The Nokia E70 appears to be the fourth in the series of flip-open devices that are unique to the Nokia brand. The first was
the 6800, followed by a 6820 if I remember correctly, and a couple of cousin devices one of which was for CDMA networks only.
This is however, the first time that the form factor is used for a Symbian Series-60 phone as all the previous incarnations
were done using the Series-40 platform.
CD
Exterior
This is another of the latest batch of Series-60 phones with a full keyboard. Unlike with the E61 where the keyboard is on
the outside of the phone, the keyboard here is revealed by flipping up the number pad and folding it down until it clicks
fully-extended into place.
The E70 phone sports dimensions of 117 x 53 x 22 mm and it weighs 127g. It is slightly larger than your usual
Nokia candybar phone but you have to factor in the full keyboard that hides in the centre of the device. However, the
downside of a phone like this is that it is virtually impossible to find a protective casing for it.
Buttons/Screen
The buttons are cut out of silver coloured keys, and the backlight is white in colour. The small little plastic window which
is the counter to the power key on the other side of the earpiece shields a light sensor. That is how the phone detects
whether or not to light up the numberpad and the keypad.
There is no volume toggle button, but a hotkey on the left side of the phone just next to the battery cover activates the
voice recorder automatically for making quick audio notes to yourself.
The screen is a high-resolution one with 352 x 416 pixels at a colour-depth of 18-bits. Just as in its earlier Series-40
counterparts, the screen on this Series-60 phone also swivels to landscape orientation when you flip it open into full
keyboard mode.
However, the contacts on the top of the phone are gone now, so you will have to tap a key to get the keyboard to light up
when you have flipped the phone open. Previously, the contacts would touch its counterparts on the swivel help of the
keyboard and light up automatically.
Software/Messaging
This phone runs the Symbian 9.1 operating system on the third edition of the Series-60 platform. It supports SMS, MMS and
Instant Messaging.
The E70 supports IMAP, POP and SMTP email protocols, just like in nearly every other email-capable device currently on sale
in the market.
BlackBerry Connect, Seven Mobile and Visto are also built into this phone. Apparently, devices with the full keyboard are
very suitable for messaging on the go.
PIM
Once again, the E-Series type of device comes with Document, which is the mini word processor built into the phone. With a
full keyboard, there is little that cannot be done and you can just whip up letters and documents on the move and print them
straight to a compatible printer if necessary.
The Sheet application allows the user to view and edit Excel documents. Finally, we have the Presentation application which
gives the user the ability to edit or to create a presentation from scratch.
The Screen export application can be used to display the contents of the phone¡¦s screen elsewhere. You need a compatible data
projector for this, and you can then make the connection via Bluetooth. Of course, you can hide the screen export application
itself after it has started, so that you can show other programs or screenshots.
Finally, the E70 also supports the PDF document format. You can get to this via the Adobe PDF reader found in the
Installations folder.
Camera/Video
The camera on this device is a two megapixel one. It shoots pictures of up to 1600 x 1200 pixels and has a digital zoom of
8x. Images are then saved in the JPEG format.
The video resolution is a little lower at 352 x 288 pixels, recorded at 15 fps and saved in the H.263 format. The E70 also
supports the playback of MPEG-4 videos and RealVideo 10 too.
Multimedia/Voice
Voice calls are not a problem with this device, although your finger tends to rub on the camera lens when you press the phone
up against your ear. The reception is quite good, and there were no problems during the few conversations I used the phone
for.
There is a vast array of multimedia options as is found in most Nokia Series-60 devices. There is a Flash Player and a Music
Player in the media folder, together with the RealPlayer application that we mentioned earlier.
Connectivity
The E70 comes with both Bluetooth and infrared connectivity. The infrared port is on the right side of the phone just next to
the line made by the battery cover. A Pop-Port USB connector is found at the bottom of the phone, just next to the mini jack
for the charger.
This device supports the 802.11b and g protocols for WiFi, and it is also a WCDMA 3G phone. It comes with HTML and xHTML
browsers and also has a WAP browser if you prefer it. The device supports EGPRS or EDGE and can be used in the absence of a
3G network.
Games
There are no games preloaded in this device, as befits an Enterprise-type device.
| Editor's Opinion |
I still have the first generation 6800 device, and I must say that using Symbian for this kind of form factor was quite a
good move. There is much more that you can do on a Series-60 than on a Series-40 device, especially with a full keyboard.
However, the keyboard was rather uncomfortable to use. It did not really respond like the keys of the preceding flip-keyboard
devices. Even the numberpad was rather thin and difficult to use as my fingers kept hitting all the wrong buttons and made a
rather uncomfortable mess of the applications.
The price is still rather high at around RM 2000. There are plenty of alternatives for that kind of money. I like the folding
keyboard concept though, and the legs of the top half appear to be much more durable than before. I think the wider Symbian
screen makes this phone look rather bloated, and the navigator joystick was just too wobbly for my taste.
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