I’ve been a Nokia E-Series fan for some time now. The ability to access and interact with my company’s Microsoft Exchange server has been the most important factor in freeing me from my office and carrying on with a generally balanced life. The fact that the Nokia E-Series phones can interact and receive push mail from two Exchange servers made my life that much easier. This way I don’t have to carry two or three devices with me (depending on which companies I’m consulting for, etc).

I’ve accessing more than one Exchange account via push for several years. In an interesting twist of fate, the iPhone now has this functionality as of iOS4 making iPhone 4 and the upgraded iPhone 3Gs excessively attractive. The newly-released E73, on the other hand, isn’t worthy.

Up until the E71 was released a couple years ago, I was pretty happy with the E-Series product. Then, something changed. Nokia released the E75 and started to ram buggy and slow software down the consumer’s throat. No longer was the top-of-the-line Nokia phone usable. Instead, users were forced to wait several minutes for their phone to respond or worse, they were forced to constantly reboot their phones in order to get access to contacts, calendars and their inbox.

The E75 looked to generally be an upgrade to the E71. It had the latest OS, geotagging of photos from the camera, N-Gage gaming, podcasting, Internet destinations and more. Sadly, it lacked adequate memory to install third party software and was really slow. Another neat feature that surfaced with the E75 was the ability to charge the phone from either the standard Nokia circular charger or from the micro-USB port.

In a baffling move and shortly after the release of the E75, Nokia quietly killed N-Gage, alienated hundreds of thousands, if not millions of users, and started to prepare to sell stuff in their OVI store.

Around that time, I acquired the E72 and was confounded by some of the important features that were missing. Where was the podcasting software? How about the geotagging feature for my photos? The 5 megapixel camera was definitely great to use but it seems like Nokia decided to make the phone less functional than it’s predecessor. The phone, similar to the E75 also charged from the standard Nokia charger or micro-USB and also used the same battery as the E71. Great news, I could use my old accessories, spare batteries and car charger. Another bonus was that the upgraded processor and storage made the phone more usable than the E75.

Then something happened. Nokia pushed out a firmware update to the E72 and made the phone completely unstable and unusable, even when one reverted to factory settings. I tried unsuccessfully to load in an older firmware using Navifirm and some flashing tools. This turned my phone in to a brick and I was forced to go back to my E71 while my E72 made it’s way back to Malaysia for service.

Enter Wind and the E73. My contract with Fido’s been up for some time. The unlimited talk for $45 and unlimited Internet for $50 plus all the taxes (real and imagined by Fido) seemed less attractive than what the new provider Wind was offering, so I bit and bought a few months of service from the company to see if I was missing anything. I then embarked on a journey to Bellingham to purchase a Nokia E73 from T-Mobile which is compatible with Wind’s AWS network.

Unlocking the T-Mobile was a breeze. I’ve been a TMo customer for some time and they graciously provided me with an unlock code within 24 hours of my purchase. Getting it set up on Wind was a bit of a task – it has been years since I’ve entered Internet and MMS settings into my phone and changed the SMS delivery but after that, the phone was good to go. In the E73 I noticed they brought back podcasting but the geotagging feature was still absent.

The E73 is geared towards the T-Mobile network so some of the usability items like Wifi hotspot connectivity is confounding but to be expected.

Then I noticed something really amiss.

Nokia, in their ultimate wisdom, removed the standard Nokia charger port from the phone! The only way to charge the phone is to lift the micro-USB port and use the provided micro-USB charger. Yikes! No backwards compatibility with chargers I’ve acquired along the way. Additionally, the same dreaded software update (new firmware) that Nokia pushed to my E72 appears to have also hit the E73 so the phone now has fits of instability and the threaded SMS program (Nokia Conversations) doesn’t run anymore.

To top it all off, Wind seems to only be delivering EDGE type Internet speeds to the phone making the change feel like a step backwards compared even to my E71 which gets a good dose of HSDPA 3.5G speed.

The Wind network hasn’t hit primetime yet and the E73 is definitely not worth upgrading to. Better off in the bin, it’s no wonder why Nokia is in trouble and looking for a new CEO to give them direction. Not for me, I’m off to get an iPhone 4 and I’ll stick with Fido.

It’s here, the last of the Mohicans has arrived. A relic or collector’s item right out of the box, the E72 is probably the last Symbian S60v3 FP2 phone that will ever be built by Nokia.

With the recent dismantling of S60.com, N-Gage.com, Widsets.com and other websites, plus the lacklustre performance of the E75, one’s gotta wonder if someone who picks up this phone isn’t some mindless automaton who buys whatever shit Nokia slings.

What’s worse is that if you look at history, the E61 was a pretty good phone, the E61i was an even better phone, the E71 rocked. The E62 was introduced by companies like Fido and Cingular and was essentially carrier branded garbage (sort of like the E71x which was released by AT&T). Nokia would have been smart to stick with the name E71i or the N71i as previously whispered through the blogosphere but they dropped the ball when they let AT&T release the carrier-branded FP2 variant of the E71 as the E71x.

