Nokia E7 vs BlackBerry Torch 9800

Nokia and BlackBerry have long since been seen as stalwarts of the demanding business
community. They have, for many years, been relied upon as must-have devices to manage ones
professional life but their appeal has seen something of a drop in recent years.  The introduction
of Apple’s iPhone saw a shift in demand, and the smartphone market took a decidedly sharp step
forward, leaving Nokia and RIM behind.

Nokia’s E7 and BlackBerry's 9800 Torch each represent a re-evaluation from their respective
stables and a fervent attempt to bring both manufacturers back in line with the current
smartphone market. So, let’s do the decent thing and pit them against each other to see which
one sinks and which one swims.

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is something of a hybrid. It offers users a solid touchscreen
experience but marries the much-loved ‘Berry keyboard to the package, allowing for the fast,
accurate communication that RIM has been lauded for providing for two decades. While the
touchscreen is nice, it’s not quite up there with the industry leaders and we can’t quite work out
why RIM opted to mark its new era with something which was ostensibly behind the times.

The device itself is nice though, with a pleasing feel in-hand. It weighs in with almost identical
dimensions as it’s cousin, the 9700 Bold, except for a millimetre or two here or there. The guts
of the device punch well above the weight of the 9700 though, with both RAM and ROM
doubled to 512MB. What is a shame is that RIM decided to keep the 624MHz processor of the
Bold which, though sufficient, won’t set the world alight and certainly won’t hold its own
against the standard 1GHz Snapdragon found in most of its competitors.

As you’d expect from a BlackBerry media compatibility is second to none, though movie
playback is hampered by the less than stellar screen. The camera however, is a marked
improvement over all of its predecessors. A 5-megapixel sensor isn’t quite up there with a lot of
industry favourites but it’s certainly the best photographic experience we’ve had with a ‘Berry.
Similarly video capture has been overhauled and the device records clips at 24fps in 640x480
resolution, though again this isn’t anywhere near the 720P being touted by other devices in the
same price point.

The new BlackBerry 6 OS makes the package a pleasure to use adding social networking
functionality, and of course the improved Webkit-based browsing experience to users. There’s
no Flash or HTML5 at present, but the browser performs well and shouldn’t hamper anyone but
the most ravenous consumers of mobile video. Battery life is also excellent and a casual user
could easily get by without charging every day, which is almost unheard of with today’s
smartphones.

Messaging is and always shall be the bread and butter of a BlackBerry though, and the Torch is
no exception. It performs tirelessly and the keyboard is great for typing longer communications.
‘Berry’s messaging chops are all subject to subscription though and it’s worth noting that
without subscribing the device is little more than an expensive paper-weight. 

Conversely Nokia’s E7 offers all of the above (and some might argue, more) without so much as
a sniff of subscription fees.

Nokia’s E7 is a Symbian^3 based messenger, which doesn’t quite cut the compact figure that the
BlackBerry does. What it lacks in bijou design it makes up for it specification though, with
256MB RAM, 16GB on-board storage and a 680MHz ARM Cortex processor with 3D graphics
acceleration. The chassis, while burly, is well constructed and has the same re-assuring feel as
other Nokia devices.

The E7's Qwerty keyboard really is a pleasure to use. The keys are well spaced and we often
found ourselves touch typing, which is no mean feat on a mobile device. BlackBerry keyboards
are famed for their comfort and responsiveness but the E7 easily walks away with the ‘best
keyboard’ honours in this comparison.

Another facet of the E7 which leaves the BlackBerry in its wake is media functionality. Nokia
have included an 8 megapixel sensor which produces excellent shots and the device is also
capable of shooting 720P video at 25FPS. The 4-inch AMOLED touch-screen is great for
playing back all of your captured content too and the Dolby Mobile adds a real kick to the audio
playback. There’s also the added bonus of an HDMI-out port, to allow you to enjoy your content
on an HD television if the small screen just isn’t enough.

Where the E7 falls flat is on its operating system. Where BlackBerry have opted to re-invent,
unfortunately Nokia has chosen to languish and Symbian^3 is a real let-down. The hardware
certainly isn’t to blame for stuttering and lag, just as the high-quality display shouldn’t shoulder
the blame for unread finger presses. All of these faults lie solely at the feet of an archaic
operating system that Nokia should have had the wisdom and foresight to walk away from.

Though the E7 boasts the same messaging functionality as the BlackBerry it can’t adequately
compete with the snappy, reliability of RIM’s subscription service. It may offer Exchange
support and a great keyboard but the package is ultimately let down by a laggy UI and stability
issues and it’s for this reason that we feel the Torch wins this little face-off. It may not have
some of the bells and whistles that the Nokia offers but what it does do, it does well.

