I’m one of those people who has tried every single phone manufacturer available on the market, and I’m always on the lookout for what’s the next best mobile device.

I’ve carried Nokias, Sony Ericssons, iPhones, Blackberries and most recently, Samsung Galaxy S Android phone. Now that I’m done boasting about my excessive spending on mobile devices, let’s get to the task at hand: the Nokia E7 review.

Nokia Lebanon were kind enough to lend me a black E7 to try out, and I’ve been carrying it around for 3 weeks now, putting it through the horrors that come with being my phone. To be honest, by experience with my N97mini was an unpleasant one, pushing me as low as a Blackberry Bold 2 *barf*

I was highly skeptical about a Nokia running on Symbian winning my heart, even after I had tinkered with a couple of the devices the Nokia team carried. However, the E7 has changed that, and here’s why:

1- 4″ Capacitive Touch Screen

I had to be very angry while touching my N97 mini and its resistive touchscreen. Several older touchscreen Nokias were notorious for their unreliability and glitchiness. The E7 however, is comparable to Apple’s iPhone in its immensely responsive, smooth, scratch-proof screen. It’s also bigger than the iPhone’s screen, for those of you wondering.

2- 4 Types of Ways to Type

Touch phone users know that typing can be annoying. Heck, http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com is dedicated to just that. You don’t have that problem with the E7, which allows you to type in virtually every way possible.

The slide-phone has a full, real QWERTY keyboard with beautiful, real buttons you can actually feel, taste and smell. It also has a virtual QWERTY keyboard on the touchscreen when in landscape, and as soon as you hold your device vertically, it switches to the traditional dialpad keyboard.

You can also use Swype on the virtual keyboard, which is the insanely cool input method where you trace a line over the letters you want to spell, and voila, you get the word and impress a bunch of inferior blackberry baboons with their puny, overcrowded keyboards.

3- Heavy-Duty Metallic Cover

My Samsung Galaxy S is pretty cool, but it’s cover makes it look like a cheap toy. The plasticy, disposable feel is unfit for a smartphone. The E7′s cover is a beautiful and robust metallic one. It feels like one large piece for each half, with no access your battery, so nothing hangs loose. You insert your SIM card in a slot on the side of the phone, for those of you wondering.

In other words, the sophisticated features and specs are matched by the elegant encasing, that will make your phone a lot more durable, and a lot kinder on the eyes

4- Easily Plug In Your USB or HDMI Cable

If you took a wicked video of last night’s party, the last thing you’re gonna want to do is download it on your machine, then burn it on plastic to play it on your DVD. Also, dozens of cables and extensions tend to get annoying. The E7 though has a fully-functioning HDMI port on top, so all you have to do is plug it into your TV and enjoy the show.

A tiny extension allows you to do something that I truly found awesome: plug in your USB! You can download files from the USB to your phone, or vice versa, without the need for a middleman (computer or internet connection). For that, the E7 gets a huge push.

5- 8 Megapixel, HD Camera

Even though it’s 4 megapixels short of the N8, 8 megapixels is more than enough for a phone camera. The camera might not be the most awesome I’ve used, but it was perfect for capturing two of the Fail photos on this blog! The real treat is the video mode, with impeccable resolution and fluidity, and virtually no fluctuations in the video despite being held by shaky hands.

6- Fast and Multitasks

Symbian is notorious for its slow, crashy performance. However, no matter how hard I tried, and no matter how many apps I opened simultaneously, the E7 failed to crash or become sluggish. This, to me, was the best thing about this new phone. You can also multitask, with long-press on the menu button allowing you to toggle between the different running apps, and better yet, close the ones you don’t need with relative easy, versus the old and time-consuming option>exit route.

7- Apps, Apps and Apps

Today’s mobile world is characterized by apps, first and foremost. When we think apps, it’s usually the App Store or the Android Market that come to mind. The Ovi Store however, has been doing a superb job in catching up. The N97 mini’s apps were feeble and limited compared to other phones, but the E7′s is not only comparably, but even better in some cases.

Apps we all need to survive, such as Whatsapp, Skype, Shazam, Gino’s Blog (=P), Opera, Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds are all available and awesome. In fact, Whatsapp and Skype run much, much better on my E7 than on my Android, which was a very delightful surprise! There are thousands of other apps, and I’ll be writing up a best-Nokia-apps post soon, after I’ve tried as many as possible!

To sum up, all the apps you love and want, are now available in all their glory on the Ovi store (such as Gino’s Blog’s app). But what’s even more awesome, is that the phone comes loaded with the apps you’re most likely to use most and need, instead of an empty shell like other smartphones. So, if you’re not exactly tech and app-savvy, you don’t need to feel like a dumbass with the E7.

Other Cool Stuff

• Threaded messages (conversation-like display for SMSes)
• Multi-screen homepages with plenty of space for widgets and shortcuts
• The awesome Nokia calendar, and calendar widget, which I have yet to find a better alternative for

Things I Miss

• The Yes/No green and red buttons that made it so easy to scrap everything and start fresh on Nokias
• Can’t insert and external SD card

I could go on, but I like the sexiness of “7 reasons” and “E7″

Below are the official specs and technical details