Nokia E71 and E66 Get Offical
We know, we know. Since we gave the world an exclusive and extensive video walkthrough with the Nokia E71 last month all other E71 news has been, well, boring. We showed you just about every inch of the Nokia’s slender new stunner, both inside and out. The shinny new UI enhancements, the ridiculously hot form factor, the sleek metal case and every other nook and cranny. It seems like it took forever but Nokia has finally made the E71 official along with its little brother, the E66. Since we already knew just about everything there is to know about these skinny devices, all we were waiting for is release dates and price points. Although the official launch took place easrlier today, we’re still fuzzy on both issues. In typical fashion, we were given “Q3″ in terms of when the handsets will become available. Beyond that we were told that the E66 will be under $500 and the E71 will be over $500. We won’t get into this too much, but which would you consider a better way to announce a highly-anticipated handset: “You can get it on July 11 for $199″ or “You can get it sometime in the third quarter for somewhere around $500″? But we digress. Some new live videos are popping up around the internet today from Nokia’s not-so-secret London launch event so if you want some live E66 and E71 action – again – go seek them out. In the meantime, we’re wondering what we should do with our E71? How about a nice “Will it Blend” video? This is what the E71’s market share will look like in the US because Nokia couldn’t get its act together and release it before July… Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
@Conrad
And about the marketing strategy … yes, apparently Nokia and BB dont have the same great marketing strategy. I guess they dont need one because they sell anyway a lot more than Apple 
What do you mean “lack of USB port”? Both E71 and E66 have microUSB 2.0. I, as a Nokia owner, am happy with the 2.5 mm jack as I already have accessories for 2.5 mm
“I guess they dont need one because they sell anyway a lot more than Apple .”
As of today, that is. The 12th of July is the start of another story.
yeah, Nokia sells a lot of S60 phones — but how many E and N series phones are they moving a month?
Apple has destroyed any chance of Nokia smartphones flourishing in the US. The price comparisons don’t work. In the US, you need to be on a contact to get data — and in particular 3G data –so the extra money AT&T wants is not that bad. And yes, it sucks to be locked into a two you contract but ETF are going down.
Shame. The E71 does look nice. But I’m not spending $500 on it. I’ve seen Nokia N95s last year in Europe for 1 euro when you sign up — that is a subsidy. All we are asking is something around $200.
@RON
That’s the way you see it in US. Europe, Asia and the other continents are another story. Most of US citizens own iPods as mp3 players, I know just one guy who owns an iPod here. The rest of them use their phones as mp3 players (Sony Ericsson, Nokia, etc) or have Samsung, Sony, iRiver, etc or other cheap chinese players. Apple stores are empty here (even if they are veeery few and quite small). Rarely see any customer there. The same with Apple laptops or desktops. I work in IT and none of the tens of programmers/IT specialists I know use Apple. I had to test something on a Mac once and could not find one anywhere. That does not mean they are not good, but very few people use them in Europe comparing with US. My websites statistics show less than 1% use of Mac OS computers and that is for a business website (about stocks and investment). Those kind of people interested in stocks & investment should have enough money to afford an Apple … still just 1% use MacOS. I also know just one guy who owns an iPhone, of course a SIM unlocked black market one which here is about $800 as not even now Apple has launched the iPhone here officially (they did in France, UK, Germany, but most of Europe they didn’t). They announced it to be launched but they seem to wait now for the 3G version. So if you’re in US, you need a $70 plan and dont travel to Europe/Asia (to use data roaming or smth) than the iPhone might be perfect for you. But if you dont, to buy a SIM unlocked one in Europe on the black market you’ll probably have to pay around $1000. So no, thanks. I prefer to buy an official, not unlocked by some hacker Nokia with $500. Apple will never sell many iPhones because of the prohibitive price/data plans. They dont have a big target anyway and will never compare on sales with Nokia or Sony Ericsson. Like some Nokia director said when Apple announced after 9 months that they sold a few million iPhones: “We’ve done that [volume] since we’ve had dinner on Friday.”
