The world’s first test of the Nokia side-sliding phone King E7 with the largest screen in history

Background review: On April 27, 2010, Nokia released the first smartphone based on the Symbian^3 operating system to the world, named N8-00. This is the first N series mobile phone this year. Finally made public, countless Nokia fans have high expectations for this new generation of mobile phones.

On August 11, 2010, the mainland licensed version of Nokia N8 arrived in Beijing, China for the first time, and was first launched during the National Day holiday two months later. The powerful hardware specifications made the N8's domestic debut full of popularity and attractions, but the market feedback was disappointing.

▲Although Nokia is the number one mobile phone brand in China, N8 failed to show its kingly style

In one sentence: Symbian^3 is competing with Apple iOS 4 and Google Android platforms At a disadvantage, Nokia's once-strong users began to lose a large number of users.

▲In addition to N8, does Nokia have any other flagship products this year?

Can it be said that Nokia has really become a declining aristocrat in the eyes of everyone?

Can it be said that Nokia will not have a heavyweight model that can be on par with the N8 this year? ?

If there is, then there is only one candidate model, and it is the Nokia E7-00.

IT168 Review On September 14, 2010, Nokia held its annual Nokia World conference in London, England as scheduled. The debut of the E-series new generation business flagship E7-00 attracted everyone's attention. focus. Someone asked, who is E7? What is so special about E7? Which one is better, E7, or Milestone, this year’s star side-sliding mobile phone? Next, I invite netizens across the country to come to E7 with the author. Please enjoy this article. Article "Nokia E7 world premiere review".

▲IT168 exclusive presentation: Nokia E7-00 world first test

Highlights in the next section:

1. The new side-sliding mobile phone Nokia E7-00 is completely abused N97/N97mini?

2. Does Nokia E7 have design flaws?

3. Exclusive analysis of the world’s largest sliding touch screen mobile phone

Exclusive analysis of the past and present appearance of the E series: so big, so heavy and so domineering

Since the E71 has been a global hit , the Nokia E series has gained new vitality like a phoenix rising from the ashes. So far, this product line, which focuses on business intelligence, has regained the recognition of users with its strategy of simultaneously focusing on three aspects of smart business and multimedia. In recent years, the E series has also launched side-sliding cover models, such as the E75, but they have not received widespread attention due to various reasons such as publicity, positioning, and configuration.

▲The picture shows the former representative flagship of Nokia’s E series: E90

Speaking of which, the E series has not had a leader for a long time (E72 is at best an upgraded version of E71), above A flagship product can be traced back to the E90 Communicator 3 years ago. I had just started working that year and was not very impressed by the E90. After three years, the E series finally introduced a new phone king, which is the E7-00, and this phone is also Nokia's first sliding cover phone after adopting a new model naming rule.

▲Nokia E7-00, very tall and powerful~

When I first saw the E7, I was quickly attracted by its majestic appearance. In my opinion, is it worthy? There are not many side-sliding mobile phones with the word "attractive". The Motorola Milestone, which is popular all over the world, can be regarded as one. Frankly speaking, the overall appearance design of the Nokia E7 gives people a domineering feel, even a bit oppressive. It is this sense of oppression that makes the author full of curiosity about the phone, so I picked it up and gave it a try first. Feel.

Is E7 really big?

▲The length of E7-00 is not much shorter than the diameter of a porcelain dish

E7 is very big, as big as one hand When you hold it, you will obviously feel that your palm is not enough.

According to the data provided by the official website, we know that the three-dimensional size of the machine reaches 123.7x62.4x13.6mm. Although the thickness is only 13.6mm, it is actually much larger than the N8.

Is the E7 really heavy?

▲Put such a heavy guy in your trouser pocket...

In terms of weight, the E7 is heavier It shows the true nature of a giant. Because it is made of all metal, its weight of 176g can be ignored by mobile phones above 95%. In the same competition, the N8 is only 135g; many people think that the Milestone is not light. However, the machine's 165g weight is 11g lighter than the E7, which is enough to show how heavy the E7 is...

Multi-angle features: improved bracket-type side sliding cover

▲The length of the baffle of E7-00 has become shorter

I remember that Andy Lau starred in a movie "Big Man with Great Wisdom" a few years ago. The "muscular man" in the film although It looks simple and honest, but it possesses peerless martial arts... So what's so special about the Nokia E7-00 that looks domineering? The secret is hidden in its stand.

