Just holding Nokia’s E75 in your hand will tell you that it is a quality handset. A good indication of this is its horizontal slider. Closing this slider is reminiscent of shutting the door of a luxury German sedan- it feels different, it sounds different, and you just know you are using something special.

Size

The E75 is the same size as a regular candybar phone. There is no way to tell that it hides a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as it doesn’t carry the bulk associated with such hadsets. The keyboard is excellent. Although the keys are flush we never had any trouble typing. The same cannot be said of the front keypad, with Nokia making it especially difficult to unlock the device thanks to an undersized “*” key, and generally small keypad.

Connectivity

The device ticks all the connectivity boxes as it is HSDPA enabled and supports Wi-Fi. You are also able to set-up a VPN network via the phone to connect to a business network- functionality not found on other phones. Add to this A-GPS, a good browser, Real Player for video playback, a 3.2 megapixel camera and a 3.5mm jack, and you have all you need. Quickoffice and a PDF reader round off its business offering nicely.

Email

As with most business phones these days, one of the E75’s key features is the ability to set-up a number of email inboxes in a hassle free manner. We managed to set-up Gmail easily but ran into trouble setting up our regular Microsoft Exchange mail for work. Nokia does not make it easy to fix the problem, since the E75 does not explain the problem or give options to fix it. We did not have the same trouble with the HTC Android phones or the BlackBerry Storm.

Screen

For us the ultimate problem lies with the screen. It doesn’t really matter that it is only 2.4\" in size and isn’t a touch-screen. What really matters is the interface design; graphically it looks the same as what Nokia had on offer two years ago. It feels a bit like climbing into a Mercedes and finding a Kia dashboard. You can put this down as a superficial problem, but it makes a difference when dealing with email or documents. Compared to the iPhone, BlackBerrys and the new Android phones, it just can’t compare.

As much as we were impressed by the excellent design and the range of features the E75 offers, ultimately we felt let down by a very unimpressive interface.