Every so often, Nokia will pop out a brick-like beast of a clamshell smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard -- a black sheep in Espoo's lineup in every sense of the word. These so-called Communicators even had their own custom Symbian-based operating system, Series 80, until the E90 came around and brought 'em in line with the rest of the S60 crowd. Of course, S60 just took a big leap to the world of touch today, and that means the E90's starting to fall a bit behind -- so what's next? Nokia dropped a little teaser during its webcast today in the form of a stylized touch-based concept bearing strong family ties to the E90 and its ancestors, suggesting S60 5th Edition won't spell doom for the form factor. If it materializes, history suggests it won't be a mainstream device -- but if the real thing can look as good as this render, who knows?

Yep, pretty much everything we'd heard about the upcoming M930 from ASUS has turned out to be the real deal, making the brick-like device nearly a dead ringer for Nokia's E90 communicator with Windows Mobile doing the dirty work in place of S60. The exterior nets you a traditional QVGA display and numeric keypad, while unfolding the beast yields a slightly larger 400 x 240 display along with a full QWERTY board. Internal storage clocks in at 256MB with 64MB of RAM, there's a 2 megapixel autofocus cam around back, and you get the usual microSD expansion, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Oddly, the whole package runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard -- not Professional -- so you can just put away any hopes and dreams of touching the display with a stylus. Look for a public reveal at CeBIT in March, so retail availability isn't expected before that.

[Via MoDaCo]

It may lack the necessary internal gizmos to grant us 3G data this side of the pond, but that really didn't stop us from touching, holding, and loving Nokia's E90 Communicator just the same. Check out as we bring the latest, greatest QWERTY device out of Espoo from sealed box to power-up in the gallery here -- or if getting your hands on one of your own is more your thing, rumor has it Nokia should be launching it stateside within a couple months. 'Bout time!


Special thanks to Wireless Imports for the hands-on time!

It's no secret that the actual launch of Nokia's E90 was imminent, and while you've had plenty of time to read reviews, stare at press shots, and drool over hands-on photo sessions, now it's time to party. A camera-wielding blogger was able to drop in on the fairly large launch event held in Jakarta and snap a few photos of geeks grappling to boot theirs up the fastest. Of course, we're sure you wish you were somewhere amongst the hordes, but feel free to leap on through for more of the action -- and to think, just under a month ago some impatient soul paid a whopping $5,000 for this bad boy.

If you'd been combing through all the hands-on pictures of Nokia's E90 Communicator hoping you'd be the first one on the planet to receive shipment, we're sorry to spoil your dreams. Apparently, Nokia has already auctioned off the very first E90 to be commercially sold in the world at a charity auction in Jakarta, Indonesia. Hartono Gunawan (center) took home the device after throwing down nearly $5,000 to be first on the worldwide block, and considering that the proceeds are going to UNICEF, we're sure that gaping hole in his wallet can now be filled with warm, fuzzy feelings. Of course, judging by the look on his face, we're wondering if this guy was already experiencing buyer's remorse.

[Via Slashphone]

Wait up just a second, let us get this straight: after years of teasing Americans with 3G smartphone after sweet 3G smartphone -- none of which packed even a lick of compatibility on US bands -- Nokia's going to rock its newest undisputed king of the hill, the E90, with every band we could possibly hope for? Of course, we don't want to count our chickens 'fore they're hatched lest we get fooled again, but the presence of Nokia's latest QWERTY-based Communicator device in the FCC's trusted hands sporting WCDMA on the 850, 1700, and 1900MHz bands is a very promising sign, indeed. As a refresher, T-Mobile will be launching its WCDMA network this year -- the last of the four national carriers to go 3G -- on the freshly-minted 1700MHz band, leaving future users without much of a handset selection from which to choose (as in, zero devices so far and few on the roadmap). But hey, with phones like this seemingly sitting in T-Mobile's pipeline, that's just fine by us.

