The Nokia E72 is a business-oriented phone (as all Eseries devices) and has standard features including mobile email, calendar and instant messaging among many others with its Symbian-based S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 operating system.

The Nokia E72 has a new Optical Navi Key feature in addition to the standard D-pad used on many other Nokia devices including the Nokia E71 – this is said to improve the ease of scrolling through menus, emails, web pages, and images as it is an optical sensor in addition to a series of closely spaced buttons.

In comparison to its predecessor, the Nokia E72 is said to have a higher level of performance (likely due to the faster 600 MHz ARM processor) and also includes a 5-megapixel auto focusing camera.

Other changes and improvements are software-based including changes to the user interface and built-in messaging application among others.

A Chinese domestic market variant is Nokia E72i, lacking WiFi connection.