A friend has got a N8 and I really did not like it. It felt flimsy and there was nothing interesting or new about the UI, not to say it looked older than Maemo5. Ok it has the cool little album art scroll with the reflections and everything but still... really inferior to N900 no question.

I haven't used an E7 but if it is a N8 with qwerty don't bother either.

I agree with Joseph... wait for N9 if that's an option. Otherwise take what they give you, keep it in good shape and trade it for the N9