What happens if you press the number keys on the other keypad? Just a question.

A comparison would be wonderful.

This is what I'll get should the Pre be "exclusive"/tethered in Europe. I'm perfectly happy with the superbly (and sturdily) made E51 in the hands down usability department, yet the slide-out keyboard would be a nice touch.

What could be a decent Nokia at last. May trade in my SE for that.

Nokia became complacent, at least the iPhone is making them work a bit harder nowadays.

This all sounds good for the E55 - mediocre camera and lack of photo editing aside.

Candybar, so not as flimsy, no slideout qwerty keyboard although it sounds like that's not going to be too missed (plus you have the halfway house 2 letters per key keyboard), battery life a step up from the N95, lighter and smaller than both the E75 and N95.

I just hope the GPS is decent and the screen is better than the E75 review makes it sound.

Uh, no?

"The 2.5in, 320 x 240, 16m-colour screen doesn't measure up to the E90's 800 x 352 beast"

The N97 isn't available yet... It's release date got pulled back a couple of months, about the same time as Orange et al started bitching about the built in Skype calls having the ability to go over wifi.

I'm sure, as we speak, Nokia are bending to the will of the carriers and knobbling the VOIP features so they only work over GPRS/3G and not wifi... Same as they did with the N95...

Hopefully the N97 will be equally simple to "fix" afterwards.

Love the E-series. Will be replacing my E51 with this.

Nokia never said that the N97's release date would be March 31st. That date appeared on unofficial sites that were merely speculating, and it subsequently spread and people thought that it was the deadline.

Official word is near the end of Q2 2009, so May or June. Always has been.

Risque thrills a-go-go!

...until the 5730 XpressMusic is out. It will be here around June 2009.

It also has a slide out QWERTY and slightly outspecs the E75, despite costing around £130 less.

The thing about E-Series phones though is that they tend to have far superior build quality to N-Series and XpressMusic phones... so maybe more money for less features will end up being worth it in the long run?

The e71 is MUCH better then the e75 in my view, the battery life is most excellent. None of this sliding rubbish to type out something, the e71s keyboard is present and ready and usable. What I do wish is they would combine features and not have this hard line between business and personal. I do both, I'm not buying two phones. I would like to use iplayer in e71 *it doesn't work reliably even with the hacks, trust me I'v tried.

Sorry but do you notice that all of the pictures of 'people''s hands using the QWERTY keyboards are all women?

Seriously, the one nice feature of the E90 is that it fits a man's hand. Since I do more texting and e-mail than voice these days, I want a large keyboard. I would have opted for an 810 if it only had a phone. Pair it with a blue tooth headset that has caller ID and lets you pickup/drop calls, you'll have a great system. Just keep the 810 or larger unit in your pocket/laptop bag/briefcase and you can still take calls on the run.

If the qwerty keypads get any smaller, you'll need a stylus if your a regular sized guy.

I have to say that I'm inclined to agree with "Chris"on this one.

Up until about a year or so ago, I would have said that this phone was the perfect replacement for my aging E70 (it's almost 3 years old now). However, after having lived with the E70 for so long and having played with a friend's E71, I now don't really see the point in the E75. I'll explain-

These mutating candybar form factors, wither it be side sliders like the E75 or butterfly designs like the E70, require a physical change in the shape and dimensions of the phone as well as a rotation to get the display in the desired landscape format. This can never be as instant as it is in the landscape qwerty designs like the Blackberry or the E71 (and in the case of my E70 it takes seconds). I acknowledge that with improvements in software/hardware these delays can be minimized somewhat but there's still the time required to perform the physical movements. If you are using email or the web much, and I'm guessing you would be if you're in the market for a phone with a qwerty keyboard, then it's going drive you nuts if the change is not instant.

Actually the physical changes highlight another issue- the trade offs that have to be made to keep the size of the device competitive. These sliding/folding mechanism take up space, example: the E71 is thinner than the E75 but has a battery whose capacity is 50% greater. The slider is just something else that can go wrong, not that it necessarily will (my E70's folding mechanism is still as assured as it was the day I bought it) but it does increase the risk of something breaking.

About the only thing I can honestly see that the E75 has over the E71 is the size of the headphone jack- 3.5mm as opposed to 2.5mm (an issue that Nokia addressed in the E63).

Cost is an issue too- a quick glance about the net shows that you can pick up an unlocked E75 for 350 quid, an E71 for 270 and the E63 for 170 (a bargain if you don't need HSPDA).

Which kind of brings me back to my point, and my question to Nokia- why bother?

Especially as an X1 isn't any bigger over all.