E72 - suggestions to the Firmware Update Team

1. When dialing a number, the left soft key says 'loudpeaker', once
the number connects, this shifts to the right soft key. This is rather
confusing. I expect one softkey to remain as the 'loudspeaker' key
either during the dialing process or after connection.
2. The phonebook search could include numbers. Like if I want to
search 98100......, the search should show me numbers beginning with
98100 in my phone book. All windows mobile phones have this lovely
feature.
3. Symbian team could work at making shortcuts of all keys (long
press). i.e. if I set long press 'c' for camera, long press 'e' for
email, long press 'k' for calculator, r for 'recorder' and even use
some for speed dialing like a for 'Arpit' etc, a lot of my navigation
through menus is reduced. All keys could be used for short cuts or at
least the alphabet keys.
4. They should consider adding a feature to find duplicate numbers in
the phone book.
5. The navi key makes you jump just one icon in the menu screen with
one scroll even at high sensitivity. There should be an option to
enhance this sensitivity so that users could scroll the entire length
or breadth of the screen with one finger swipe. It reduces effort.
6. The bluetooth key is a good idea, but there should be an option to
use this key for a. turning bt off or on (as it is already there), or
b. turing on the main bt screen (this is sometimes required to connect
your paired device and eliminates the need for going through the
menus.)
7. On the menu screen, there could be an option to turn off the menu
labels and hence pack more menu icons on the screen. The menu labels
of selected icon could display at the top of the screen.
8. The icons could be less colorful on a business phone, so all Nokia
needs to do is come ont with a serious business theme with simple,
colorless icons.
9. On selecting a contact, there should be an option to 'set meeting'
with the contact and open the calendar screen with the contact details
populated.
10. In the music player, while the music is playing, there should be
an option>lock keypad so that the optical key does not get activated
by mistake. (currently you need to go to main screen and lock, this is
cumbersome)
11. There is a lot of animation / transition time in the email
program. I would ask NOKIA to add an option to do away with the
transitions and make it snappy.
12. The Email software is regressive. The IMAP folders are not easy to
reach as on E71 and they do not display the number of unread messages
in brackets. You need to open all folders to be able to know if there
are any unread messages.
13. Another issue is that unlike E71 messaging, there is no option to
sync the 'read' message status. It automatically does. Meaning, if I
have read a message on the phone, or deleted it, it will show as read
or deleted on my pc as well. This is a bummer.
14. While updating the music library, it adds all sound files,
including ringtones that are small files. There should be an option to
set a minimum size of files to add when updating music library.
15. Moreover, if I install some sis or jar file using Ovi suite or
Nokia PC Suite, it should retain a copy of the sis or jar (0r jad)
file in a special folder on the PC so I can reinstall them through the
PC any time and the OVI Suite or PC Suite knows which all programs are
installed by a log file it maintains for the purpose. It makes the job
much simpler after a hard reboot. (hard boots are currently required
after every few weeks/ months to increase system performance, which
starts lagging dues to insufficient garbage collection)
16. The light sensor of the front of the phone
could be used to switch the optical navikey off (when the phone is
next o the ear) rather than have the optical navikey disabled during a
call as default. I think this feature of light sensor could also be
used to switch the phone to sleep mode when put inside it's case.
18. The lock screen is cumbersome with 2 keys, though I know it is
safer (less chances of getting activated by mistake) , but other
options like maybe double clicking the voice command key or double
tapping the d pad (navikey) could do the same.
19. The phone hangs, reboots and sometimes drops connection in the
middle of a call. Serious investigation of the same needs to be done.
20. Every application should have it's own choice of 'predictive input
'on or off rather than having it universal. I like to have it on while
doing a search on Ovi Maps, but do not like to have it on while
composing SMS, but like it while composing emails, or while writing
notes. But since there is a universal on or off for predictive input,
this is not possible.
21. I am still not sure if the E72 set I have is a 600 Mhz processor
as mentioned here http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/E72/ , or a
slower processor.

E72 in my hands

Here is my take on the Nokia E72. I have had the E72 for a month now and I am frustrated like hell.

Issues:-

1.Camera takes 4-5 seconds to open and the 'processing' message remains for as much as 6 seconds after takin a pic. On my E71 it took less than a second. (update) I got my MicroSD card changed and now the response is a tad faster.

2. Phonetinfo, and Phoneinfo show the processor speed as 192 Mhz, though some claim that a newer version of Phonetinfo will show 600 Mhz. (I managed to install a later version and it shows 600 mHz, whew!!)

3. The Email software from NOKIA is regressive. The IMAP folders are not easy to reach as on E71 and they do not display the number of unread messages in brackets. You need to open all folders to be able to know if there are any unread messages.

4. There is a lot of animation / transition time in the email program. I would ask NOKIA to do away with the transitions and make it snappy.

5. The back cover on E71 was solid but on E72 it keeps coming loose. There is only one button which is gets pressed accidentally and many a time I have lifted my phone from the table and the back cover is falling off.

6. The menu has been redesigned to make you go several levels. On E71 it was menu>setting> whereas on E72 it is menu>control panel> settings making you click more buttons. In order to go to maps you need to go to menu>app>gps rather than menu>gps on E71. I know one can rearrange the icons but this is regressive development from Nokia.

7. The sync cable is like 6 inches long. On the E71 I could lift the phone from the table and answer a call while it was connected to my laptop, but in E72, I have to disconnect the cable or bend awkwardly to take a call. Why a 6 inch cable, down from a meter long cable on E71.

8. On the E71 camera screen, you could go to options>gallery, but on the E72, the gallery option is missing making you scroll through the main menu to go to the gallery. (Update, they now have an icon to take you there)

9. During a call, the optical key stops functioning. If you are scrolling through a number or the menu while on a call, the optical key will not work. It also does not work in the Camera menu tool bar once the picture is taken. It works before the picture is taken. (Update: I am told this is intentional since the optical key is next to your face during a call, and keeping it inactive helps.)

10. I have not had once incident when the voice recognition could make out who I was trying to call. It always gets the wrong name.

11. The plastic covers for the Micro USB and the MicroSD card fall off. They have to be very carefully pulled out or else you can lose them. (They have not fallen off for some time now. Strange!!)

12. Another issue is that unlike E71 messaging, there is no option to sync the 'read' message status. It automatically does. Meaning, if I have read a message on the phone, it will show as read on my Gmail. This is a bummer.

13. There is no option to turn on HTML messages universally. One has to do it for every mail individually.

14. While playing music, the optical key is inadvertently sensing the insides of my pocket and skips from song to song. I have to go to main screen and manually lock the keypad to be able to use the music player with the phone in my pocket.

15. The RAM shows only about 25 to 30 MB free with all apps closed using Taskman for the purpose. On E71 it used to be 60 MB or more. I have many a times got a 'memory full' error message on my E72. I never ever got this message on the E71 ever.

16. I have sometimes got the 'maximum number of connections in use, close a connection?' error message when I have only one opera mini screen open. Bug ??

17. The Internet Radio app has been removed.

18. There are only redundant games like solitaire and block cascade.

Apart from these the positives are a larger C drive (260 up from 120 on E71). The Torch key (long press space bar). The integration of Nokia Email with the Nokia inbuilt messaging app. Option to change snooze time in clock alarm , etc.

Overall, I am still not excited about this phone and hope I had kept my E71. This phone is going to be hopefully fixed with a firmware update. If any other user has a different experience, then please do leave a comment and let me know.

Update: The stock MicroSD card is class-4 whereas class-6 cards are much faster. I'm gonna get me one soon.

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