One thing you gotta love about the Nokia E72, is its Full-Qwerty Keyboard.
Well here’s a little about Typing on the E72 , all about the Keyboard, showing you a bit about the Messaging application on the device along the way too.
The Keyboard :
The Keyboard (aka Keypad) on the E72 is fully Qwerty, with a couple extra function keys.
At the top of the Qwerty Keypad is the Dpad, along with 4 One-Touch keys (3 being customisable), the left & right selection keys and the Calling Keys.
The Dpad has a neat little “breathing” light that surrounds it.
The light pulsates slowly, to let you know the Device is switched on. It quickly flashes two pulses every minute or two (depending on your setting) to inform you of new Email, Text Messages or Missed Calls.
Of course, you can turn off this feature if you choose to.
The One Touch Keys default to Menu, Calendar, Contacts and Messages (or Email).
You can also change any of these keys (except the Menu key) to launch any other application instead, for both short press and long press functions.
The calling keys, as you might have noticed, are not Green and Red color coded as they usually are on Mobile devices. This is a very minor annoyance and takes some getting used to at first. If you hand the E72 to a person, they might be a little confused trying to find the calling keys. However, it does make the device look a lot ‘neater’, staying with the Black and White color scheme.
Getting back to the Qwerty Keyboard itself, if you’ve used an E71, E75, E63 or any of the communicator devices before, you’ll be very used to this keyboard.
You type on the keys (duh) to get the lower-white marked symbols and alphabets on the screen. To get the upper-white marked you press the function key and then the symbol key itself. Tap the function key twice, and you switch to Symbol-only mode. Tap it twice again, and you go back to Alphabet-mode.
The “up arrow” key switches between Upper-case and lower-case modes (like the CAPS-LOCK key on your Computer).
There’s also Cut, Copy and Paste features (as is standard with the Symbian S60 OS for years now), using the Ctrl key and the appropriate function key (like Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, etc)
There are also a few shortcut keys to certain functions, on longpress at the Homescreen. The ‘Sym’ key is a shortcut to turn Bluetooth on/off. The Spacebar switches the Torch (LED Flash) on/off and the ‘Ctrl’ key switches between the General and Silent Profiles.
Coming to the keys itself, they have great feedback to them while typing. The keypad does appear a tiny bit cramped at first though.
Each key presses with a satisfying (but silent) ‘click’ feel. Each key is also raised to provide a better feel while typing.
This is the main reason that the keypad doesnt feel cramped, after a couple initial uses. You’ll get used to fast enough though, and typing out as many words per minute as the next guy.
Keypad back-lighting is pretty good. Each key is well lit, with low (or not much) light leakage.
Even the volume keys are well lit.
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The Messaging App :
The Messaging App on the Nokia E72 is your basic Symbian S60v3 Feature Pack 2 Messaging application. It’s very similar to the Eseries devices before it, and there are a few minor improvements here and there, but its basically the same.
Messages are arranged by date, in one line (although you can change it to the standard 2-line display like in Nseries devices).
The Messaging App also displays your Email Clients along with options like New Message, Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items, etc.
Like we said, the app is basically identical to the previous Eseries Devices, like the Nokia E75.
There’s also predictive text available which can really help with typing faster.
In my opinion, I typed faster without it switched on though. You can turn it on or off according to your liking.
Also, if text on the E72 looks too small for you, you can increase or decrease the Text Size :
To get a better understanding of the Messaging app and how it works, you can check out our previous review of the Messaging App on the Nokia E75. The E72 is mostly identical to this, in terms of software, since they’re both on S60v3 FP2.
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As I mentioned earlier, the Qwerty Keyboard on the Nokia E72 is great. It has great tactile feedback, and the keys are raised well enough to let you ‘feel’ each individual key while typing.
While the keyboard might appear cramped at first usage (especially if your fingers are too big), I managed to get used to it in a couple minutes, just like with the ol’ Nokia E71.
What do you think of the Nokia E72 and its keyboard, so far ? Have any questions ? Something we forgot to mention ? Do let us know in the comments y’all !
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
another flimsy review that barely scratches the surface. I know that it takes time to compile a review and put up the images, but you fail to identify any of the major issues with this phone. Do you get paid by Nokia to smooch? 1 - Try attaching an image to an email, notice how it works differently to the sms and mms interface? 2 - Try leaving your email on for more than 5 minutes *without* being connected to Nokia Messaging ... you know, for people who want to use email but not hand their credentials over to Nokia. Also try getting the phone to access WLAN for its email once you are using Nokia messaging. BWAA 3 - try using the predictive text which makes using a winky dinky tiny keyboard into a pleseant experience. Fails on so many ways. 4 - put the phone in your pocket and see if you can hear the ringer? Compare to E63 in that way. If you've never used an E71 or even an E63 then this phone may seem like its only got a few problems. puddle depth of review here
Lmao, you're criticizing a review that's more than 2 years old. Points taken, but at that time I did my best :o) Your standards are much too high sir!
Thanks a lot for simplifying the seemingly complicated E 72 key pad operations. It is my first Nokia E series, though used to Nokia phones in general.
hey hi, wanted to ask, on my messages i can use ctrl +c ctrl+v, but when i use office, i can't it doens't copy or paste....is it normal?
how do i type _
I learnt a lot from this, thanks guys....
How do I adjust the keyboard backlight? I'd like it to always be turned ON when I type.
You can just double tap the Caps button to stay in Caps lock on mode :) Double tap it again to go back to Caps lock off.
May i know how can i CAPS all my letters without holding on the caps button whenever i type? its so troublesome to keep holding on the caps button!
oh this looks exactly the same with e71 though, with a combed finish steel which is pretty neat. one thing i like though is the color scheme which is pretty simple, cosmetics are good...
hmmm i cannot install 'isms' even after the app was signed..it says 'unable to install protected app from an untrusted supplier'...what can i do...?pls,i want this kind of app in my E72...
It's not actually listed as compatible, and it's still in Beta, but it should work since it works on the N96, N85 etc. You can check it out here : http://betalabs.nokia.com/betas/view/conversationThere's also another conversations app called "iSMS" which is pretty popular : http://dailymobile.se/2009/04/21/symbian-app-fr...
is this "Conversations" app compatible wit E72?wat about any other app that can be used for threaded message for E72..?
Unfortunately no. You can try out the "Conversations" app over on Nokia BetaLabs to get that though.
no threded message?
Yes it can :)
can predictive text learn new words?
Yes it can :)
can predictive text learn new words?
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