AT&T may be about to add the RAZR 2 V9 to its stable, effectively halving any remaining desire we had for the original RAZR V3 line of devices -- but that's apparently not stopping the carrier from trying to milk a few final drops from the played out design. According to the most recent dealer price sheet floating around, the HSDPA-capable V3xx will be offered in another color, the ambiguously named "platinum red." We can't recall the last time we saw platinum take on a reddish hue, but whatevs. Also interesting to note here is that the Nokia E62 -- a phone we'd previously heard had been killed off -- is seemingly alive and well; not only is it mentioned in the sheet, it has no sign of an "EOL" tag on it. Long live Symbian, we guess!

Time flies, doesn't it? Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating S60's triumphant return to US carriers on the wings of the lovely Nokia E62 -- but in the blink of an eye, the landmark handset has been taken from us, seemingly before its time. Though the N75 might satisfy some of the E62's target demo, the QWERTY will be sorely missed and will likely drive some to Windows Mobile or BlackBerry alternatives. For what it's worth, the carrier's saying that the coming months will bring new equipment "that will succeed the E62," but whether that foretells an E62i (or any other Nokia-sourced hardware, for that matter) is another question entirely.

Canada's other GSM network has picked up a couple goodies that we thought our friends north of the border might be interested to hear about. First up, Fido gets the Nokia E62, bringing some QWERTY S60 action to the carrier's stable, something Cingular customers have been enjoying for a while now -- and like its American counterpart, Fido gets the dumbed-down version sans UMTS rather than the original E61. Next up is the Z710i from Sony Ericsson, a decent midrange clamshell rocking a 2 megapixel cam and a rather portly exterior monochrome display. Look for both in stores now; the E62 will run you $200 CDN (about $170) on a three (yes, three) year contract, while the Z710i will go for $75 (about $64) on the same brutally lengthy agreement -- thank goodness for early upgrades.

[Thanks, Francis P.]

Update: Yep, it seems the Z610i has been kicking around for a little while up there (which is more we can say for any American carrier).

Hey Fido customers: where do you go when you're looking for a QWERTY smartphone? What's that you say, you don't have one? Sorry, we didn't mean to rub it in -- but we thought you might like to know that the Nokia E62 may very well be coming your way. The QWERTY S60 3rd Edition device -- a WiFi-less version of the E61 sold overseas -- has been met with some decent reviews here in the States on Cingular, and we wouldn't be surprised if a Canadian or two were to welcome one into their lives if / when this thing really comes to Fido (the ones that haven't already picked one up from parent company Rogers, that is). We'll pass on more details as we hear them!

[Thanks, Ian]

Nokia isn't stupid. Holding nothing more than a sliver of the huge pie that is the US smartphone market, it only took a few BlackBerrys (with the occasional Treo or Q thrown in here and there) for the world's largest cellphone manufacturer to realize that a QWERTY-style device might just be S60's key to acceptance among fickle American consumers. Of course, it took a good long while for it to get here in an official capacity -- and along the way we've had to sit back and watch a slightly more capable sibling drop in S60-friendly Europe -- but the E62 is finally real for any average Joe willing to head down to their local Cingular shop and plunk down a reasonable amount of cash. WiFi or no, that's a refreshing change of pace for those of us used to getting our Symbian fix by paying through the nose for an import that may or may not work well on our carrier of choice. In practice, how does the business-oriented E62 fare in today's smartphone landscape? Are Americans ready for S60? For that matter, is S60 ready for Americans? Read on for our initial impressions.

It may not share the WiFi radio of its pricier sibling, the E61, but the E62 still rocks all that landscape QVGA, QWERTY, S60 3rd Edition action that made the original famous -- and as expected, it's gone live with Cingular today for a relatively reasonable $150 on contract. Besides the lack of 802.11, the E62 gives up the E61's UMTS 2100 support, but Cingular's guessing its average buyer isn't going to mind (seeing how we don't do UMTS 2100 in these parts). With the QWERTY market heating up in the next few months, it's unclear whether Nokia and Cingular ultimately have a winner here, but any way you look at it, it's a win for American S60 proponents who generally get pretty well starved for handsets of any form factor.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We've only been waiting, what, a year for someone to release this thing in the US? Nokia's E60-series finally made it to American shores on Cingular, and, well, there's little for us to report. The E62 is the phone we've been expecting and tracking for many months, but now with some Cingular branding and a couple of minor tweaks (one being the WiFi has mysteriously vanished. Click on for some obligatory pr0n, as well as some of the E50 candybar as well (in brief: solid, hefty, delicious).

Well, it sure took them long enough, but Cingular has finally gotten around to rolling out Nokia's biz-centric QWERTY phone, the E62. Luckily, the price is right: going for "as low as" $150, as expected. At 0.5-inches thick, and with a well-sized QVGA screen, the E62 isn't totally weak-sauce compared to its E61 high-end predecessor, but it does lack the fancy WiFi and UMTS of the E61. Plenty has already been said about the specs (EDGE, Symbian 9.1, the like), so we'll spare you this time around. You should be able to nab this one September 29th -- none too soon, to be sure.

According to LAPTOP Magazine, Nokia's pared-down E61 for North America, the E62, will go out the door for $149.99. We're guessing this is a contract price; if it isn't, we'll be setting up a little eBay operation on the side.

[Thanks, Bill and Aaron]

We encourage everyone to take these tidbits with the usual boulder-sized grain of salt, but America's favorite (read: only) HSDPA carrier has dropped their September launch grid, and on account of our friends' slippery hands, it's subsequently found its way over to Engadget HQ. Thanks to our own Boy Genius among countless other tipsters, nothing on the grid has really taken us by surprise -- no UMTS 1900 N80s, for example -- but we're encouraged by Cingular's (foolhardy?) optimism that the 8525 might yet see a release this month. Also allegedly along for the ride are the 3125, the oft-promised but rarely-delivered Nokia E62 (which turns out to be a lifetime exclusive for Cingular), the Samsung SGH-C417 that now appears to be on limited sale, and Sony Ericsson's middling W300 Walkman flip. And, oh yeah, the Motorola L6 is in there, too. Don't ask us.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the E62 was namechecked in the slew of Cingular material we got today, but we also managed to land some additional information not from Boy Genius. Looks like the E62 is set to drop on Cingy on or around September/October if not earlier (we hear business accounts could get their units in June/July), and will set you back $599 $299 without a contract, or as little as $399 $199 with a two year. Still a pretty hefty cost for the castrated non-UMTS, non-WiFi verion of the E61, but it'll still be ready and willing to take on just about any push email solution under the sun, and considering what it's up against in the US market, this guy still ain't half bad.

Update: our source on the prices sent us some new information, which has the E62 weighing in at $299 without a contract and $199 with a two year -- a totally compelling development which would have Cingular and Nokia taking dead aim at Verizon and Motorola's Q. Guess we'll have to wait this one out.

We're sorry to say we don't have a price or release date for you, but a little birdie told us Cingular's business unit's going to very soon be getting Nokia's QWERTY hotness, the E62 (that little birdie also supplied us a picture). Unfortunately it won't be UMTS (sigh) or have WiFi, as we knew, but it'll still have quad-band GPRS / EDGE, Good, MS Direct Push, BlackBerry Connect, XpressMail, just about every Bluetooth profile imaginable, Symbian 9.1 / S60 3.0, and all the hardware we've come to expect: 235MHz CPU, 32MB RAM and 160MB flash, MiniSD, QVGA 256k color display, and USB mass storage support. We'd say it's safe to assume you can expect this in the very near future; we'll keep you posted.