Well (after a rocky start), I can report with great certainty that I probably won’t be smashing my E72 and thus far I’m pretty happy. Or at least, perhaps my time with the E75 has taught me to cope.

I’m not the average user and my needs are directly correlated with my business interests, but keeping that tall list aside, stability and responsiveness should rate really high on the scale what makes or breaks any phone, right? Right!

The E72 is a responsive phone. The hosted Nokia Email solution actually loads up quickly (not in the blink of an eye but still tolerable) and transitioning and loading other software isn’t so bad.

My setup (aka the testbed):

• Nokia E-Mail with Mail for Exchange

My primary mail client – the new ‘Mail for Exchange’ is Nokia’s attempt at shoving bloatware down peoples throats. Thankfully the fast processor in the E72 can cope and synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Servers is pretty tolerable. Nokia E-mail also uses FP2′s network destinations feature which replaces access point groups that was available in the E61i.

Shamefully, Nokia E-mail doesn’t give you the ability to select folders for synchronization and doesn’t give you access to all of your top level folders.  Instead, Nokia E-mail syncs all the folders within its grasp based on a single setting – if you ask for it to sync all of your email, you’ll fill up your phone’s memory (imagine a million sent items) and will have to use the three-finger salute to wipe out and reset to factory settings.

The older (downloadable) version of Mail for Exchange (available in the E71 and previous) strikes me as a more stable and mature product.

• DataViz RoadSync

RoadSync is another mail client that syncs with Microsoft Exchange. Setting it up is a bit of a pain since it takes control of your email key, sets itself to the default email program, etc. and whch all has to be undone. Once it’s going, it’s solid and responsive.

In FP2, RoadSync really shines. The same software installed on an FP1 phone can’t see most of the top-level folders and brings up an annoying send dialog if you send immediately (when installed as the secondary e-mail client). Once you’re on FP2, the send dialog has been hidden and RoadSync magically has access to all of the top-level folders.

DataViz – I apologise for all the mean things I said to you in the past, all this time it’s been a limitation of the operating system.

• emoze

emoze is another push email account. It’s a hosted solution that can interface with your POP3, IMAP4 or can also connect to an Exchange Server using Outlook Web Access. emoze also brings view as HTML support to users running the older version of Microsoft Exchange Server (2003) but still has some viewer kinks to be worked out.

In fairness, Nokia E-mail does allow you to set up multiple accounts (one Mail for Exchange account and multiple POP3 and IMAP4 accounts) but falls flat in the ease of setup and stability department. After beating my head against the wall over intermittently receiving emails, I said fuggetaboutit and installed emoze. emoze is lightweight, uses Nokia’s old mail interface and simply works. Thumbs up emoze people for making a stable and lightweight product!

• Killer Mobile TotalRecall

In my E71, I used VoxTalk to record all my incoming and outgoing phone calls. I bill for my time, so it’s important to keep track of phone calls. Well, VoxTalk doesn’t work on the E72 so I’ve installed TotalRecall which is a similar application and thus far, it works like a charm.

• Birdstep SmartConnect

I’m using the European version of the E72 which means the fastest Internet speed I’m going to get is whatever EDGE is capable of. I’m surfing in the kilobits not the megabits (until I purchase an E72-2 which comes out in a few days). To make things worse, most S60 software isn’t aware of network destinations, so I’m stuck using simple access points.

Birdstep launched SmartRoaming in the era of the E61 which allowed for seamless Wifi roaming. Smartconnect is the same software for the E71 and thus far it works perfectly for me E72, too! So now I can have third party programs (like RoadSync and emoze) automatically switch between my various Wifi access points I have at home and in the offices and also roam onto Fido’s GPRS/EDGE network when I’m away. I get to save battery power and improve performance automatically.

• Google Gmail, Google Maps, Google S60 App

The new Google App for the S60 has voice recognition built in and it’s pretty accurate. Kudos to Google.

• Nokia Conversation

Threaded SMSes strike me as a must for any smartphone nowadays. It’s odd that this piece of software has to be installed like a third party product. Rather, it should be installed by default. It’s been a graduate from Nokia’s Beta Labs for some time.

• Gravity

Twitter and facebook status update program that doesn’t suck.

• Escarpod

Okay, I’m fine if Nokia doesn’t want to include N-Gage in the E72. Really, I’m fine with the fact that they want to force all game makers to publish their games to the Ovi store. I’m fine with being penalized for having purchased games in prior iterations of my Nokia phones staring with the N95. I won’t talk about how useless the Ovi store is either. What’s baffling, though, is that Nokia ripped out the Podcasting client that’s been built in their E-series phones for at least three years. Instead, we have t install ‘in-development’ software like Escarpod.

