We've known about Nokia's so-called Surge for months now, but at long last, AT&T has done its duty by making things official and giving us a price and release date to consider. The Symbian S60-based smartphone is aimed squarely at social media freaks, boasting a full QWERTY keyboard, a browser with Flash support (imagine that, right?), a pre-installed JuiceCaster app for easily updating your Facebook / Twitter status and a price tag that's sure to turn heads. For just $79.99 after rebate, you'll also get a 2 megapixel camera, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Video Share and the pleasure of handing over at least $30 per month for a required data plan. If you're sold already, you can get yours on July 19th.

Having already given you the AT&T spec sheet and images on this new Nokia, the only things missing are launch date, price, and a bit of video. Well, a janky QIK video just made its way to YouTube claiming that Nokia's Mako is coming to AT&T in mid-July as the 6790 Surge. It should be "priced pretty well" but those details haven't been finalized. So if a quick messaging device running S60 beneath a 2.4-inch 240x320 pixel display with HSDPA data and 2 megapixel camera is enough motivation to prompt another mouse-click then by all means, click through for the video overview provided after the break. Stay cool, bye.

Yes, that's the one and only MJ to open the podcast -- this one was recorded just shortly after the Engadget crew had learned the news. Join Josh, Paul, Nilay and special guest Chris Ziegler as they deny the Nokia N97, get angry at the HTC Hero, bargain with Windows 7, depress themselves over the fate of the netbook, and finally learn to accept the Zune HD's Tegra processor. We won't lie -- Engadget Podcast 152 was a struggle, but in the end we all learned a little something about life, love, and forgiveness.

Update: Any further tasteless MJ jokes will be met with a swift ban. Be nice!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Guest: Chris Ziegler
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: Billie Jean

Hear the podcast


00:02:26 - Nokia N97 review: a tale of two bloggers
00:26:28 - HTC Hero running Android and Sense UI leaks from HTC's own website (updated, official, video)
00:30:28 - HTC Hero hands-on: Flash, keyboard and ruminations (updated!)
00:48:09 - Windows 7 official pricing announced, limited pre-orders start tomorrow
01:03:40 - HP Mini 5101 cleans up nice, shows the serious side of netbooks
01:05:15 - HP ProBook 4310s hands-on
01:10:25 - Entelligence: Netbooks, R.I.P.
01:22:50 - Zune HD has a Tegra processor, confirms official Zune podcast


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So much for Nokia and Intel keeping quiet on actual product announcements, huh? Just yesterday, the two mega-corps joined hands in what they called a technical collaboration, and while they wouldn't go into detail about what products would sprout from the partnership, it seems that Commercial Times has done the honors. Reportedly, Nokia has already ordered up a few machines from Compal and Quanta, two OEMs that are largely responsible for most every netbook on the market today. Not surprisingly, we're told that the Nokiabook will rely on one of Intel's Atom processors, and considering that the new wave of Atom chips aren't slated to land until 2010, you can pretty much put money on a N270 or N280 configuration. In related news, we're told that Compal will engineer a Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Nokia smartbook, though there's no word on what kind of OS (Symbian, perhaps?) will be included.

Recently, Engadget editors Thomas Ricker and Chris Ziegler received Nokia N97s just days apart from one another. Already established pen pals, the two immediately began to correspond across the Atlantic via carrier pigeon, discussing their very different experiences using Nokia's most powerful smartphone to date. This is a recounting of those letters.

Thomas,

I hope this letter finds you well. I understand that you've received an N97 from Nokia Nederlands recently and was wondering what you thought of it? As luck would have it, I've happened across a unit myself -- the US was the first country to get them, interestingly, which is really big deal for a company accustomed to delivering its best hardware early and often to Europe. I've been flogging it for a few days now, just enough time to form some opinions.

If you stop to think, really, about how much we take pleasure in seeing pictures of phones get utterly dismembered, it's quite disturbing. So don't think about it, and instead hit up the read link for a gallery showcase copious amounts of a prototype Nokia E72 innards, ripped apart alongside an E71 (on the right in the image above) for comparative purposes. There's a very brief question-and-answer session just after the photos, but it's definitely not gonna keep you satisfied between now and its third quarter launch window.