▲The bezel of the E7-00 is connected to the flip cover with a rotating shaft

As a personalized expression of the design, the Nokia E7-00 uses a bracket-type side slide similar to the predecessor N97 The advantage of the push cover is that the screen is more in line with the human eye's viewing angle when inputting horizontally and browsing. But the slight difference is that the bezel connecting the upper and lower fuselage is much shorter than that of the N97, and only the outermost slide rails on both sides are retained. The bezel itself uses a rotating shaft to fold the phone, which looks smaller than N97 has higher stability.

▲Close-up of small characters on the back of the bezel

It is worth mentioning that the cable between the Nokia E7-00 screen and keyboard adopts a built-in design, thus reducing the need for external cables. The probability of malfunction due to the installation. In addition, since it is not the final version, the machine is only marked with the engineering machine code number "C0-00" and "Design in Finland" on the bracket baffle.

▲The cable has disappeared. It seems that the workmanship of E7-00 has been improved~

The slider design is defective and the four-row Qwerty full keyboard design

The author I've always been concerned about the feel of the sliding cover of mobile phones. It should be simple but not stiff, which should be the best experience. However, the sliding cover method of Nokia E7-00 really surprised me.

▲The E7-00 slider feels poor

To be precise: if you want to open the slider, your thumbs need to be close to the middle of the slider to push it open smoothly. It will be quite difficult to push it close to both sides. This may have something to do with the baffle used on the back of the fuselage with the rotating shaft as the sliding hinge. I hope the official version will solve this problem, otherwise the sliding cover design will become a failure...

▲E7-00 full keyboard close-up

After pushing open the sliding cover , the Qwerty full keyboard of Nokia E7-00 appears in front of you. Compared with the N97, the E7 has canceled the independent navigation keys and replaced them with the most traditional four direction keys, which are located in the lower right area of ??the keyboard.

▲Close-up of the left side of the E7-00 keyboard

In addition, the machine also adds a row of keys, and the keyboard layout reaches four rows (one row more than N97 and N97mini), and The area of ??each button has also increased. What is gratifying is that although the key travel has not been significantly increased, the feedback force is more obvious than that of the N97, and the tapping feel is better.

▲ Close-up of the right side of the E7-00 keyboard

Peripheral interface: HDMI attached, no MicroSD expansion

As the flagship model of the E series, Nokia E7- 00 is equipped with a relatively complete interface and shortcut keys around the fuselage, which are basically the same as the N8-00, but adjustments have been made to specific positions and some designs have also been improved.

▲ Close-up of the top of the E7-00 fuselage

Among them, the 3.5mm headphone jack, power button, HDMI interface and MicroUSB interface are arranged on the top of the fuselage. The HDMI interface still uses the HDMI C-type port (commonly known as Mini HDMI) commonly used in DV/DC products and is equipped with dust-proof plug protection, while the MicroUSB interface has been moved from the right side of the N8 to the top.

▲Close-up of the right side of the E7-00 fuselage

On the right side of the fuselage, the Nokia E7-00 is equipped with a camera button, a volume button and a SIM card slot. The volume button adopts a novel sliding design, which is different from the traditional button operation; the SIM card slot has been moved from the left side of the N8 to the right side. It still uses an external design, but it is not directly inserted like the N8. , you need to take out the card slot first and then put the SIM card in, a bit similar to the Apple iPhone. There is only one screen lock button on the left side of the fuselage.

▲The SIM card slot design of E7-00 is similar to Apple iPhone

We searched around the fuselage and found no external MicroSD memory card slot. It can be seen that this machine does not support the memory card expansion function, which is rare for a business-focused smartphone.

▲The shutter button at the bottom of the right side of the E7-00 fuselage

It is worth noting that the bottom design of the machine is similar to that of the N8, with only one hanging hole. The back cover can be removed at will, which means that the E7 continues to use a built-in battery design. The official website points out that the machine comes standard with a Nokia BL-4D lithium battery with a capacity of 1200mAh, which is the same as the N8.

▲ Close-up of the bottom of the E7-00 fuselage

Breakthrough: the largest OLED touch screen in history, the menu keys are defective

Many people are complaining about the problem of Nokia mobile phones The screen is too small, just think about it. Among the world's five largest mobile phone manufacturers, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG have successively launched large-screen terminals of 3.7 inches, 4 inches, or even more than 4 inches. One-shot flagship phones such as Nokia N97 and N900 The model still only stays on the poor 3.5-inch screen...

