The Nokia E71 was the best selling Nokia last year. It’s not hard to see why – although Apple’s iPhone steals so much of the limelight nowadays it was realworld functionality that played a huge role in making sure the E71 made it to the top of the pile. With a fantastically small form factor matched to quality materials including metal and a brilliant qwerty keyboard, GPS, Nokia MAPS, advanced notifications and improved menu system the E71 captured the hearts of many.

A year later the E72 is about to be launched. Check the promotional video above. Interesting points to note are the five megapixel camera, the optical mouse and redesign and integration of Nokia’s new messaging suite. The camera and lack of media oomph was the main flaw of the E71 – whether megapixels alone can rectify this is another question. If the phone can handle video and media substantially better than the E71 then Nokia have another winner on their hands, especially if the camera optics are a big improvement.

What is most interesting to me however is how the E series will translate to Symbian S60 5th Edition devices (i.e. touchscreen). The main thrust of the E series has always been messaging and most often the provision of a hardware keyboard.