Yesterday I talked about 5 things I like about the Nokia E7, and today I’ll be criticizing. It’s a common sense that no mobile device is perfect, despite Apple and Nokia fanboys claiming the opposite. Quite the contrary, I have some serious problems with the E7 and here I’ll present you my list of top 5 annoyances. Let’s roll…
1. Software
You’ve probably read it a thousand times that Symbian sucks. Unfortunately I must say I agree with that statement. I’ve been using S60 smartphones since Nokia 6600, having switched to the E61, N93 and E71 afterwards. I used love every one of those phones, though to be fair nothing better was available. Today the situation is completely different – even as a somewhat experienced user, I’m not sure when a double tap is required to start something on Symbian and when a single tap is all it takes. Inconsistencies are killing me. We all hope the forthcoming Symbian Anna update will fix some of these issues, but honestly I’m not a big optimist.
2. It’s slippery
I said the E7 is well-built device and I’ve no complaints on that front. However I’ve dropped it for quite a few times when tried to open the keyboard. Something’s seriously wrong here. I love how Nokia managed to make a QWERTY keyboard-equipped device easy to carry around, but some piece of silicone is needed on the opposite side of the phone to make it easier to open the keyboard.
3. Fixed-focus camera
Ok I guess the idea was to make the E7 thinner. However what’s the point of a fixed-focus camera? I can’t scan business cards with it. Actually I can, but that’s like a 5-minute process to make all letters visible. I truly don’t understand why there’s a lack of auto-focus camera. I don’t buy the “there’s no room” argument even if it’s true. I wouldn’t mind another millimeter around the lens (like on the N8) to be able to scan business cards while on the go.
4. Limited Bluetooth HID support
This one makes me really angry. I can’t select the text with my Bluetooth keyboard. I tried two different keyboards and the SHIFT key doesn’t work on both of them. I used to connect a Bluetooth keyboard to an S60 3.1-based smartphones and it worked flawlessly. What happened in the meantime? The Nokia E7 has a gorgeous screen and I thought I will be able to edit documents with my Bluetooth keyboard connected. Perhaps I’m doing something wrong here – anyone managed to make text selection with the SHIFT key work?
5. Price
Although the E7 is Nokia’s flagship devices, it’s too expensive. What’s more – there’s no reason to charge that much for (let’s face it), last year’s hardware. The CPU inside the E7 clocks at 680 MHz, and while the software is super-optimized to run things smoothly, I can’t justify its price. The same money could easily get you a dual-core CPU-powered beast these days. It’s outrageous.
And that concludes my today’s top 5 list. Is there something you find especially annoying about the Nokia E7 (except for its reviewers)? 🙂