Remember how AT&T ended up picking up the original E61 as the E62 -- but somewhere along the way, the tweaked version lost two of the E61's most important features, 3G and WiFi? Yeah, that sucked. The good news, though, is that since the E62's release, AT&T's really warmed up to WiFi and manufacturers have started to smile upon HSDPA 850 / 1900 en masse. Word on the street is that AT&T will be taking another shot at the whole S60 QWERTY thing, launching its own flavor of the E71 as the E72. Of course, you can get North American 3G in the plain ol' E71 this time around, so what would a customized E72 have to offer? Feature Pack 2, allegedly, a line item sadly missing from the original's spec sheet despite its release coming well after FP2 hit the streets. We've been hearing for ages that AT&T was eyeing this thing, so we take this as a great sign that the plans haven't been abandoned -- only question is, when's it going to go down?

Nokia's slim and slick E71 has been touted -- OK, rumored, but we're hopeful -- to have its eyes set on the number two GSM provider in Canada, FIDO. While no pricing info is being bandied about, the "news" does see it landing during the November timeframe. Rogers, FIDO's parent company and only GSM competition -- at least for now -- has apparently passed on this little QWERTY gem, though these kind of stories do change with time. Look for more news once we get something a little more tangible.

Hey, Mobile readers. You know that QWERTY-packin' E71 from Nokia? Yeah, that's the topic of discussion over at this week's How Would You Change. We really shouldn't have to tell you what that means, but if you're still stuck, hit this link to head over and drop in your $0.02.

For those invited to private launch parties in New York and Chicago last Thursday, you've probably been playing with your shiny new US E71 all weekend. For everyone else, today's the day. The Americas version of the handset -- which includes GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and HSDPA 850/1900 support -- is finally on sale to the general public through a variety of retailers. Now, the only problems are sneaking out of the office early, finding a store with stock and coming up with approximately $500.

As the new business-class torchbearers in Nokia's smartphone lineup, it only stands to reason that the new E66 and E71 would support BlackBerry connectivity out of the box. After all, the E61, E61i, E62, and E65 all did, thanks to RIM's BlackBerry Connect client and the sobering realization that just such a software package is the only way for some employees to get out of using a RIM device at their office. Alas, support for BlackBerry Connect has quietly been dropped from the gorgeous new devices -- and as much as we'd like to say otherwise, no amount of beauty is going to make up for being unable to grab the average user's corporate email. Users are upset, particularly those who upgraded from older models assuming that BBC support would be carried over, so RIM had better be cooking up an update if they want to avoid the grizzly scene that usually ensues when you fire up a bunch of people wearing formal business attire.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Call it a hunch, but you shouldn't have to wait too awfully long (like, hours / days / weeks) to secure Nokia's North American E71 today. Said handset is now available at the company's flagship store in Chicago, complete with a QWERTY keyboard and US-friendly 3G. Eager to grab one? Total cost will be $483 (plus tax) in addition to a roundtrip ticket to Chi-town, considering the store won't ship to out-of-towners (or so we hear).

[Via IntoMobile]

Hate to break it to you, but there's little more to tell about the E66 that we didn't already cover with the E71. It's basically the exact same hardware and screen in a portrait, sliding form factor, which loses the QWERTY for a numeric keypad. That said, we wanted to go over the specific quality of those differences, and touch on a few things we missed with the E71 review. Oh, and in case you missed our video hands-on with both devices, you can find it right here.

While Nokia makes a habit of practically defining "featurephone" for the industry, traditionally it's handsets like the N95 that hog all the spotlight, leaving Nokia's few QWERTY phones in the shadows. Not that they've been trying too hard -- while the E62 and E61i have both shipped over here, neither has featured 3G data in US bands, and the E62 even had the distinct pleasure of having WiFi stripped out. Enter E71, the successor to those phones, and Nokia's very first QWERTY device to feature US-friendly 3G.