If you can get past the buggy UI you’ll still find a great device underneath but unfortunately in a
market which is home to Android and iOS, as well as the exciting new QNIX based UI being
planned by RIM, Symbian^3 remains a relic.
Nokia E71 vs. BlackBerry Bold: the
QWERTYs rip each other to shreds
By: Jonathan S. Geller | Aug 12th, 2008 at 02:59PM
View Comments
Filed Under: BlackBerry, Features, Handsets, Nokia

In the latest chapter of “response to the onslaught of reader’s requests,” we’ve decided to put the
Nokia E71 and the BlackBerry Bold head-to-head. While both are totally different breeds of
devices, they do share a number of similarities and are targeted to the same demographic.
You’ve got two enterprise handsets with QWERTY keyboards, cameras, Wi-Fi, 3G, corporate
email, great battery life, etc. Click on through to see which device wins out in this epic
showdown of QWERTY gone violent.

We used some of the information from our Bold vs. iPhone post since in most cases it was
exactly the same.
Design

BlackBerry Bold:

Some could agree the Bold is the sharpest and cleanest-looking BlackBerry ever to come out of
Waterloo. With a complete black face, chrome border and sides, and faux black leather back, the
device looks great. From all the matching chrome accents all over the phone to the simple and
not confusing layout, RIM has designed a great BlackBerry which should set the bar for future
devices down the road.

Nokia E71: Nokia, Nokia, Nokia…aw, who are we kidding? The E71 is one of the nicest designs
to have come out of Espoo as of late. With a real metal structure (read: plastic BlackBerry Bold),
great materials, and some pretty slick engineering, the E71 looks awesome. Well, except for the
vicious red power button. Totally ruined it for us, Noke.

Build quality

BlackBerry Bold:

The BlackBerry Bold is built extremely well. Not including minor screen scratches and things of
that nature, the Bold should be able to last you as long as you want to keep the thing. The unit is
a little lighter than it looks and there no creaks or anything to get you worried about. The only
negative thing we’d have to say, it that the build quality on the BlackBerry Curve slightly trumps
the Bold. We’d ever go as far to say that the 8800 does too. But not the Pearl. Hell no.
Nokia E71: Again, Nokia hits it out of the park. Nokias have great build quality for the most part
across the board, as do BlackBerrys, but the E71 is built like an absolute tank. Literally. We
don’t think we could break this thing if we tried.

Size

The Bold is the biggest BlackBerry to be released in a pretty long time. Well, since the 8700. It is
larger in every way than the BlackBerry 8800 and can sometimes feel a little hard to hold in one
hand. It’s definitely no Curve. Comparing it the E71, the E71 feels much better when holding it,
but since the Bold’s keyboard makes use of the larger size, we’re going to call this one a tie
because of the pretty comfy Bold QWERTY.

Nokia E71: If you had to shrink 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, a camera, physical QWERTY keyboard, and
other components into the smallest package possible, what would get? Most likely an E71. We
don’t think the device could be any smaller, though the small size does hinder the QWERTY
keyboard slightly. Everything else is well balanced, and it makes the Bold seem like this huge
Dark Knight hovering over it, jealous it can’t shed a couple inches on its waistline.

Screen:

We’re sticking to the “BlackBerry Bold’s screen is the best. mobile. device. screen. ever.” line.
Sorry, Nokia, but the E71s screen as decent as it is, can not hold a candle to the Bolds rich,
sharp, and spaceous display.

OS

BlackBerry Bold:
This is a tricky and sensitive subject for a lot of people. Many of us live and die by the
BlackBerry OS. Some could say we even know it better than we know some of our significant
others… But therein lies the problem. While RIM has been on a mission to revamp the
BlackBerry from the old school “pager” into an all-in-one communications device for consumers
and business alike, we can’t help but wonder when the OS will get a real makeover. Not a
Mariah Carey cover page airbrushed makeover, more like a Carnie Wilson 300lbs to 150lbs
makeover. But, we do have to say that RIM has a great thing going. The BlackBerry minions
have figured out every single tip and trick there is to squeeze every ounce of usability out the
operating system, and for a lot of people, the OS is fine. It does what it is supposed to, and there
is nothing wrong with that. It’s just that the market has changed so drastically in the last year and
half. People want to be connected more, they want to do more while doing less.

Nokia E71: S60, huh? We’d have really liked to see FP2 make it to the E71 out of the gate.
Anyone that’s not a current Nokia user might have a bit of trouble dealing with access points,
configuring their email, and getting around. This is a tricky subject as there are no doubt some
die-hard Nokia fans, but we’d so S60 is showing its age a lot at this current point in time, just as
RIM’s OS. What you do get with S60, however, is a ton of great 3rd party applications. We think
you’d hard pressed to find more than 10-15 useful applications for the BlackBerry platform,
whereas you have thousands for S60.

