Nokia E72 Review

Introduction and design:

We have to admit to a major sin – despite the fact that our team consists of revered cell phone professionals, none of us happens to be a sworn business user that wakes up to the ringing of the Wall street´s opening bell, spends hours following Dow Jones and intently watches Bloomberg before going to bed. Still, we aren’t blind, spot the tools that modern business people are armed with and appreciate the proper ones. One of the devices that really impressed us last year was the Nokia E71 and the handset has earned its place in our gift guide for 2009 in the best business-oriented cell phones category. What we have in our hands now is the successor to this particular business tool, namely the Nokia E72. In reality, it retains everything we loved about the E71 and adds several improvements like 5-megapixel camera, 600MHz processor (the E71 is equipped with a 369Hz one), twice the amount of ROM (512MB), accelerometer and 3.5mm jack.

Its design and proper build quality are not just equally great, but even improved on. The handset comes boxed with a leather case that makes carrying around the device safer, because it does protect it from getting scratched. Aside from it, the box contains a charger, headset, USB cable, hand strap and user guide.


One of the qualities of the Nokia E72 that we like best is its dainty design. This is truly appealing business-oriented cell phone that comes with compact size, but emanates reliability.



You can compare the Nokia E72 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Its display measures 2.4-inches, has QVGA resolution and remains totally useable in direct sunlight, even though the image quality gets rather bad in this case.

One of the minor design differences to the Nokia E71 is the integrated optical pad. It features great sensitivity (can be set) and is a fully functional replacement of the standard D-Pad. Still, if you don’t like this particular way of controlling the handset, you can easily turn it off.


The Nokia E72 retains the excellent keyboard of the E71 and we even think the buttons are actually easier to press. They have pronounced, pleasing travel, but unfortunately, their rather small size means you will have to use your fingertips, which in turn disallows faster text entry. The manufacturer has added shortcuts to activate the Bluetooth, silent mode and use the camera flash as flashlight. We do like the altered design of the functional keys and the send and end keys, it makes them easier to use and they look as if made of polished metal.




Just like the E71, the Nokia E72 is extremely stylish handset that may win over even people who don´t actually need its business functionality, but can´t resist the appeal of an attractive, well-made gadget.

Interface and Functions:

The Nokia E72 runs Symbian 9.3, S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 that looks more contemporary and appealing than the software version of the Nokia E71. We have already taken all-round look at all extra features of the interface in our review of the Nokia E55, so we will not be getting to the minutest detail here. The major difference is the landscape orientation of the screen that affects things like the calendar of the E72 - the events now get visualized on your right hand side and not at the bottom of the screen. The functionality, however, remains the same.


Nokia Messaging comes preinstalled with the phone (the E71 also supports the application) and this is a program that we have an incredible liking for, because it makes handling several email accounts as easy as ABC. You can also take advantage of push messaging, but the function has to be supported by your carrier.



The built-in Symbian browser takes care of everything when you need to surf the Internet and it still comes with limited Flash support – you can watch YouTube videos even if embedded into other web sites. Handling it feels clumsier than what modern cell phones with touch sensitive screens offer, but as a whole, surfing is enjoyable, because pages load relatively fast. The fast connectivity is guaranteed by the support for both HSDPA 10.2Mbit/s and Wi-Fi.



One of the major drawbacks of the Nokia E71 was the camera that captured images with extremely low quality. The manufacturer has fixed the issue and the E72 comes with 5-megapixel sensor equipped with flash. As you can see for yourself, the snapshot quality is good, our only gripe relates to the occasional excessive sharpness. We do like the way you take pictures – the autofocus is activated when you touch and keep your finger against the optical pad, while the camera takes the snapshot when you fully press it.




The Nokia E72 captures videos at VGA resolution and 15 frames per second. As a whole, they tend to stutter quite a lot and their colors are rather thin.

Nokia E72 sample video at 640x480 pixels resolution

Thanks to the 3.5mm jack, you will be able to plug in your favourite headphone set and enjoy listening to your favourite music. The audio quality is quite good indeed and music sounds loud and clear, although audio gets rather sharp and disagreeable with the player going at full blast.

Performance and Conclusion:

We didn’t encounter any lagging during our tests of the Nokia E72. That´s something you could say about us after the fourth shot of whiskey down the hatch the other day, but that´s life. The handset is snappy and quite suitable for calls. In-call quality is excellent on both ends, it´s just voices get slightly metallic with the volume pumped all the way up.

The battery put in quite an impressive performance during our tests as well – it managed to keep the E72 operational for almost three days with moderate use, but the Wi-Fi was active all the time, we browsed websites often and sent quite a few emails. The manufacturer claims the battery should be able to provide up to 12.5 hours of continuous talk time and keep the device alive for 480 hours in standby.

Of course, these just a few of the many features that accomplished business-oriented cell phones boast. With its great in-call quality and utterly usable camera, the Nokia E72 does away with the few shortcomings of the E71. Still, quality comes at a price and the handset is by no means cheap. At the time of this review, its retail price in Europe (SIM and contract free) is around $600.

And its price is the only reason why we recommend that owners of the Nokia E71 stick to their handsets and not upgrade to the E72 - the extra features you would get aren’t that many. If you are on the lookout for a modern business-oriented cell phone and don´t have the previous model, the Nokia E72 is an excellent option that would allow you to do your job and do it in style. 

As alternative options, we can recommend the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 that is still not widespread yet, but has its advantages - screen with higher native resolution, support for certain services like BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) and BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server). In case you need more compact Nokia-made handset, you can get either the E55 (with its half-QWERTY keyboard) or E52 (with numeric keyboard), either of them for less money. The Nokia E75 on the other hand, sports larger, side-sliding keyboard that may prove to be a better option for people with thicker fingers.

The Nokia E72 is one of the best business-oriented cell phones with full QWERTY keyboard and without touch sensitive screen.

Nokia E72 Video Review: