Mobile Info Planet

As I wrote a while back now, a firmware update was provided by Nokia for the E72, which was available to me only a few days later and which I then immediately installed.

I have used the phone now for several weeks with the updated firmware, and I think that I can safely draw some definitive conclusions not only about the bugs that I reported here and the firmware update, but also provide some overall impressions of the E72.

...

I will start with the bugs that I reported.

• I'm happy to report that the A2DP bug has been completely solved. Since I installed the update I haven't had *any* problems with listening to music both through my BT headset and my BT stereo headphones, including after a phone call.
  
  
• Unfortunately the phone still disconnects from the BT headset for no apparent reason, though possibly with less frequency than before. However, the phone doesn't hang anymore as a result of a disconnection as it did before, and "all it takes" is to toggle the BT off and on and reconnect the headset.
  It is still very annoying, but a significant improvement over how it behaved before the update.
  
  
• The speakerphone echo that I also reported has been resolved. I haven't received any complaints of any kind since the update.
  
  
• On a couple of occasions I have also discovered my BT headset to be completely out of battery only a few hours after a complete recharge, even though I've only used it briefly. It's as if the phone leaves a connection open with the headset which consequently rapidly drains the battery.

That's as far as the reported bugs goes.

Now for some general impressions of the phone.

• I was on a business trip to London last week, as a result of which I put the E72 through its paces. During that trip I had several apps open constantly, including a large pdf file of the London tube network, Metro, the built in music player and CorePlayer. I would also use the GPS/Nokia maps and the camera extensively . With all these apps up and running, the limited RAM on the E72 reared its ugly head several times during my trip, silently closing apps in the background as a consequence. That, along with some hangups of the camera when I tried to take a "screen shot" of a computer display, made for a somewhat disappointing experience, and I was left with an overall impression of the phone not being entirely up to a "business critical" task.
  With the exception of Nokia, I am not aware of any manufacturer that produces high-end smartphones with only 128 MB of RAM (of which only 45 MB is free after a reset). This fact alone makes the whole RAM issue particularly disappointing, especially since Nokia could and should have easily predicted the impact of this.
  
  
• Though not strictly E72 related, I just can't adapt to how poorly alarms are handled on the Nokia/Symbian(?). It's something that keeps annoying me every time an alarm goes off. Heck, even my fiancée has started to complain about how tiresome they are.

So what's the overall verdict?

On the one hand I love the efficiency of this device: the things it does well it does really well, and during those moments I love it. On the other hand you have the BT issues, the low RAM, the alarms.

If you use the E72 "lightly" and don't depend on its bluetooth, then it is a cracking phone which there really isn't anything to complain about. But this phone wasn't made to be used that way, and it is marketed as a business device. As such, I feel that the negatives are simply too prominent for me to be able to use the E72 reliably and in a consistent manner.

As a result I have decided to get rid of it. I will give it to my fiancée who won't have any of these problems precisely because she doesn't depend on the bluetooth and won't "push" the phone . In fact, though she is well aware of the issues I have with the phone she still can't wait to inherit it, knowing that she won't experience these problems (and she hardly uses alarms).

So what will I buy next then?
That will be the topic of my next post.