When closed, the Nokia E7 closely resembles the company&39's N8.

Nokia is wonderful at hardware. But like Motorola, another veteran of awesome industrial design, Nokia is not terribly strong on the software front--once upon a time it was, but it proved unable to shake itself loose from the now-outdated software of its glory days.

The Nokia E7 is a prime example. It really is a thing of beauty (I like a proper keyboard, me) but I don't want one because it runs Symbian. As it happens, I retain a lot of respect for Symbian as an operating system, but its user interface sucks. It's a tragedy that Nokia hasn't been able to quickly and effectively redesign that UI for the modern age, but there you go. Point proven. Stick something else in there, and the E7 would rock.

Now we know what that "something else" is: Windows Phone 7.

Read more of " I want a Nokia Windows Phone, and here's why" at ZDNet UK.

See also: Photos: Nokia E7