Nokia E7 Blue 3G Single-Core 600MHz 16GB Unlocked GSM Smart Phone w/ 8MP Camera

Pros: *I own a Nokia E71*
- Phone part works

Cons: Stay away from the Nokia/Symbian combo. I have had my E71 for over a year. I have contacted Nokia several times and have been told there is no update for the OS.

I suggest getting a phone with the Android OS.

Pros: Build quality is extremely high. When I've shown my E7 to friends and coworkers they are blown away by the clever keyboard and touch screen. They want something similar, but Symbian^3 or Symbian Anna is just too different from what they are used to having. Having said that, here are the pros: illuminated keyboard, outstanding voice reproduction, excellent texting capabilities, availability of Swype allows for true one-handed operation, USB on-the-go, Clear Black Display, you can upgrade from Symbian^3 to Symbian Anna - and Anna really improves the stability of the device. Built in GPS and free maps, the full QuickOffice suite, mass storage encryption (well, it'll delay yahoos), and the minimum version of F-Secure's Mobile Security. Antivirus & Firewall apps are available, as is a VPN solution, although the VPN client may not be compatible with your infrastructure. Screen characters are large enough for "over 40" eyes.

Cons: The cons are: Nokia has announced End of Life for Symbian, so the amount of apps available to the E7 is probably not going to change much. Your bank or airline probably won't have an app for your device, so you have to use a browser. Using the native browser or a third party browser can sometimes cause problems with Flash-heavy sites. The keyboard is hard to use if a person has arthritic thumbs. No support for a micro SD card, and the battery is sealed into the device. Symbian has a lot of options and the options are buried all over the place. It's easy to set one and have a negative result and forget where to find the setting to undo it. My unit arrived loaded with Symbian^3. My carrier has just made Symbian Anna available so I downloaded and installed it without a problem. However, the time needed to perform the update was about an hour. I needed to update Symbian^3 with several patches then I could upgrade to Symbian Anna, and then apply Anna's patches.

Other Thoughts: I tried this device on T-Mobile's and AT&T's network. The device worked fine on both networks. For the AT&T network I used a GoPhone pay-as-you-go SIM and bought a "non smartphone" data plan (about $5 for 10MB).

You can't charge the device and use a thumb drive at the same time because the E7 uses the micro-USB port for charging.

Pros: Fantastic quality keypad and screen. I love having a mini computer in my pocket. See reviews at AllAboutSymbian and other sites for details. Syncs to my home and work desktop via Ovi (now Nokia Suite Beta) perfectly. Some users complain of glitches but others find that a hard reset and taking some care to not install problem apps will have it running well, as does mine.

Cons: Canadian purchase of this phone gets me a product code 059F6L8: RM-626, which is "CV_North_America_US_Blue". Still no update to Anna. I must be last on the list.

Other Thoughts: This thing is strong and capable and I expect to have it for many years.