Nokia's E-series to ship in Q3 alongside N96

You already knew Nokia's evolutionary N96 was all set to be shipped in the fall, but it's about time Nokia came clean with the release information on its leaked-out-everywhere E-series. While Anssi Vanjoki, senior executive vice president of Nokia Markets, didn't specify model numbers, it's widely assumed that the E66 and E71 handsets are included when he states that "a group of E-series multimedia computers" will be brought to market in Q3. No mention of a price or expected launch regions, but at least you've a quarter to circle in your date book, yeah?

[HumongousBlunt Posted Jun 9th 2008 10:30AM]

Looks like a nice handset, but I'd prefer the BlackBerry Bold over this when it comes to QWERTY keyboard smartphones.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 9th 2008 10:38AM]

And you thought the only cellphone news today would be iPhone!

+1 Nokia

[Ellianth Posted Jun 9th 2008 10:47AM]

It looked nicer in the photo from the last article.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 9th 2008 10:54AM]

Looks nice. At the moment I'm swinging towards the E71 as the N96 just feels like a beefed up N95 8GB to me. Need to see what Apple come out with though but Nokia will be tough to beat outside the US.

[fontendet Posted Jun 9th 2008 11:03AM]

UGLY

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 9th 2008 11:25AM]

Just like your face.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 9th 2008 2:17PM]

burnnnnn

[oldmanhorton Posted Jun 9th 2008 11:20AM]

um i would take the.........
Thunder, bold, Curve, Q9M, Blackjack, iPhone, or any other phone over this
this is hideously ugly

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 9th 2008 11:43AM]

most (all?) of those you mentioned don't have wifi, and some of those are bulkier/ uglier / tackier / slower than this phone by miles, IMO.

Of course this thing will probably cost more at release, so that's not saying much but looks are very subjective. I think it's one of the more decent-looking ones, tho there is no perfect device out there aesthetically, IMO.

And really we won't know how this realllyyy performs until it's been reviewed by the masses, which I see as more critical than looks IMO, tho and we have already received quite a good look at what its functionality is like.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 9th 2008 11:25AM]

"Nokia said in its fourth-quarter earnings report it had sold 6 million of the N95, often seen as the key rival to Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone, by end-December. At the time this compared with Apple's 4 million iPhones sold. Apple has said it aims to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008."
-------------------
I don't see them as rivals at all. Sure they share some of the same features (making calls, etc) but... the two are very very different in both design and usability and functionality and IMO their core user demographics/ markets.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 15th 2008 11:11PM]

@tekdroid, i totally see them as rivals. i'm about 50/50 between an iphone and e71 for my next phone. i have an e61 and am familiar with s60. in addition to phone uses i use the thing a lot for internet and watching video. so far the pluses of each seem to be

e71
--unlocked, so i can use it on my tmobile svc which just got 3g in nyc and is cheaper. that locking/att nonsense is bs really. it sucks not to be able to just swap sim cards when traveling. yes jailbreak inevitable but i kind of need a new phone sometime in this century.
--i assume will play .avi and divx as well as mp4 (this is an improvement over e61 which wouldn't play mp4). again the iphone proprietary nonsense gets in my way.
-- qwerty kbd. one handed txting.
--MMS. video camera. not necessary but nice. many of my friends don't have email on their phones, believe it or not.
--slingbox already exists for it. and i have one.

iphone
--price. less than half what i'm sure an unlocked e71 will be.
--cuteness. though the fact that you can apparently only get the white in 16gb for another c note is extremely annoying. i dont really mind how the e71 looks though.
--apparently the iphone's processor is over 2X faster than the Nokia??! i really need to see a speed test on this when they're out. because this could be a dealbreaker. why have all that wifi/3g nonsense and slow hardware?

thoughts?