With its unique, flip-out thumbboard and the powerful Symbian OS behind it, the E70 promises to be a happy marriage of form and function. Does it deliver?
The Nokia E70 definitely succeeds in stepping away from the pack with its unique design, but it falls short with its spotty performance. We enjoyed working with the flip-out keyboard, although we wish that typing on the numeric pad was easier. Productivity applications shine on the E70, not only thanks to the keyboard, but also because of the top-notch software. We were also impressed by the wealth of connectivity options, including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, the otherwise exemplary Web browser frequently crashed the phone during our tests, and U.S. users of the E70 will be disappointed by the lack of 3G network access. Release: October 2006. Price: $450.
Pros: Unique keyboard design works well for typing. Contact and messaging functions are intuitive and full-featured. Screen is superb. Plenty of connection options, including Wi-Fi.
Cons: Browser crashes frequently. No UMTS for the U.S., leaving tethered modem support nearly useless. Lacks popular IM protocols.
Poor
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79% VERY GOOD
Excellent
Full review of the Nokia E70:
Design
The most striking aspect of the Nokia E70 is its unique design. The number pad lifts up and over the screen to reveal a QWERTY keypad that splits with the display in the center. The display changes from a portrait to landscape view when you open the phone, resulting in a pause that takes up to ten seconds. It took us just a few days to grow accustomed to the comfortable keyboard, but we were annoyed by the too-cozy placement of the "End" key next to the space bar. The phone uses a joystick button for navigation, and we found the button itself hard to press. At 352 by 416 pixels with 16 million colors packed into its 2.1 inches, the E70's display is among the sharpest screens we've seen.
Calling - Very good
Call quality on the Nokia E70 was good, though sound was a bit dull. Noise was not an issue, on the street or in the office, and reception was always full strength. The robust address book outshines even the mobile Outlook; you get all the fields you could ask for, including fields for push-to-talk and video chat numbers. Conference calling is more difficult than it should be, with lots of digging in menus required to call a second number from your contact list. All in all, using the QWERTY keyboard to search contacts is always pleasant and intuitive, while the numeric keypad seems out of date by comparison. Though predictive text is available, it isn't as smart as you would find on a Blackberry Pearl or the Samsung SGH-T719, so you will probably find yourself opening the keyboard frequently.
Messaging - Very good
The Nokia E70 is an e-mail powerhouse. Third-party applications give it BlackBerry Connect and Exchange server support, along with the built-in POP3 and IMAP4 functions. SMS supports a full-message 160 characters on screen at once in both landscape and portrait views. Unfortunately, the messaging app doesn't give you live search results when you start typing in the "To" field; instead, it takes you to the address book, where you must select the best matches, a tedious extra step compared to other smartphones we've tested. The lack of copy/paste functions in the e-mail application was also disappointing, but the interface was otherwise attractive, similar to Outlook Mobile on Windows smartphones. Typing messages on the phone's unusual keyboard requires a steep learning curve. We found ourselves jerkily glancing left and right to search for the right keys, but after a couple of days, we were hardly hunting and pecking.
Scheduling - Good
Like the messaging application, the calendar and scheduling app on the Nokia E70 bears a welcome resemblance to Outlook. You can set the calendar to open to your preferred view, but we were annoyed that there's no "go to today" option, which comes in handy if you jump ahead a few weeks or months. Also, though the calendar also handles your task list, any task without a date gets piled up at the beginning of the current day, which makes for annoying viewing. The calendar itself felt a bit static, with no easy way to drag appointments around the calendar without digging into the menus. Scheduling information can be synchronized with your PC using Nokia's PC Studio software, or with a server, such as an Internet Exchange server. Synchronization options are myriad, including USB 2.0, Bluetooth 1.2, IrDA, and even Wi-Fi connections.
Productivity - Very good
Nokia, with help from the Symbian OS, has really beaten Microsoft at its own game when it comes to productivity. The document viewer on the Symbian OS is among the most capable we've seen. All popular Office documents are viewable, including PDF files, and formatting was generally accurate. We were impressed with the E70's ability to handle complicated functions such as formatting symbols in Word documents and advanced calculations in spreadsheets. Document attachments download in fewer steps than on Windows smartphones, and the file navigation folder interface is easier and more intuitive. Zooming on the small screen should have been a top-level function, and, again, we miss copy-and-paste functionality, but without a stylus, this is an understandable omission.
Laptop sidekick - Good
While the European edition of the Nokia E70 includes support for UMTS high-speed data transmissions, the U.S. version of the E70 only has EDGE data capabilities, an unfortunate oversight. We would love to see Cingular roll out a 3G-capable version of this phone for high-speed tethered modem support. The Nokia includes a "Pop-Port"-to-USB cable for data transfers and dial-up networking at EDGE speeds, but the cable will not charge the phone, so you'll have to bring the charger with you. The phone also sports 802.11g Wi-Fi, so it can access WLAN signals at high speeds and synchronize with your laptop over Wi-Fi, a quicker option than the Bluetooth 1.2 connection.
Multimedia - Good
Browsing on the Symbian S60 series browser is among the best mobile browsing experiences you can have. As we've discussed in other reviews (namely the Nokia E62), the browser handles large pages with aplomb, giving you a navigational "Mini Map" to help pinpoint your position while scrolling about a full-size page. Interestingly, the landscape view on the Nokia E70 appears to sap a bit more memory from the phone; in our tests, the New York Times homepage loaded in portrait mode, but not in the landscape view. Our enthusiasm for the browser was tempered by its bugginess. In every session, unless we limited ourselves to pages optimized for mobile devices, the browser crashed the phone. In addition to the E70's full HTML browser, there is also a WAP-only version, which is not nearly as capable and lacks the handy Mini Map. The E70 includes a RealPlayer app and Flash Player Lite, while the music player handles most popular non-DRM files.
Related phones: Nokia business and messaging phones
Score: 62% When: September 2006 Worth: $70 Carrier: AT&T
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