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Another crucial factor for any business phone is battery staying power, and we were very impressed by the E72 on this score.
Despite its slimline profile, the Nokia E72 packs a hefty 1500mAh battery that Nokia estimates can deliver almost 6 hours of talktime or 576 hours of standby on 3G networks (in GSM-only coverage areas, the figures are 12.5 hours' talktime or 492 hours' standby).
We frequently managed a comfortable three days of normal usage before reaching for the charger, though, as usual how much you use such features as Wi-Fi and GPS will be reflected in individual battery life experiences.
Organiser
A comprehensive set of organiser tools and functionality is set up for the E72, emphasising its enterprise market appeal.
Its E-series calendar app offers plenty of functionality including the facility to create and receive meeting requests. Up to 1,000 contacts can be stored on the phone, dependent on memory availability, with multiple fields for storing detailed contact information.
Office tools include notes and active notes, clock, alarms, calculator and convertor functions, voice recorder and text to voice reader, plus a dictionary app that can read words to you and offer translations.
It also has an Adobe PDF document reader and a ZIP file manager.
In addition, a Quickoffice application provides a full suite of document reader functions for Word, Excel and PowerPoint file formats, plus the facility to edit and create documents.
The E72 also has a bunch of apps targeted at business users, including a business card/text scanner function and Psiloc's Wireless Presenter for wireless presentations to other suitably enabled Wi-Fi equipped devices.
Nokia has also loaded up Psiloc's World Traveller application for real-time updates to weather, travel information, currency rates and so on in whichever cities you choose worldwide.
Connectivity
Connectivity on the E72 is first rate, with Wi-Fi (WLAN 802.11b/g) and HSPA (up to 10.2Mbps downloading and up to 2Mbps uploading rates, subject to network support).
A Wi-Fi wizard helps you set up connections from the home screen, prompting you to select from visible networks within range and passcodes.
It's reasonably straightforward to operate and use, and you can get automatic reconnection established when you go out of and then back in range again of the network.
The E72 is a tri-band WCDMA handset (900/1900/2100 MHz) or out of 3G coverage it can operate on quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), with EDGE and GPRS data connectivity.
Bluetooth 2.0 is onboard too, with A2DP stereo streaming support for headphones, speakers and so on. USB 2.0 connectivity is also included, with a microUSB port on the side of the phone and a cable supplied in-box.
Over the air syncing via ActiveSync is supported, while the E72 is also kitted out for local synchronisation using Nokia PC Suite or Ovi Suite.
MicroSD cards are supported, with a 4GB card supplied as standard. Cards up to 32GB can be used with the phone.
A Home Media application also enables users to stream and share content via home Wi-Fi networks with other suitably equipped media devices.
Other
Our review sample of the Nokia E72 came with Nokia Maps pre-installed, although an upgrade to the latest version of Ovi Maps – which includes free voice-guided sat nav as part of an improved package and user interface – is available to download free of charge.
The in-built A-GPS location finding technology worked extremely smoothly in our tests.
From start-up, it locked on to satellites and pin-pointed our position rapidly, keeping accurate track of our movements. A compass also provides positioning orientation to help you find your way around.
Maps for the UK and Ireland are pre-loaded on the supplied memory card, so map refreshes are seamless. We'd recommend users whose phones aren't already set up for Ovi Maps with satellite navigation to upgrade as soon as possible.
The user interface of the upgraded software is much more like an in-car sat nav setup, and more intuitive than Nokia's previous version of its mapping app.
Free sat nav is another useful bonus, plus you can get Lonely Planet and Michelin guides free over the air.
The enhanced GPS experience certainly adds more to Nokia's smartphone appeal.
Standard Nokia voice control software is complemented by a pre-loaded Vlingo voice-control application for messaging, emailing, texting and web browsing.
Additional apps include a search facility for scouring the phone's content or searching online, while two gaming applications are included too.
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