But let’s not be worried about how many phones are Apple or Nokia selling … they make huge profits anyway
Dan T. I’m sorry for you Windows World people. If you took the opportunity to work on a Mac for a couple of months you would kick yourself for all those years struggling with viruses, malware, etc.. Not to mention the cost of all that security. NO viruses in the wild on Macs. My Mac has been up for 3 months now. I had to reboot once, only to update for a new app.
Btw way it runs Windows too. Don’t scoff before you’ve done the trial. Regards, Ron. In sunny San Diego.
@RON
And the viruses are rare on Mac because nobody bothers writing viruses for Mac … the same way most software developers dont do software for Mac.
And I played a little with a Mac desktop in an Apple store … liked the small computer box, glowing large screen etc but seen nothing which would improve my computer experience or productivity … “fancy” interfaces dont help on productivity 
For the same price I could buy a far better packed PC. So I guess Macs are not for me.
I owned many computers, all having Windows. I never had a serious problem with viruses, maybe trojans which were removable with most antiviruses. I never lost data … I still have my programs made 16 years ago on the harddrive. I reinstall Windows once every 3 years (formating the drive speeds it up, etc) … most people dont keep a computer 3 years! Does not seem that bad to me. As a programmer I use a lot of software which is not available for Mac so Mac is not a solution for me. Of course is very good if you want to browse on the internet, use some office appications, etc. But if you want many applications to choose from you kinda need Windows. And that is also Linux’s problem. So the only use of a Mac for me would be to run Windows on it (option which was not available a few years ago) and I really see no reason to buy a Mac just to run Windows on it
So yes, you might have a virus free machine, but also a very limited software offer to choose from. And believe me, sometimes I have trouble finding certain softwares even for Windows … that means for Apple would be quite impossible. So to me it seems like choosing between a superbly designed TV, very easy to use but only showing 5 channels or a not so good looking, not so ergonomic one but still good showing 100 channels. To me the choose is obvious. Oh, and by the way, I removed all the “cool” effects from my Windows XP – windows fading, rounded shaded corners etc because I hate them
But I really dont want to transform this in a Windows – Mac dispute or Nokia – Apple dispute because everyone has its favorites and its criterias. I can understand why you like Apple … the problem is ussually Apple fans dont understand why we preffer Windows/Nokia. There are no perfect telephones or computers. Each of them have advantages/disadvatages. Still, its good that we have more options to choose from. To tell you the truth, I would buy an iPod Touch for the big screen, internet experience and reasonable price. But iPhone must still evolve and become cheaper to be interesting as a replacement for my Nokia. And probably Nokia will deliver a better compromise solution in a few months – a phone like Nokia 5800 “Tube” with a bigger resolution (640×360 vs 480×320) which still can be used as a modem for laptop, has a decent camera, records video, has a replaceble battery, minicard, real bluetooth support and most importantly a lot of software applications to choose from. And will be not SIM locked or $80/month contract binded
I’m also interested;
Does E71 have an acceleration/orientation sensor?
It was said at the Nokia Phone Blog on a post concerning E71 that “And just for the hell of it, Nokia’s also thrown in the ‘ol “orientation sensor,” which means you can silence your E71 by flipping it over.”
I know this is true of E66, but I’m reading mixed opinions of the subject.
Since you guys actually have one E71 handy maybe you could try it out…
Dan T. Take a look.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/17586/
BTW the first moron to write a virus which survives in the wild for OSX will be world famous overnight.
@Charlie
In Europe the sellers have big discounts for phones even on $20-30/month plans.
I’m sure that if you sign a $70 plan for 2 years the E71 will be free of charge or cost about $1. Maybe will give you some accesories too
@RON
Ok, 130.000 phones is something, but that is a one time event – on launch. But do you know that Nokia sells about 1.2-1.3 million phones a day? Lets say just 10% are smartphones. So they sell about 130.000 smartphones every day!
These people are signing up for something in the future.
What about the viruses?
I am a Mac fan. I have to help my neighbors with their Dells etc.. Keeps me busy. ‘Tho 2 of them now have Macs.
