I seriously never thought I would see the day where a major carrier offered a contract discount on an unlocked/unbranded phone, but I saw that today, when I went up to Best Buy to pickup a Belkin powerstrip thing. I’d seen the rumor on Friday, but didn’t think it would be real this soon. Sure enough, there was the Nokia E71 (in white or grey, even) priced at $199.99 with a 2-year contract from T-Mobile. I asked the sales guy, and sure enough, it’s unbranded. They also have the N96 available for $599.99, which is still far too expensive for that phone, but whatever.
This is *huge* for the U.S. market. The country’s biggest electronics retailer is now able to offer you an unlocked/unbranded Nokia S60-powered smartphone, competitively priced with a contract discount. Whoever at Nokia hooked up this deal, I *really* hope that they got a raise or something, and I’d love to buy them a beer. In a country where carrier branding runs rampant, to the point where Verizon is simply replacing phones’ entire firmware with their own, this is a refreshing change.
It’s sad, however, that the E71 is the NAM version, which means that if AT&T would wisen up and get on board with this, you could get a rockin 3G-capable S60 phone for $200 on contract. How brilliant would that be? As much as I love AT&T (I’ve been a customer since it was SouthwesternBellWireless), I’m getting *really* annoyed with their increasingly-obvious lack of ability to work with Nokia. Bravo to T-Mobile for opening the doors with an open mind.
In any case, if you’re on T-Mobile or looking to switch, you can now pick up the E71, unlocked and unbranded, for $199.99 with a 2-year contract in the U.S. Times are a changing, people, times are a changing, and for the better. Once again, bravo to whatever Nokian scored this.
If you’re on AT&T or still in your contract on T-Mobile, you can also snag the E71-2 NAM from Amazon for under $400.