Our envy runs deep on this one -- My-Symbian somehow managed to score Nokia's new megaphone (well, not "megaphone," but you know what we mean), the E90, long enough for a comprehensive rundown. They seem pretty delighted with the device's feature set, and we can't say we blame them; what's not to like? Stand-out goodness included the revised keyboard with concave keys, full-function external display running S60 with full access to the phone's functionality, integrated GPS, and a fabulous internal display with 800 pixels of horizontal resolution. My-Symbian wasn't as pleased to see that some of Series 80's unique functionality disappeared along with the operating system itself, but on the whole, it seems that S60 has filled in the gap pretty smoothly.

You saw the first photos right here on Engadget. Now, Nokia brings the official specs on their S60-series E90 Communicator. Like we heard, it brings quad-band GSM, WiFi, and HSDPA radios along with a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash (and second up front for video calls). Better yet, it does indeed pack integrated GPS and Nokia Maps for all you corporate jet-setters. Expect the E90 to hit in Q2 (volume shipments in Q3) for an unsubsidized price of between "750-800" -- they don't say but we're thinking that's euros or about $1000 of the green stuff. Damn, best put this one on the corporate account where it belongs.

Check it QWERTY geeks, we've got a trio of clandestine snaps of Nokia's oft rumored, but never seen E90 communicator. As you can see from the pics, the E90 does indeed pack a dual-hinge allowing it to open like a 9500 or fold-up flat like the 9300. And while you're checkin' the cameraphone snaps, know this: according to our new best friend and source -- "Brando" -- it does indeed pump S60 at its core and boasts a solid 3.2 megapixel cam. But damn, you see that bigazz main display? Could that be the rumored 800 x 352 pixel resolution? We'll know soon enough -- 3GSM is next week where we're pretty sure this will see an official launch.

Update: A bit more detail: HSDPA (yes), GPS (no), quad-band GSM (yes), WiFi (of course), internal display (800 x 352), external display (240 x 320). Both screens support 16 million colors and all applications can run on either screen -- launch an app on the external display, open and continue working with a massive increase in pixel-estate.

[Thanks, Brando]

True, the handful of shots of the VX9800 Communicator successor over at Phone Scoop are only marginally better than the last batch, but we know there are some Verizon peeps out there waiting for this thing to hit retail. A little more eye candy never hurts, does it? Follow the link for the full spread!

[Thanks, Sunny]

It's one thing to see Photoshop upon Photoshop of a device that may or may not exist (just think of how many iPhone concepts we got inundated with), but it's quite another to see it in the flesh. It gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling to know that the hotness you're gazing at is something more than vaporware. Not to say spotting a handset in the wild guarantees its release -- far from it, in fact -- but still, ROAD's been offering us nothing more than ridiculously badass-looking drawings of their Handy-PC for the past year and a half, and we can hear the collective sigh of relief from Nokia Communicator fans everywhere as they lock eyes on this first in-the-flesh shot. As we previously reported, the specs on their production quad-band S101 model leave little to be desired as folding smartphones go, with 128MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, a 2-megapixel shooter, 400MHz of the XScale PXA263 variety, and Qtopia's mobile Linux platform in a 210-gram package. Where do we sign up? Ahh, that's right, ROAD's site -- still no word on actual availability, but at least you can let out a little pent-up excitement by placing an "advance order."

[Via Slashphone]

Owners of WiFi-enabled, Series 80- and S60-powered Nokia handsets will soon have "one-click" access to over 50,000 hotspots worldwide thanks to a new software client being developed in conjunction with trusted connectivity services provider iPass. Already available for Windows, Macintosh, and Windows Mobile devices, the iPassConnect client gives people an easy way to connect to any hotspot across some 28 different networks, including T-Mobile, Wayport, and The Cloud, offering both a consistent user experience and simplified billing. The first models to receive the iPass treatment will be the 9300i and 9500 Communicators, which should see the new software sometime this summer, followed by a version for E-series devices by the end of the year.

[Via PC World]