It seems natural to compare the Nokia E7 with its older sibling, the N8. However, a quick look at the specifications show that while they may have the same engine under the hood (680 MHz processor and GPU on Symbian^3), they are targeted at two different classes of users.

By all means, one is targeted at the business class and the other at the multimedia segment. The E7 lacks the N8′s superb 12 megapixel, autofocus camera, microSD card slot and FM Transmitter, but throws in a bigger ROM, superb 4-inch ClearBlack display and top-notch keyboard.

The E7 is the bigger of the two devices, but I must say Nokia worked a miracle to make it just 13.6 mm thick. As a matter of fact, I believe that the E7 is the thinnest QWERTY slider phone in the market. The N8 without a sliding keyboard is 12.9 mm; the Motorola Milestone 13.7 mm; and the HTC Desire Z 14.2 mm.

The E7′s keyboard has a few neat tricks too that will be highlighted later in one of my reviews.

Here are a few comparison shots of the top two Symbian^3 devices in the market, the Nokia E7 and Nokia N8.

Okay, I understand that your heads may be swimming by now. First, it was the iPhone 3GS, then the Nokia N8, and now as a result of what I considered a twist of bad luck, a Palm Pre! Yes; all here at Mobility Nigeria within one week.

Yup, the Pre is getting old (well, just a year old, really), but I have always wanted a Pre or Pixi just to have a feel of WebOS. And what fun would it be if I kept it all to myself? Hang around.

I just got my hands on the Nokia E75 slider QWERTY smartphone. The E75 runs on Symbian S60 3rd Edition OS and is being marketed by Nokia as a descendant of the Communicator dynasty (I’m not convinced yet).

Here are my first impressions:

• Very good hardware build; feels solid in the hand
• QWERTY keyboard is good; though quite different from the E90, last of the communicators
• Nokia has made efforts to touch up the interface, and it is beautiful in some places, but still relatively sluggish and of course comes nowhere close to what you find on the iPhone or an Android device
• Email interface is better
• Firmware update OTA is sweet; updated to the latest firmware in 3 minutes right on the phone
• The E75 auto-detects your SIM network, configures and uses the corresponding internet connection
• Good battery life

Those are my first impressions for now. I am playing around with customisation and will have more detailed reviews available ASAP. If you have questions about things you’d like for me to test out on the phone, post them below.