A operator-sanctioned version of the Nokia's E71 business smartphone will soon find its way to the U.S. market. AT&T just announced plans to release the mobile device, as the E71x, in the next few weeks for $99.99 with a two-year contract, after rebates.
Until AT&T picked up the smartphone you had to pay full price, between $300 and $400, for the Symbian/S60 phone, as it's only been available unlocked and not through a wireless carrier.
"We are excited to introduce the sleek Nokia E71x into the hands of messaging, social networking and email fans across the United States," said David Petts, VP and GM, AT&T Account for Nokia in a statement. "The Nokia E71x is building on the success of an award-winning smartphone design and coupled with the scale and reach of AT&T we are thrilled to bring it to a significantly broader audience."
The E71, which at .39 inches thick is one of the slimmest QWERTY smartphones on the market, is a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900), HSDPA (850/1900) 3G world phone that you can use to make calls and access data almost anywhere in the world. It integrates Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth 2.0 with support for wireless stereo headsets.
Additional features include support for microSDH storage expansion cards and a 3.2 megapixel camera with, like many other Nokia devices, a Carl Zeiss lens.
There's also a 320 x 240-pixel resolution QVGA display above the keyboard.
The E71 is Nokia's follow up to the E61 and E62, which AT&T offered back in its Cingular days.