Dan T. have a laugh at these. You have to admit, they are pretty funny. Ron.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU9EflLJuf8
@RON
Look at HTC phones, great but lacking marketing so few people know about them. In fact it seems HTC makes components or parts of products for several other bigger companies … the Sony Ericsson Xperia is a sample. Also iPhone has Samsung components.
Yes, I told you Apple are marketing geniuses. In fact that is the thing they do best
I do think Steve Jobs is a genius but sometimes in his quest to make cool items he misses some important points (like the first iPhone without 3G – a big mistake if you ask me or the MacBookAir without CD/DVD, ethernet and only one too small and hard to access USB port). There are almost always important features missing from Apple products as they seem to concentrate more on the image than on the functionality.
I called a large distributor for Nokia here in the states and they informed it should be available within the next 2-3 weeks.
can someone please confirm or deny _definitively_ the ability for the e71 to do USB charging ?
It’s a no-brainer, of course, but I feel like I heard somewhere that it doesn’t do USB charging, and I want to make sure…
@Joey
Ussually Nokias do not support USB charging but Nokia offers a cable Nokia CA100 USB Charger which is about $28 on Amazon. Not cheap, but if you desperatly need that …
For more official details about these phones check here: http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/E71
http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/E66
@Zach – do you (or anyone) know if the email app will render HTML emails?
dan — I’d be glad to sign a two year contract and get a 50 EURO e71 — but I live in the US and plan on using it here.
Nokia had a year to get its act together and find someone to offer subsidies for their phones here. They didn’t, and now also extremely price uncompetitive vis-a-vis Apple (and RIM).
Sure, there is always a market for unlocked phones in the US for travelers, but I’ll just hold on to my unlocked E61 (cost, about $350),and get a new iphone with a subsidy.
I predict they will sell about 150 E series phones here, and the grey market will sell another 10,000.
@Charlie
Here from 100 phone stores only CDMA network stores dont have Nokias (as Nokia does not have CDMA devices). Apple stores dont have phones here, no iPhone yet. Blackberry, HTC, Palm can be found but not that easy. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, LG, Alcatel, Motorola, Sagem are the usual phones to be found here.
Well it seems you have problems buying Nokia in US like we have problems buying Apple in Europe
Agreed with Nokia US issues. I loved thier phones back in the day when they actually knew what US marketing meant. But they have blown it for the last, oh 5 years or so. Would love to get the E66 to replace my BB but pricing will do this device in. I heard rumors of an ATT launch but doesn’t seem to be happening. Way too bad because I firmly belive they have some of the best quality, technology, and usability around.
And Dan T – keep your little anti-american bashes to yourself. From your post earlier: “In Europe most of the people don’t spend $1000 extra just to be cool the same way we do not buy cars which have a mileage of 8 mpg (about 30 liter per 100 km) because nobody makes these kind of cars here”. There are a myriad of ways Euros make themselves “be cool” – the first of which is to make dumb comments like this about americans. And oh, I lived in Europe for 4 years so I am well aware. Best.
What’s the cheapest price of this phone in the US or the UK right now? I live in Pakistan and planning to buy one either from the US or UK before actually going to the UK in August.
Would it be fine, if I buy the phone from an American cell phone selling website and then take that phone to the UK? Would it work fine?
The reason why I don’t prefer to buy this cell phone from the UK is that the ”Pound” is very expensive. 1 pound = 135 Pakistani rupees; whereas 1 US dollar = 68.5 rupees only.
I would appreciate, if you could tell me some websites (American and English both) from where I could buy this phone on the cheapest price possible!
Thank you.
mobilecityonline.com is a reliable place to buy one
An excellent phone. I just bought it. Other than the touch screen feature on iPHONE, Nokia is atleast two generations ahead of it. I bought it in India for INR 20000 (USD 488).
Please tell where in Dubai i can get the best deal for E71 . I want to buy this ,since this will be my first business phone ,pl tell me abt the pros and cons of having such phones .