I would replace a Nokia E63/E71 with the E75. Nokia has done a very very commendable job on the version of FP2 on the E75, and it is definitely one of the highlights of this phone, and probably all future E-Series phones to come. If the OS was the only point of consideration, I would choose an E75 over the E71/E63, anyday.

Multimedia: - Multimedia Convergence has always been on Nokia’s agenda, with varying degrees of success. It must be kept in mind that this is a business phone, and lesser attention would have been paid to details such as the camera and the music player, and rightly so. The E75 tries to strike a balance here, and does an average job.

• Camera/Gallery: -The camera does not seem too impressive in the few test shots I took, though as I mentioned earlier, I would dedicate a post to the camera, (considering everyone wants to know how the camera, irrespective of the purpose of the device). I can safely say though, that the E75 camera is a complete disaster at night, as with all the other LED flash phones. The Gallery application too, does not seem impressive, and it would have been better if the gallery was as well organized as the N-Series phones. More on this, in later posts.
• Music player: – I expected a lot from the music player, since it would be really convenient to carry all my music around on the phone itself, rather than carry my MP3 player along. The 3.5mm jack is a major plus, and ensures you don’t have a tag a converter along all the time. Did the music player live up to my expectation though? Sadly, no. Though I did not exactly research this like an audiophile, the bass on this device sounds decent at best, with no real thump at all. I played the same heavy bass tracks on the N82, E63 and E75, using the same headphones, and the the quality of sound was in that order. I had a couple of others check it too, and we concluded that The N82 sounds best, and the E63 sounds better than the E75. Mind you, the E63 is by no means a music phone, so that gives you a fair idea of how the music on the E75 sounds. Software wise, there is no real improvement on the music player, though there seems to be tighter integration with the music store. All in all, the music on the E75 is dissappointing, and if you’re looking at getting an E75, look somewhere else for a music player.
• GPS: – I’ve been using the GPS on the N82 since the time I had the phone, though turn by turn navigation for India is at best, a joke. Despite this, the GPS is pretty useful, and E75 makes no exception in that regard. I’ve managed to get a GPS lock outdoors, more often than not in about 10 seconds, and its served me well even when I’m in motion. I’ve not tried Nokia Maps 3.0 yet, and that should definitely improve the overall GPS experience even further. Combined with Nokia Map loader, a pretty good addition to the E75 repertoire. However, this is not a standout feature that would compel E71 users to switch over, and rightly so.

Connectivity: - Bluetooth, Data Cable (with 5 connectivity modes), 802.11g, 3G. Enough said. As should be the case with any business phone, Nokia as expected delivers with the connectivity options. There seems to be 3 new modes here while connecting with USB cable (Image Transfer, Media Transfer and Connect PC to web), which logically should mean lesser dependence on Nokia PC Suite to get stuff done. I’ve not tried these modes yet, so I’m really not sure. I hope I can directly connect the phone via USB and use it as a modem, rather than going through PC Suite. No complaints with the connectivity options, full marks here.

Email: – The killer feature on the device. Period. The Nokia Email implementation on the Nokia E75 is simply put, awesome. I have loved the email implementation on the E75, and I probably could have written an entire post here. However, fellow Nokia blogger CJ has already posted the Ultimate Bible of Nokia Email on the E75, and I don’t think I can do a better job than that! Nokia Email on the E75 finally comes with HTML support, and thats a vast improvement over the current versions floating around. Its the closest I’ve felt to a Desktop mail client yet, but there are a few niggling issues, which can be corrected (There is no way to get back to Inbox from the Home Screen, when you get a new email).  It remains to be seen if the same VASTLY improved, integrated client is released on the other E-Series devices as well, which means the E75 would lose its exclusitivity.

Interesting times ahead..

I’ll look at the other stuff I’ve left out on the E75 (Productivity features, memory, dislikes etc.) in the next post, and have a dedicated post for the image/video recording capabilities of the device. Hope this was informative enough!

Right, so I’ve spent a whole week now with the Nokia E75 and have managed to run through what I think is almost everything on the device. The experience has been awesome to say the least, though it is not without its shortcomings. I’ll split this post into parts, trying to focus on each aspect one would consider before buying the device. Read it all..

In my continuing review of the Nokia E75, I’m putting up a few screenshots of the spanking new OS on the E75. From the initial three days I’ve spent with this OS, it gets a BIG thumbs up from me!. I’ll post in detail about each of the new FP2 features later.

Nokia E75 Screenshots (28 photos)
15 March 2009
Screenshots of the spanking new FP2 Interface on the Nokia E75

  
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