The Nokia E7 was released together with the C6-01 and C7, and all three phones are the first Nokia handsets to make use of the new Symbian^3 OS. This update on the world´s most popular phone OS adds in new social networking integration and some backend features that should see an dramatic increase in the number of apps available.

The E7 has much in common with the C7, and both phones excel in all areas they lay their hands on. This includes photography, video and music entertainment, gaming and online activities. The E7 is marked out from the C7 by the inclusion of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a slightly larger screen.

The 4″ AMOLED screen is very roomy and of the highest quality. It is ideal for just about every endeavour you partake in on the E7 and comes with over 16 million colours and OpenGL 3D acceleration. When held horizontally the E7 conforms to 16:9 widescreen ratio which makes it ideal for watching widescreen videos without those black bars that some people find annoying. A secondary VGA camera on the front of the E7, combined with 3G and Wi-Fi, allows you to make video calls to contacts.

The HD video camera is also capable of recording in widescreen, which with its high resolution provides a far greater video quality than you would expect from a phone camera. The camera is also fantastic for capturing still images and comes with a dual LED flash and many other features like geo-tagging. With 16GB internal storage space you have plenty of room for keeping hold of your favourite videos or all of your pictures. Unfortunately this is not upgradable with microSD, but 16GB still provides plenty of room for all manner of media content.

Music is available through Nokia Music Player which comes with a high degree of codec support as well as being able to play DRM protected music. You can access new music from Ovi Store or Ovi Music Unlimited, or you can simply copy over music from your home computer. Video content can also be streamed from online and the E7 comes with Web TV, providing you with access to the likes of BBC and CNN.

The inclusion of the QWERTY keyboard makes this an ideal phone for messaging, and with great SMS, social networking and email support this is even more so. A number of email protocols are supported including Mail for Exchange and web based email. The E7 supports threaded SMS viewing as well as a number of instant messaging clients. The new Symbian OS allows information from social networks to be integrated into the phone, on the homescreen, contacts list and even in the phone´s calendar.

The main deciding factor between the E7 and C7, which are fairly similar handsets, would be left down to the QWERTY keypad and the slightly larger screen of the E7.

Editor’s Note: This review is made possible through a special arrangement with the premium UK  mobile phone contracts site.