After several weeks with a Nokia E75 mobile device, from the kind generosity from the folks at WOM World/Nokia I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I took this device on planes, trains and automobiles – even ferries – and was my only camera at a wedding. A few blog posts here at The Hot Iron were written on it too. Still, I was having a hard time deciding what I thought of the device.

Then it hit me; it isn’t for me.

It was while waiting for a train from Chicago to Milwaukee when I realized this. Standing in the tiny Amtrak lobby, I saw many people typing away on keyboard device models by Samsung and LG among others. As I observed their pecking away on their device’s full keyboards, I noticed the keys were smaller than those on the E75, which are much larger than most devices out there. The people using them were probably in their 20’s and 30’s and were very adept at “texting” as we call it in the States. As I looked at the E75 in my hands, it then dawned on me why it wasn’t for me.

Here’s my conclusion – the E75 is for the business user who isn’t comfortable with the small size of keyboards such as those on a Blackberry or even like on the Nokia E71.

Now I don’t base this on anything I have read elsewhere, only my own brainpower. As I consider myself a high-end tech user, and love the E71 the issues I had with using the keyboard on the E75 were due to the fact I was trying to use it like I did the E71 – fast, and with one hand. This is not what the E75’s slide out keyboard was designed for.

My evaluation process was more utilitarian than scientific. I simply charged the E75, put my T-Mobile SIM card in it, synced my contacts and calendar and started using it as my primary device during the trial. I did install Qik and tried the Ovi Store – actually I did them in the reverse order as I was unable to install Qik from the Ovi Store, so I went directly to Qik’s Web site to initiate the install.

As a mobile phone, the E75 works well. The best way to describe the keypad is that is similar to shingles on a house. I’ve never seen this concept before and it worked for me. The Navi key was familiar to me as I used it on the E71. Much of the use of the E75 was like the E71, including a camera on the front as well as back, ideal for self-portraits and recording video of one’s self.

It seems the main selling point of the device is the slide out keyboard. The actual sliding part was solid as the device is overall. Down the middle of the keyboard is a metal bar which I presume is for stability. When the keyboard slides out the action buttons on the phone keypad remain active as well as the Navi key, but the remaining keys are disabled. This is too bad, as it’s difficult to quickly key numbers on the keyboard and leaving them active would have alleviated this issue.

Here’s some specific regarding the E75 keyboard. There is only one function key, which you need to get to the alternate characters on keys, namely numbers. This made it hard to type traditionally or with thumbs as you would on a smaller keyboard. It was also hard for my fat fingers to press the top row of keys as it kept hitting the edge of the top of the phone from where the keyboard slides from. On top of it all, the flat keys prevented “feel” typing.

As for the camera, overall it was good and much better than I anticipated. It took decent photos in daylight as well as good video. Photos at night were somewhat grainy and those from a distance were a little blurred. I didn’t try any of the settings on the camera as I used it in auto mode always. I have uploaded some photos to a Flickr group for your perusal. I was able to get some great photos and video of my friend’s wedding which was a good thing.

Thus my conclusion that the E75 is for a low-tech business user who thinks standard keybaords on mobile devices are too small. Any other takers on this opinion?

So E75, it’s not you – it’s me. There is a match for you out there, and you two will make a great pair. Your older sibling the E71 is more my type, or it’s half-sibling the E72 may be the one for me?

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