Call quality / RF performance

This has been explored before, but we find the Nokia E71 to be one of the worst performing
Nokia handsets in the RF department. That compared to the outstanding reception on the Bold
leaves us without too much faith that the E71 will be able to handle our daily usage in low signal
areas. In terms of call quality, the Bold did a much better job at delivering us a clear and loud
call, while the E71 often garbled our voice to the party on the other end. Speakerphone was the
same with the Bold performing better than the E71.
Battery life

You’d be surprised, but we’ve found the Bold and E71 to go toe for toe in our battery tests. They
both last longer than any other 3G device we’ve used, but to be fair, since the E71 isn’t the best
RF signal holder, the Bold was on 3G more than the E71, and the E71 was rarely on Wi-Fi. We
say the Bold inches out the E71 in the battery department.

Email

BlackBerry Bold:

Listen, you can’t throw around the word “BlackBerry” without thinking about email. That’s RIM
bread and butter, and we don’t see that changing for a very long time. There are probably 500
competitors vying for the title of “Best. Email. Ever.”, but they’re not coming close anytime
soon. While Windows Mobile offers some of the same feature-set, there is nothing like using a
BlackBerry for email. From changing your out of office message, to configuring email filters on
the go (what, you think we actually get all 6,000 comments from our iPhone 3G giveaway post
on our BlackBerry?), to remote searching (awesome!), RIM has perfected email on the
BlackBerry for the most part. When new features like full attachment viewing and HTML get
introduced, though, it gets a little murky. Instead of viewing attachments natively off the bat on
your BlackBerry, RIM’s data network will compress and send you what you need bit by bit.
There is also a clear separation between RIM’s BES services and BIS services, and they are
totally unnecessary. There is no reason we should have the ability to view HTML on BIS, but not
on BES yet (unless you hacked that in), and there is no reason file type support is so convoluted.
For instance, we can listen to our voicemail MP3s on our BIS email, but not on BES because
even the latest BES service pack still doesn’t support the encoding used in our MP3s. Things like
this really confuse users and there’s no reason for it. BIS features should mirror BES features as
much as possible and be upgraded at the same time. If we have to email an attachment from our
BES to one of our BIS email accounts one more time…

Nokia E71: Email is email for Nokia. There’s no HTML support, there’s really not a lot of
configurable options when using an Exchange server, and the email application isn’t the most
reliable thing under the sun in general. As far as comparing it to email on a BlackBerry… well,
we won’t even go there. It would take a couple more days to list all the issues and
inconsistencies with Nokia’s default email application. We’re not saying it’s terrible, it is
definitely usable, but it’s not something we’d like to use. Get it?

Keyboard

Another tricky subject. You’ve got the Bold which mashes up the Curve, the Pearl, and the
8800′s keyboard, and you’ve got the E71 which takes its cues from the E61i. If we could fault
the E71′s keyboard, it would be that it is a little too small to use 100% comfortably. We’d also
point out the stupidity of their keyboard layout once again. Get it through your heads, the “Z”
key NEVER goes directly under the “A” key. That’s not how it’s done, boys. The keyboard does
give you a nice response when pushed, and the keys are a bit on the hard side, but that actually
works well on the phone. With the Bold, we find ourselves banging away emails like we’ve
always done — that’s great. RIM didn’t mess with success here.

Corporate usage

BlackBerry Bold:

RIM has made the BlackBerry the hands-down winner for a perfect desktop extension. Pretty
much whatever you can do from Outlook on your Exchange server, you can do from your
BlackBerry. In addition to looking at the device specifically, RIM’s BES server offers the now
standard way of managing, controlling, and deploying devices across a corporate infrastructure.
Their BES servers allow IT admins to tweak and configure every possible setting, making this is
the ideal solution for mid-to-large businesses and government agencies. RIM’s focus on security
also make the BlackBerry the most secure device on the planet to use in a corporate
environment.

Nokia E71: And dropped BlackBerry Connect again why? Not a good idea, guys. At least as far
as the U.S. market is concerned. You had a device which would have been bought by the pound
and used by a lot of corporate executives along with their BES, giving them an opportunity to
venture outside of the immediate BlackBerry world. You now have to deal with people buying
devices personally for the most part, and at + / – $500 with no discount for corporate volume
purchases, it’s going to be a tough sell. Especially considering MailForExchange’s shortcomings.
Pricing:

BlackBerry Bold: The Bold’s pricing hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’s going to be in the $199-
$299 price range with a two-year agreement. Or three if you’re unlucky to be a slave to Ted
Rogers.

Nokia E71: The E71 is priced at $499 at Nokia stores directly, but you most likely can find it for
around $420-$475 depending where you shop.

Conclusion:

It’s a little hard to put this but… we absolutely loved the Nokia E71. It was the best S60 we’d
ever used. And it still is, some would argue. There is no doubt it is the finest QWERTY device
Nokia has made. Don’t bring up the E90, ok? Even though we had used a Bold prior to our
Nokia E71 first review, it wasn’t until we had both devices together that we really had our mind
change. This is a personal opinion here, but the BlackBerry Bold smokes the E71 out of the
water in so many ways. The E71 is fine as a personal communication device, but once you enter
into the realm of corporate email, or even small business, for that matter, the Bold is the reigning
king, and will stay that way for a pretty long time.