▲The sliding cover mobile phone with the largest screen in history

Now, the Nokia E7-00 is born. Finally, I feel proud. This machine is equipped with the largest size in its history: a 4-inch touch screen. It also uses the AMOLED LCD screen of the N8, supports a 16:9 display ratio, and has outstanding visual effects. In addition, the phone also uses ClearBlack technology on the screen for the first time, which improves the visibility of the phone outdoors. It’s a bit of a pity that the E7’s screen resolution still stays at the nHD level (360x640 pixels).

p.s.: Although the screen size of HTC HD2 has already reached 4.3 inches, Nokia E7 still set a record: the largest sliding screen mobile phone in history.

▲Close-up of the earpiece periphery

By the way, the Nokia E7-00 has a built-in light sensor and distance sensor around the earpiece on the front of the fuselage. The VGA-standard front The camera is located on the right side of the earpiece and can take selfies and video calls with a resolution of 640x480 pixels.

▲Menu key close-up

The E7 only has one physical key on the front, which is the menu key, which is located directly below the screen (the N8’s menu key is located at the bottom left of the screen). Since the button is located on a steep slope between the screen and the slider, even if the button is large enough, the upper and lower widths are very narrow, so the operation feels poor and is not user-friendly.

Camera photo sample: 8 million pixels, does not support AF

Compared with the N8, the back design of the Nokia E7-00 is very flat, with only one camera and a set of LEDs. The flash has 8 million pixels and a maximum aperture of F2.8, making it the top-of-the-line model in the E series.

Based on positioning considerations, the camera does not use Carl Zeiss certified technology, nor does it have the professional-grade Xenon flash in the N8, but it adds facial recognition, 720P high-definition video recording functions, and provides 2x static digital zoom and 3x Dynamic video zoom function.

▲Close-up of the camera part

Somewhat surprisingly, the machine does not provide autofocus function and only supports Full Focus technology. During the photo taking process, there is no focus frame in the viewfinder, and the lens itself has no focusing action. It only uses software simulation to achieve the effect of expanding the depth of field. According to official information, the close-up shooting distance of the E7 is only 50mm, and the subject will be blurred when shooting close objects (macro). Of course, full-frame focusing is not without its merits. For example, it can achieve a very long depth of field, which requires mastering skills and repeated practice.

▲E7-00 camera interface

▲Photo sensitivity scene mode

▲Video recording interface and settings

▲E7- 00 supports playing 720P high-definition videos

Let us take a first look at the real-shot samples of Nokia E7-00. Due to insufficient light in the scene when shooting, the image quality is affected to a certain extent. Objectively speaking, the camera capabilities of the E7 are far inferior to those of the N8. If you want to own a mobile phone with excellent camera effects, the E7 is obviously not a wise choice.

▲The picture is a sample taken by E7-00, click to view the original picture

▲The picture is a sample taken by E7-00, click to view the original picture

▲The picture is E7-00 took a sample photo, click to view the original image

▲The picture shows the E7-00 photo sample, click to view the original image (full-frame focus shot near objects are blurry)

▲The picture shows E7 -00 Take a sample photo, click to view the original image (turn on the LED flash)

Core hardware: 680MHz 1GB ROM 16GB storage

The Symbian platform has always been less demanding on mobile phone processors, so The Nokia E7-00 uses the same ARM 11 processor clocked at 680MHz as the N8, but has a ROM capacity of up to 1GB, of which the user-available memory reaches 350MB. In comparison, the N8 only has 512MB of ROM and only 140MB of user-available memory. Both phones have 256MB of RAM and 16GB of large-capacity flash memory, but the E7 does not support MicroSD memory card expansion.

▲The ROM capacity of E7-00 is twice that of N8

Since Nokia E7-00 uses the same Symbian^3 operating system as N8, the operating experience of the two is better. The difference is not big. Among them, the machine supports three-screen sliding browsing, and wallpapers can be customized for each home screen. Long press or click the option button on the screen to select the edit screen to add widget controls or change the current wallpaper. For already displayed controls, users only need to click and slide to change their positions.