Nokia is also (finally) taking form factor much more seriously: at 10mm thick, the E71 is one of the slimmest Nokia phones to date, and Nokia claims it's the thinnest QWERTY smartphone on the market. The E71 also attacks the drab, plastic looks of its predecessors with chrome accents and a glossy screen. The phone is incredibly pocketable, and comfortable to hold and use. Of course, with the smaller size Nokia had to cut down on screen real estate and keyboard spacing, but at a QVGA resolution there's little suffering on that front. The keyboard had a much more rigid, clicky feel to it compared to the spongy keys of the E62, and we were virtually typo-free on it within minutes.

We got a quick little bit of quality time with Nokia's new business-centric S60 phones, the E66 and the E71. Both phones are virtually identical when it comes to specs, so it really boils down to what you prefer in form factor. If you're a T9 maven and prefer a vertical screen orientation, the E66 slider is obviously your ticket, but the E71's full QWERTY keyboard and glorious 10mm of thickness are probably going to guide it into many a business slack front pocket. The E71's keys have a harder, clickier feel to them than its predecessors, and they're also a tad more crowded than usual -- we had a bit of trouble typing at first, but it's a solid, well-built keyboard that'll certainly come to be second nature with a bit of use. Despite the phone's thinness we found it to be incredibly sturdy and just the right weight. As for the E66, we just love the feel of its slider mechanism, but we're a little puzzled as to the thickness compared to the E71. That said, it's a quite comfortable and small form factor for a smartphone. Our favorite new feature on these phones is the quick switch from business to personal use, which can swap your home screen, email accounts and calendar to your personal stuff after hours -- and with that hefty 3.2 megapixel camera, A-GPS and WiFi, there's plenty of fun to be had with these phones when your work is through. Video after the break.

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.

You already knew Nokia's evolutionary N96 was all set to be shipped in the fall, but it's about time Nokia came clean with the release information on its leaked-out-everywhere E-series. While Anssi Vanjoki, senior executive vice president of Nokia Markets, didn't specify model numbers, it's widely assumed that the E66 and E71 handsets are included when he states that "a group of E-series multimedia computers" will be brought to market in Q3. No mention of a price or expected launch regions, but at least you've a quarter to circle in your date book, yeah?

After spying those "in the wild" shots of Nokia's E71 and E66, we knew something had to be up -- and that does appear to be the case. A forum member over at Mobile-Review has stumbled upon user demos for both of the forthcoming devices, featuring in-depth Flash walkthroughs on how to master all the basic features of either phone. It seems likely that an announcement is due any day now (though we're thinking it won't be coming on Monday) -- but at least you can enjoy a bunch of new angles and animations while you wait.

[Via Cell Addict Blog]

Read - E71 Demo
Read - E66 Demo

Slim, attractive body: check. Full QWERTY: check. North American 3G: check. Announced: eh, not so much. We're getting outright disgruntled with the deafening silence out of Espoo regarding the hotly-anticipated E71 at this point, so once again, we're just going to have to let the pictures do the talking. Boy Genius Report has landed an example of the device (which, prototype or otherwise, looks perfect) and promises a full review shortly, but in the meantime, they've left us a handful of shots for our viewing pleasure.

Update: The full review's now up! Looks promising, S60 peeps -- very promising indeed.

We'd always prefer an actual announcement to a mere teaser, and in the case of the E66 and E71, we've seen these things exposed so many times in so many ways now that we're actually starting to think that we might know more about the business-class hotties than Nokia itself. Here's the latest scoop: Mobile Phone Helpdesk has gone ahead and locked down press shots of both devices, adding a little more glitz and glamor to the pair than the typical prerelease in-the-wild shots afford. We're seriously not sure what Nokia's waiting for here, but we think it'd be well served to push 'em out ahead of the Touch Diamond and 3G iPhone rushes.

While we twiddle our thumbs and wait for some sort of official confirmation that this thing even exists, Boy Genius Report has heard some rumblings that AT&T is putting the Nokia E71 through its paces with the intention of launching it -- in your choice of black or white, no less. Multiple Eseries colors certainly aren't without precedent, so we can buy that much -- and AT&T has previously launched the E62, so we can totally picture this going down. What's more, we've now heard from an independent source that the AT&T-branded E71 does in fact exist and is currently being crafted in Nokia's San Diego facilities (production models won't be born in the same place, we presume). Just a warning, guys: if this ends up happening as an EDGE-only device, we're going to lose it.