Nokia E71 confirmed and oh-so-slim

by Paul Miller posted Jun 16th 2008 at 8:01AM

Nokia's finally fessing up to its latest E series QWERTY phone, but took this one in a seriously surprising direction... for Nokia, anyway: thin. The E71 is one of the thinnest phones we've ever seen exit the doors of the Finnish giant, at 10mm thick, but there's still plenty of room for everything you'd expect out of an E series phone like WiFi, HSDPA, A-GPS and even a 3.2 megapixel camera and a front facing camera for video chat -- the main place the E71 differs on specs from its new E66 sibling is the 2.36-inch QVGA screen, just a fraction of an inch smaller. The E71 even manages to squeeze in extra battery, with 20 days of standby, 10.5 hours of GSM talk or 4.5 hours of 3G talk. There's 110MB of built-in storage and a microSD slot if you grow out of that, and the same business / personal switcher of the E66. Folks accustomed to previous Nokia QWERTY phones in the form factor like the E62 will find the screen noticeably smaller, but with the same number of pixels and an incredibly pocketable form factor there's plenty to love about this new entry. Unfortunately, the $500-ish pricetag isn't quite alluring, and like the E66, Nokia doesn't have any carrier subsidies lined up just yet. The E71 should arrive in the States -- and yes, with full 3G US bands -- sometime Q3 of this year, and will be available in grey steel and white steel.

Gallery: Nokia E71 confirmed and oh-so-slim

Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA

Tags: a-gps, breaking news, BreakingNews, e series, e71, ESeries, hsdpa, nokia, qwerty

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

BKWatch @ Jun 16th 2008 9:15AM

You've got to be kidding me.

$500, no carrier subsidy, and they expect to sell these things to North Americans? I've heard of the iphone, at at $199, at that is the death of North American nokia sales.

(and yes, I know, the extra $15 a month hurts. So does five bills out of the pocket. If you're price sensitive, take a quick guess on which hurts more)

Highest Ranked

Doug @ Jun 16th 2008 10:02AM

$15 per month over the life of a two-year contract is $360, which is quite a lot of money. I paid a little under $400 for an e61 when it was first released and I'm still using it, although I'll be the first to admit the keyboard is atrocious and it's pretty sluggish. I'd pay $500 for a thinner device that remedies the issues of it's e61 predecessor, especially if it'd save me $360 in monthly data usage over two years. Potentially more than that if have an older unlimited (data) Blackberry plan that you can use with Blackberry Connect.

Comparing the e71 to the iPhone is like comparing apples and poodles, anyway. The iPhone isn't a great smartphone, whereas the e61 (and hopefully e71) beat Palm's offerings any day of the week with regard to durability and call quality (and in my opinion, the S60 OS is preferably to Garnet and WinMo < 6.0). HTC's newer devices and the X1 look compelling though.

Neutral

Omagus @ Jun 16th 2008 1:42PM

Well, Nokia sales were pretty much already dead in North America, so this doesn't particularly *hurt* them. However, there are still consumers in the US--such as myself--who would rather buy an unlocked phone at full price than have to be locked into a contract.

Neutral

Al @ Jun 17th 2008 2:19PM

If at&t carried it with a subsidy:
-they'd rape the OS with their customizations
-neuter the bluetooth capabilities
-disable java applications
-charge $30 for data

An unlocked and unbranded E71 can use the $15 media net unlimited data plan

Think about this:

iPhone 3G
$200
$40 for voice + $30 for data
$70 x 24 = 1680
total cost is $1880 (minus taxes)

E71
$500
$40 for voice + $15 for data
$55 x 24 = 1320
total cost is $1820 (minus taxes)

Of course, you could subsidize the cost of the e71 by buying an iPhone 3G and then selling it on ebay.

Neutral

Chris B. @ Jun 16th 2008 10:59AM

Crapola. That's what Nokia's US marketing team is to me - can't they sell AT&T and T-Mo on any of their products?

My B-day is July 11, and I'd rather have an E71 over the iPhone.

Oh, well, I'll be checking Amazon.com just about every day to wait for this baby on sale! C'mon, Amazon! Buy a ton of 'em! I'll be first in line!

Neutral

Omagus @ Jun 16th 2008 1:32PM

Well, T-Mobile's in the unenviable position of being the fourth out of the Big 4 carriers AND doesn't have a 3G network.

AT&T, on the other end, well let's see:

- Nokia gives them the N95, which they have yet to release;

- Nokia gives them the E61, which they strip of it's wifi, add a bunch of crappy AT&T SW and call the E62;

- Nokia gives them the N75, which they take forever to release, so long in fact, that by the time the WCDMA phone is out, HSDPA is already running;

- Nokia gives them the 6682, which they take forever to release;

- Nokia gives them the 6882, which they call off at the 11th hour.

I'm not sure how these relationships work exactly, but I'd be fed up if I were Nokia. They've probably lost money trying to work with AT&T.

Neutral

yode @ Jun 16th 2008 12:18PM

wow that phone is smoking

Neutral

anonymous @ Jun 16th 2008 12:28PM

looks like the first moto q

Neutral

Mark M @ Jun 16th 2008 5:26PM

Omagus, you left out the original and worst of all, the 9300 which AT&T took 1-1/2 YEARS to release. My boss still uses his, altho I think he's going to jump to the new iPhone even though he'd probably be better off with this E71. Note that Nokia never did release a North American 3G version of the E90, the 9300's successor, presumably thanks to AT&T.

I love my N75 - now unbranded for A2DP Bluetooth thank god - and use all its features but boy did it take forever to show up while AT&T "management" [sic] dicked around crippling it.

On the plus side, based on recent experience with web-browsing on my N75's UMTS/3G I would say that yes AT&T's 3G network is indeed snappier than it used to be; this has been reported recently to be happening in conjunction with the release of the 3G iPhone. Thanks Steve!

Because the E71 is a smartphone/PDA, I would expect the cost of AT&T's PDA data plan to run between $30-$45 per month. Tethering would cost the usual $60 of course.

Neutral

boss-hogg @ Jun 16th 2008 5:42PM

actually....i pay 15$ to get 3g and tether via at&t. i use the nokia n78 and the e71 is no different for the cost. Trust Me.

Neutral

Justin @ Jun 16th 2008 7:33PM

They killed the Symbian key! Home key, WTF? D'oh.

Just another step toward the S60 atop Linux...

Neutral

Fadi Alsaidi @ Jun 17th 2008 4:07PM

I just got a confirmation from my nokia rep...att rolled out the N95.....damn it...and they are releasing the E71 instead....no word on whats going to be crippled but the WIFI is in. The main reason to roll out N95 is the 3G iphone, price and OS.

Neutral

Shahryar @ Jun 17th 2008 4:21PM

I made a comment over here on my thoughts towards Nokias being sold without carrier subsidy if anyone wants to read:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/16/nokia-e66-s60-slider-goes-official/1#c12690561

Long story short, you could say I Got my N82 for $299 w/ a 1 year contract by signing a new contract w/ T-mobile, paying no activation fee, and buying and selling the free Pearl 8100.

I don't think that's a bad deal. Just a little more legwork.

Neutral

Jon @ Jun 24th 2008 7:00PM

I have an E61i and it's the clunkiest POS I've had. I did see a video of the E71 in action and I'm jealous of how fast the UI seems to perform. I'm just waiting to see which smartphone is the first out of the gate to support TMo's new HSDPA. I was seriously considering just dumping the E61i on ebay and going with a blackberry curve so I can get something done for a change, but the NYC HSDPA rollout has made me wait-and-see.