▲E7-00 supports three-screen switching

▲Long press the screen to edit the home screen, delete the home screen or change the wallpaper

▲The menu supports list display mode, pictures Supports multi-touch

Built-in rich and powerful SMS/office/email system

Based on the tradition of E series and the characteristics of Qwerty full keyboard, Nokia E7-00 is obviously a product for A heavyweight tool for business people. In terms of text messages, E7 also supports conversational text message interface display. It has built-in pinyin phrase input, stroke input and other input methods. Combined with the full keyboard, it improves the user's input speed. For those users who are accustomed to keyboard input Generally speaking, E7 can be regarded as a text messaging tool.

▲E7-00 SMS input interface

▲E7-00 SMS insertion multimedia and calendar interface

Like most smartphones, Nokia E7 also has built-in Many office software, such as Quickoffice, Notepad, PDF document readers, etc., do not support multi-touch operations when viewing files. The zoom function can only be achieved through ? and ? in the function list. In order to better serve local users, Nokia also pre-installed Ovi Maps, Renren, Kaixin, Sina News and other application software for the E7 mainland licensed version. The localized Ovi service is also a highlight of Symbian^3. For example, Ovi Maps cooperates with Ctrip and ticketing companies to realize one-stop services such as booking air tickets and hotels on mobile phones.

▲E7-00 preset office software interface

▲E7-00 preset application interface

Sending and receiving emails is a function often used by business people , and Nokia E7-00 also provides a rich and complete mail system, including the familiar Mail For Exchange and the enterprise mail system Microsoft Mail for Exchange, which can send and receive Push Gmail or Hotmail anytime and anywhere.

▲E7-00 is pre-configured with a powerful email system

▲E7-00 is pre-configured with a powerful email system

▲E7-00 is pre-configured with a powerful email system Email system

New features in the E series: OTG Bluetooth 3.0 Dolby

With the upgrade of the Symbian^3 platform, Nokia E7-00 has also added some auxiliary functions. For example: OTG. To put it simply, the mobile phone directly reads and copies the data in the USB flash drive through a special USB data cable. The USB OTG function is very practical in daily life and work. For example: 1. In the absence of computer equipment, the mobile phone can directly read or copy data from the U disk; 2. You can enjoy it from the U disk without copying. Photos or videos (it should be very power-consuming); 3. If 16GB (or 32GB) is full, it is very convenient to read or copy directly.

▲E7-00 supports USB-OTG function

In addition, Nokia E7-00 also supports Bluetooth 3.0 and Dolby surround sound technology. The data transfer rate of the former is eight times that of Bluetooth 2.0. times. In terms of network, the machine can automatically switch between GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 networks, and provides wireless LAN support for WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n standards function, its speed is 10 times that of ordinary wireless networks.

▲E7-00 also supports Bluetooth 3.0, Dolby Audio and other technologies

Of course, there are many changes brought by the Symbian^3 platform, such as the 720P mentioned above HD video recording, HDMI HD video output, multi-touch, etc.

Full text summary: The visual impact of the Nokia E7-00's appearance allows us to vaguely see the rare domineering Finnish people in recent times. At the same time, it is also supported by powerful hardware specifications. It can be said that this phone is the most popular one this year. The kingly flagship with a sliding cover surpassed the N97 two years ago and rivaled the Motorola Milestone a year ago. However, behind the praise and halo, the E7 also hides its own shortcomings and even the shortcomings of Nokia as a whole.

▲The picture shows Nokia E7-00

Compared to the era of only one person in the world a few years ago, Symbian^3 currently has a heavy mission, and it is even more arduous. Far away. Compared with its competitors, Nokia needs more developers to actively invest in creating localized application services suitable for the future of the Symbian platform, and it needs to create new and more user-friendly system interfaces and experiences. Whether it is Nokia or Symbian^3, there is still a long way to go.

▲The picture shows Nokia E7-00

It is reported that Nokia sells 260,000 smartphones every day. How many Symbian^3 system terminals will there be in the future? Let us wait and see!

Advantages of Nokia E7-00:

1.4-inch large AMOLED touch screen

2. Side-sliding cover design Qwerty full keyboard input

3.720 P camera HDMI high-definition video output

4. Rich and powerful business functions

Nokia E7-00 shortcomings:

1.176g body weight is too heavy

The 2.8-megapixel camera does not support AF

3. The Symbian^3 system experience has no obvious advantages