V3.co.uk got the chance to have a play with Nokia's forthcoming business smartphone, the E7, at Nokia World 2010 and we are pleased to say that it is promising.

The handset features some meaty specs, similar to Nokia's soon-to-be released entertainment-centric N8 device.

The E7 comes with a 4in touchscreen - Nokia's best to date. The display packs Clear Black Display (CBD) technology, which Nokia executives were raving about at the start of Nokia World.

The CBD ensures there is less reflection on the screen making the display clearer, especially when outdoors, according to the firm. The display was impressive indoors, but we were unable to test the screen outside.

When the keyboard is in use the screen locks into place at an angle, making it easy to see the screen and eliminating the need to manually tilt it.

The E7 easily possesses one of the best physical Qwerty keypads on the market. Letters are large and well spaced but not to a point where fingers or thumbs have to be stretched.

Nokia will ship the E7 with the revamped Symbian^3 OS, which has been redesigned from the ground up, making it faster and easier to use, the firm said.

While the operating system is a marked improvement over previous editions, it still feels a little cumbersome and not as easy to get to grips with as Android or iOS4 on first use.

The user interface has three customisable homescreens, which are each capable of displaying a lot of content including contacts, RSS feeds, social networking updates, emails and a list of tasks. The homescreens are all customisable, so users can have as much as or as little information that they want.

As it is specifically designed for business use, the E7 will ship with functionality for business users out of the box. It will be capable of syncing with MS Exchange and Lotus Note Traveler, and features Adobe PDF Reader. Users will also be able to view and edit Office documents on the device.

With a 4in screen, and an easy to use keypad this could make the device extremely popular with business users who do not have a tablet. Nokia promised additional features as it has a working relationship with Microsoft.

Internet browsing was quick and pages were a good size and easy to navigate using the touchscreen.

Disappointingly, the device only comes with 16GB internal storage and no micro-SD card support. However, it will ship with an 8-megapixel camera, which is not as beefy as the 12-megapixel camera on the N8, but a worthy feature nonetheless.

Overall, the E7 looks like a very good business device that is likely to challenge the BlackBerry Bold 9700 at the higher end of the market.

15 Sep 2010