Nokia has finally officially announced what has been quite possibly the most-publicized-without-being-acknowledged-officially handset in the history of the mobile phone industry. The Nokia E71 has been acknowledged by the Mothership today, along with full specifications. The E71 is a followup to the E6x series, but has sexified the bog-standard QWERTY smartphone design in a new slender package. Measuring only 114mm x 57mm x 10mm (4.5″ x 2.2″ x 0.4″), the E71 is extremely slender, but it’s also a full 13mm skinnier than the E61, which will help to nearly eliminate the feeling that you’re holding a pop-tart to your face.
The Nokia E71 is extremely well connected, with quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and will be available in three different dual-band WCDMA versions: 850/1900MHz, 900/2100MHz, and 850/2100MHz. I have to praise Nokia for announcing the U.S. 3G variant at the same time as the others, but, like most, I also wonder why not just release a tri-band WCDMA handset like HTC does? WiFi and GPS are also onboard, rounding out the connections quite nicely.
The Nokia E71’s QWERTY has received quite a bit of praise in the leaked reviews, and also features a new intelligent input that offers auto-completion, auto-correction, and apparently learns as you type, to correct your common mistakes. The Calendar and Contacts applications have also apparently received some much-needed attention.
Multimedia, it seems, is not forgotten on these latest Eseries, with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera – similar to the E90 and recently announced E66 – in place, and QVGA video recording functionality. A microSD card slot offers up to 8GB of memory expansion, with higher capacities up to 32GB expected in the future. Sadly, the E71 features an off-beat 2.5mm audio port, but Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP means stereo sound is somewhat available.
The battery on the Nokia E71 is confirmed to be the beefy Nokia BP-4L, with 1500mAh of power, offering up to 17 days of standby (!!) and a killer 10.5 hours of continuous talk time (GSM). The E71, for some reason, is not expected to be available until Q3 2008, priced at EUR 350 (US$540). The grey and white steel color options we’ve seen across the ‘net lately have been confirmed, as well, though I have to confess I’m partial to the grey steel.
Nokia E71:
- S60v3
- Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
- Dual-band WCDMA (850/1900MHz, 900/2100MHz, or 850/2100MHz)
- WiFi
- GPS with A-GPS and Nokia Maps preloaded
- 2.4″ QVGA display
- 110MB of internal storage, microSD card slot
- Measures 114mm x 57mm x 10mm (4.5″ x 2.2″ x 0.4″)
- Nokia BP-4L 1500mAh battery
- Up to 17 days Standby
- Up to 10.5 hours Talk Time (GSM)
- Planned Availability: Q3 2008
- Official Spec Sheet (PDF link)
