Ah yes, Nokia's newest model with a slide out keyboard, the E7. The E series from Nokia has always been renowned for their elusive quality and enterprise friendly features. Being the new kid on the block, the E7 doesn't disappoint either. This device runs on Nokia's home brewed Symbian^3 OS powered by a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor and Broadcom BCM2727 GPU. It's got 16GB worth of internal storage with no option to insert a microSD card to expand the memory. The 4 inch display is equipped with Nokia's new ClearBack Display technology which is protected with the durable Gorilla Glass. Pictures can be taken using the fixed focus 8 mega-pixel camera on-board the E7. If pictures aren't enough, you can record videos at 720 resolution at 25 frames per second. What's unique about the video recorder is that it also has video stabilization which should keep your capture steady from minor shakes. For video calling (or checking your hair/make-up), there's a front facing VGA camera.

While the keyboard is a joy to type on, accessing the keyboard can be a hassle. The hinge that connects to the display keeps it in place pretty tightly. In order to reveal the keyboard, a good amount of force is required to push it up. Sometimes, when I close the keyboard without looking, the display may slightly pinch my thumbs/fingers.

The E7 performs well in most aspects but I believe Nokia should learn to adapt to the newer trends in the smartphone industry. Honestly, Symbian has become quite an old timer in terms of its layout and the refresh to Symbian^3 hasn't really gotten much traction in the smartphone OS market.