MOBILE OPERATOR Three has announced that it will have the slide-out keyboard Nokia E7 handset next year, somewhat later than expected in the UK. The Nokia E7 was seen at Nokia World with a prediction of a fourth quarter 2010 arrival and an estimated Eurozone retail price of €495 SIM-free. Now Three says that it will appear in “early 2011″ but has not revealed its pricing. Nokia wasn’t available for comment about why its E7 handset will be tipping up later than expected. Of the four handsets launched at Nokia World, the Nokia E7 was very much the darling of the range, having been described unsurprisingly as the “ultimate business smartphone”.

But it would appear from Three’s promotional video that the firm does not see it as just a business tool but also a phone for consumers. The Nokia E7 runs the Symbian^3 OS and has three homepages and an editor allowing you to change what is on each. Swiping from homepage to homepage is fluid, as is accessing music files and other content.

The display is a 4-inch touchscreen featuring Nokia’s “Clear Black” technology. This means it is “black is blacker than black,” according to Nokia’s mobile solutions VP, Anssi Vanjoki speaking at Nokia World. There, the screen’s text and images certainly looked crisp and there was no sign of a background that was more grey looking rather than black. The “Symbian key”, a button on the side of the phone, will always bring you back to a homepage. If you hold down the key you are presented with the visual multitasking screen. This shows all the functions and apps that are running at the time and they can be either selected or closed down.

As a product aimed at the business market the E7 does have Microsoft Exchange Activesync. Email, SMS or other messages can be typed out on the slider keyboard or with a predictive text keypad that is displayed on the touchscreen. Both are responsive and easy to use.

News Source: www.theinquirer.net