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.

Nokia's bringing some new, unsurprising, E series hotness to the States in the form of the new E66 slider. Featuring GSM, EDGE, WCDMA and HSDPA bands galore, the phone is slated for a Q3 release this year. Features include a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, along with a front-facing cam for video calls, WiFi, A-GPS, 3.6mbps web browsing and a 2.4-inch QVGA screen. What really sets it apart from its E series forebears is the 13.6mm thickness, and some rather sexy new styling. Nokia's also worked in a sort of business / pleasure switch to change profile from your work email and documents to your personal accounts and such -- you can also swap to landscape mode by turning the device. Battery life is certainly no slouch, with 14 days of standby, and 7.5 hours of talk on GSM, or 3.5 hours of talk on 3G. There's only 110MB of internal memory, but you can supplement that with an 8GB microSD card. The phone comes in "grey steel" or "white steel" (what, no blue steel?), but brace yourself for the pricepoint: Nokia's quoting this at "under $500," and probably won't have any carriers Stateside subsidizing it in the short term. Quite a hefty price for a QVGA phone with little built-in storage, but some Nokia fanboy is certainly going to get a kick out of it.

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?

We think it came as a surprise to pretty much everyone that Nokia's long-rumored E71 was a no-show at Mobile World Congress this year; it looked real enough and totally ready to go the last time we spied it, and really, our only guess is that Espoo didn't want to steal any thunder from its lovely new Nseries goodies. Turns out that the company covertly showed off a shot of the businessman's dream at its Nokia Showcase event in Sydney, though, and CNET reports that it's "considerably smaller" -- 10mm thick and 57mm wide, as the rumor goes. Making the phone too narrow could ultimately be detrimental to the usability of the all-important keypad, so we'll need to keep a close eye on the "feel" part of "look and feel" when this one finally debuts. CTIA in April, perhaps?

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Symbian and Windows Mobile might be sworn enemies, but to play ball in the corporate space, Nokia has little option but to support the 800-pound email gorilla that is Exchange. To that end, Espoo has loosed version 2 of its Mail for Exchange client, tightening integration with Microsoft's Exchange Server 2007 (while still supporting 2003) and enabling full attachment handling and meeting management directly from Nokia's Eseries devices. Who'da thunk they'd be rocking ActiveSync from their E62? Get it now, free of charge, for the entire Eseries line along with the N73, N76, and N95.

We don't see how Nokia's business-savvy Eseries line could thrive without the benefit of a tested and true smartphone operating system to back it up, but if this picture is the real deal, that may very well be where we're headed. Just Another Mobile Phone Blog posted this picture of a rather plain looking candybar complete with Nokia branding and an "EXX" stamp in the upper right, typical for a preproduction device before Espoo's decided what model number to bestow upon it, sporting nary a single S60-specific key on its pad. Frankly, the phone looks cheap -- like knockoff cheap -- so we're holding out hope that this is some underground manufacturing outfit's idea of a bad joke, not a sign that S60 is leaving the Eseries behind.

Nah, these shots aren't real (so far as we can tell), but wouldn't it be nice if they were? A presumably bored and decently talented Photoshopper got to work on a trio of Nokia Eseries phones, and the end result is three of the cutest mobile renderings you'll ever have the pleasure of witnessing. Of course, this isn't the first time a Hello Kitty fanatic gave a Nokia an unsuspecting paint job (scroll down, it pops up in the final pic!), but we must say we're a tad partial to the pinked-E90. Hey, with the amount of objects that her cuteness has landed on these days, you never know how serious Nokia may consider it.

Americans looking for a little piece of the Nokia Eseries pie just had their task made a little easier today, with Nokia announcing that the QWERTY equipped E61i and E65 slider have been officially released this side of the pond. Besides showing up in the Chicago and New York flagship stores, the devices will be provided through a handful of B2B distributors, Dell's site, Gateway, Mobile Planet, and others. We're still crossing fingers, toes, and a variety of other limbs in the hopes of an eventual E90 release here, but these two are certainly decent fodder in the meanwhile. Look for both to run about $400.

Nokia's business-friendly (but not necessarily uptight) Eseries has yet to pay host to a slider, which is kinda strange considering the overwhelming goodness of the N80 and the soon-to-be-goodness of the N95. No worries -- Finland's favorite phone company looks ready to right its wrongs with the 16-millimeter thick E65. The S60 3rd Edition smartphone rocks a full assortment of connectivity options, ranging from IrDA and Bluetooth to UMTS and WiFi, though HSDPA is a no-show (as is any trace of a North American 3G band). The cam clocks in at a respectable 2 megapixels, which we think is about right for a circa-2007 corporate smartphone, and the microSD slot will come in handy when it's time to supplement the 70MB of internal storage. If the details all pan out, look for this one to drop midyear for about €340 ($450, give or take).

Admittedly, we had our fair share of panic attacks at Engadget HQ when news spread that Nokia might restrict sales of its E70-2 (a standard-issue E70 with GSM 850 in place of UMTS 2100) to its two American flagship stores in New York and Chicago. Thankfully, those fears have all been laid to rest on news that sales have begun directly off Nokia's US website, offering the trick, S60 3rd Edition QWERTY candybar for a stiff $450 unlocked. Oh, and if you decide to take the plunge, rest easy -- the firmware bungle has been cleared up.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]