GLOBAL – Yesterday saw the release of the latest in the E-series lineup with the announcement of the Nokia E72. The reaction was pretty amazing, along with the other two device announcements made yesterday, the whole lot meant for our second busiest day on Nokia Conversations – second only to the N97 launch. So what do people think? On the whole, the E72 seems to be a welcome addition to the family. The focus of the device’s improvements over the E71 centered on listening to customer feedback from the E71 and trying to include as much of the requirements as possible in the E72. That seems to have gone down well across the board, along with the improvements people weren’t expecting, such as the optical scrolling. Read on for an overview of reactions.

The comments section on yesterday’s story were buzzing with excitement and feedback from the launch. Overall the reaction was very positive (thanks guys!) though there were some tough questions being asked too, which we’ll endeavour to get answered.  Donny and Albert G both ask about USB charging, and question why the E72 still uses a Nokia charger rather than the more universal USB connection seen on the N97. Fair point. Other commenters raised the issue of only having 15fps for video capture, rather than 30fps. We’ll be looking further into this one also.

Reaction from outside has been pretty extensive. We can’t include links and comments from everyone here, but if you want to see more check out the trackbacks on yesterday’s E72 announcement post. You can also check out Google News as that’s picked up quite a bit too.

Marin Perez on InformationWeek said

“The E72 has improved features that should make it easier for mobile professionals to stay connected on the go.”

Humberto Saabedra on PhoneNews said

“The E72 is a substantial upgrade over the E71 with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, an upgraded 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, 3.5mm headset jack, and a new optical mouse built into the directional pad for navigating”

DaX on MobileWhack said

“The much sleeker look and well-rounded edges aside, the nokia E72 gains a few more improvements over the E71”

David Gonzalez on ElectronicPulp focusses on the camera

“Just a few years ago, business-oriented smartphones weren’t allowed to have cameras. It was supposedly a strict no-no in a corporate environment where precious data or information could compromise operations if leaked out. Well, those days have long been over, and Nokia is taking advantage of this by introducing its newest smartphone with a 5-megapixel camera: the Nokia E72.”

Dusan Belic from IntoMobile said

“My initial impression is – WOW! It seems that the E72 fixes all the “problems” (if I could call them problems at all) of its predecessor – E71, and it even looks better.”

Killahbeez.com put it quite nicely with

“Say hello to the phone that may actually make me consider dropping my BlackBerry Bold for, the Nokia E72.”

Alex on Caprica homed in on the digital compass

“Holy cow!  A digital compass, it took Apple 3 generations to do that! Yup, a compass.  What used to be the domain of cub scouts and creepy folks in the woods has now become the must have add-on for phone geeks who used to use GPS to get lost.”

That is just a flavour of what’s been written so far and all round it’s looking like the E72 will be as popular as its predecessor. Aside from some negativity around the way the device was launched, I couldn’t actually find anything negative written about the device itself (if you spot something, and feel it should be included, let us know in the comments and we’ll update the article).

We’re waiting to get our hands on one and as soon as we do, we’ll be letting you know what we think. Meanwhile we’ll be working to get some answers to the questions already raised. If you have any more, please feel free to add them below.