Nokia E7

The E7 looks at first like an oversized Nokia N8. It has a larger screen (4 inches across), which is clearly a bonus when browsing the web or running apps, and it uses AMOLED and Nokia's ClearBlack technology, so it isn't at all bad. But the real reason for the phone's massive size and weight is inside. Push the screen gently and the top half of the phone will snap open rather alarmingly to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard inside. The keyboard is very similar in style and feel to the old Nokia N97, although thankfully the space bar has been moved to its rightful place centre-bottom. It's a great keyboard for fast and accurate typing, although you'll need two hands to do it.
The combination of a large physical keyboard plus a 4 inch capacitive touchscreen should make the perfect communications device, but this is a Nokia smartphone, and the beast that lives inside is of course, Symbian^3, so be prepared for unintuitive menus, unexpected button presses and routine freezing and crashing. Compare the E7 to the physically-similar HTC Desire Z if you want to know what you're missing in terms of the operating system.
The E7 comes with a not-bad kind of camera. Rated at 8 megapixels with fixed focus and dual LED flash it can't match the 12 megapixels and xenon flash of the N8, but it does a decent job. It can also record video at 720p HD resolution, and there's a secondary front-facing camera for making video calls.
There's a media player and FM radio with RDS, plus the usual smartphone features including assisted GPS with Ovi Maps, Symbian and Java apps, web browsing with support for Flash web pages. A dedicated graphics processor does a good job of powering 3D games.
The phone has fast internet access, with HSPA giving downloads of up to 10.2Mbps. There's also Wi-Fi, and the full range of connectivity options including Bluetooth 3.0 and a HDMI connection.
The battery life isn't so good. The E7 has the same battery as the N8, despite having a larger screen. 1200 mAh really isn't enough for a device of this capability, and we're baffled why Nokia didn't use a larger one.
Overall the E7 does a lot for your money, despite its faults. We'd be excited if it weren't for the fact that it's a Symbian phone. Compare the E7 with the Android-powered HTC Desire Z which costs the same, but does the same job with a lot more panache.
Features of the Nokia E7 include:

• Symbian ^3 for Nokia
• 8 megapixel camera with face recognition, dual LED flash, 2x digital zoom
• Video camera: HD quality 720p resolution, 25 fps, video light and 3x digital zoom
• Front camera for video calling (VGA, 640 x 480 pixels)
• Video and still image editors
• Display: AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16 million colours, 640 x 360 pixels (4 inches) with auto rotation
• Media player (HD 720p Video playback and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound on HDTV through HDMI cable)
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• aGPS and GPS positioning, Ovi Maps with free car & pedestrian navigation, geotagging and digital compass
• MP3, AAC & WMA ringtones, video ringtones
• Integrated hands-free speaker
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, push email (support for attachments)
• Java games with dedicated 3D graphics processor
• Memory: 16GB plus microSD memory card slot (max 32 GB)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, micro USB 2.0, HDMI, 3.5 mm stereo headphone plug
• Data: WAP, EGPRS class B, WCDMA/HSPA (10.2 Mbps download, 2.0 Mbps upload)
• Internet: Full web browsing of real web pages, Flash Lite 4.0, RSS reader, YouTube browsing and streaming
• Quadband plus 3G WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100
• Size: 124 x 62 x 13.6 mm
• Weight: 176g
• 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Talktime: 300 - 540 minutes
• Battery standby: 430 - 470 hours