Overall, the E72 does what I need it to do. I’m not craving any additional features and I’m no longer excited about what’s next from Nokia. I’m happy with this phone and its stability but I’ve been beat up too many times. Maemo and S60v5 just don’t turn my crank anymore.

Side note, I hear the Palm Pre will support multiple Exchange accounts.

Want free business advice? Listen to your customers! – or at least that’s what Richard Branson says.

Wish Nokia had done the same in the release of their most recent E-Series flagship, after all, isn’t the E-Series set of phones supposed to be made for efficiency? They did drop the ‘enterprise’ label for ‘efficiency’ recently but with the E75, they fall squarely on their face.

So, I’m three phones in now… the first E75 was smashed in frustration, the second and third, gifts from contacts that live in the dark underworld of mobile phones. Third time’s a charm, right? Well, I’ve certainly learned to cope, that’s for sure. (more after the jump)

For the many that may be reading this for the first time, I’m not necessarily the average user – I rely heavily on two seperate Microsoft Exchange Servers on different networks to do what I need to do. I prefer push mail and have found that through the years, the Nokia E61, E61i, E51 and E71 have all given me exactly what I need – fast and productive access to two Exchange mailboxes via push.

How, on earth, do I do it? Well, simply put, both Nokia and DataViz have published Exchange connectivity software (Mail for Exchange and RoadSync respectively) for Nokia’s S60v3 phones including the E-Series, N-Series and Communicators. Both programs coexist to a certain extent (I only sync one calendar, tasks, contacts – the other Exchange client is specifically for mail and that’s it) and as a result, I’m a happy camper.

So, back to the E75.

The specs are great – E-Series phone, slider with full keyboard, runs N-Gage, Nokia’s gaming platform, S60v3 feature pack 2 and all the bells and whistles.

I truly think there’s a couple of great features that feature pack 2 phones offer – destinations instead of access points allows you to switch between Wi-Fi and 3G seamlessly for apps that support it (like Nokia Mail and the built in browser), location tagging built into the camera application, user data preservation on firmware updates (not totally stable) and a suite of cool ringtones.

…. but there’s the other side too – the Nokia Mail (which replaces the standard mail app and Mail for Exchange) is slick but it’s slower than molasses running uphill and downright frustrating. The amount of RAM memory to install software is extremely limited and in two cases, I’ve filled the memory of the phone up to the point where mail and SMSes ceased to be received – not cool! The phone isn’t ever eager to respond and the form factor is better fit for a purse than a suit jacket or front pocket on the jeans.

I’ve had much to say about Nokia Mail … simply put, it’s slow, clunky and stinks… more on that, HERE.

In the end, I’ve been far more productive with the E71. It fits better in your pocket, the feature pack 1 software isn’t buggy and there’s plenty of room in the phone’s local memory to install applications.

For that, I give the E75 a 0 out of 10.

Now, since I’ve been stuck with the phone for reviewing purposes, I’ve had to cope – so here’s what I’ve done:

1 – formatted the phone and got rid of N-Gage

2 – installed every possible application to the phone’s external memory – in my case, a reputable 16GB SDHC micro card

3 – installed RoadSync v4 as my primary mail client – even though it has it’s shortcomings, it’s still better than Nokia Mail

4 – used Nokia Mail for my secondary mail client – I don’t have to be as responsive on the phone

5 – upgraded to Ovi Maps and Quickoffice v6

6 – moved the message store of the phone to the external memory

That’s it…  trim the fat and bear with the slowness… and try not to smash yet another phone.

In upcoming Nokia phones, I’ll be sure to be weary of the Nokia Mail application – it’s a piece of garbage. Failing that, I might have to actually carry two phones again, a quick and responsive BlackBerry and maybe something else. As for Nokia, f#%k that!

When the Nokia E71 Smartphone came out, I had to have it. I’ve been a fan of the E-Series and the Nokia S60 devices since I got my hands on an E61, courtesy Papa Guj from a2zwireless.com. The phones are an absolute dream to use and allow me to run my business remote. At the time of release, only the E71-1 or the Asian/European version of the E71 existed, so I purchased it, making due with lower speed but tolerable EDGE Internet access.

Recently, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the North American E71-2 which can take advantage of high-speed 3G internet here in Canada. I was impressed but I also noticed some interesting differences between the first phone I got and the second one. Apparently, the E71-2 I received has an additional feature – quickdial. On the standby screen, you can start typing your intended victim’s name and voila – the E71-2 will try to discern who you’re trying to reach and wil pop up a list of potential callees. No such luck with the E71-1. This, of course, is pre-firmware upgrade. I’ll report once I actually get to that.

For reference, my E71-1 bears a product ID of RM-346. The E71-2 bears a product ID of RM-357. Other than that, they’re both firmware 100.07.76 dated 08-06-2008.

BTW – I also discovered a new shortcut for the phone. If you want to toggle between predictive text and standard entry, hit ALT then press CTRL then hit SPACE. If you’re looking for other shortcuts, check out the E71fanatics page on the topic, HERE.