You'd think that Nokia would want to do a better job of building up such important product announcements with a long, drawn-out series of frustratingly unhelpful teasers, viral videos, and global PR campaigns, but instead, it turns out that the rumored E72 and 5530 XpressMusic have been officially unveiled at the company's Connection 09 event in Singapore. The E72 is arguably the bigger announcement of the two, succeeding the E71 by adding a whopping 5 megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack (thank goodness), integrated compass, 10.2Mbps HSDPA, and an optical navigation pad; it'll hit in the third quarter for €350 (about $489). Follow the break for video of the E72 in slick, polished, high-orchestrated marketing action. Next up, as we'd heard, the 5530 ends up being a small step down from the 5800 in the S60 5th Edition totem pole, offering just EDGE data without any form of 3G (though you've still got WiFi). It's got a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5mm jack, and a 640 x 360 touchscreen display. Like the E72 it'll be available in the third quarter; it'll retail for €199 (about $278) unlocked.

[Thanks, nabs]



Read - Nokia E72
Read - Nokia 5530 XpressMusic

Looks like the E71 is about to be upstaged as Nokia's premier business-class smartphone -- someone in Espoo's just hit the corporate YouTube account with this promo video for an E72. Upgrades include a five megapixel camera, a relocated headphone jack, and what looks to be an optical mouse instead of a D-pad -- a welcome upgrade for click-happy S60. That's all we know for now, but we're digging for more -- check the video after the break.

Update: The YouTube video's been pulled, but luckily the guys from IntoMobile snagged it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

If you had any doubt about the reach of Nokia, the world's leading mobile handset maker, then check this: Nokia just announced the simultaneous June launch of its flagship N97 in more than 75 countries. We already had hints of this for the US and Western Europe but it's good to have it official. And with N97 chatter on the uptick recently, we're expecting to see this 3.5-inch QWERTY touchscreen slider running S60 5th sooner rather than later.

Update: Available June 19th for £500 sim-free in the UK or June 26th if you want it bundled with a contract. Anyone else seeing local launch dates?

With that May launch window closing fast, it looks like Nokia might get Ovi Store in under the proverbial wire: it just went live on Vodafone in Australia, which was soon followed by other carriers, and then Ireland and Singapore. According to a post that was subsequently pulled from Nokia's Conversations blog, Nokia confirmed the rollout and said that it was progressively moving the Ovi Store to "production servers," and that we could "expect a broader announcement and consumer availability soon." Unfortunately, since that post has been pulled, we're not really sure what to expect, but at least the lucky few with Ovi can beam back important missives on their Twittix apps about what life is like in the future. Above are shots of the store live on an N97.

Who said Nokia doesn't have a major commitment to North American carriers? We've landed news of a whole plethora of Espoo-sourced devices scheduled to hit AT&T over the coming months, and a few in particular caught our eye. Most notably, the Mako (pictured) is unlike anything we've ever seen Nokia make, mostly thanks to a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard that doesn't really resemble any existing hardware. It rides on the same S60 3.2-based platform as the 6650 and E71x, features dual-band HSDPA, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, AGPS, 2 megapixel camera, Video Share, and 128MB of internal storage with microSD expansion. Sadly -- this is going to be a dream killer for some folks, we think -- it's only got a 2.5mm headphone jack, which is a step back for multimedia support. This one was at one time targeted for June 5, but if we had to guess, it's been pushed back -- maybe we're crazy, but we feel like it hasn't leaked enough to meet that date at this point. Anyhow, looks like this one's a good foil for that QWERTY swivel allegedly due on Verizon.

Speaking of "this looks nothing like a Nokia," the Thresher is an ultra-glossy slider that doesn't quite resemble anything officially announced in other markets. It shares its Series 40 guts with Grouper, which was the codename assigned to the 6750 Mural flip we recently saw hit the FCC. Both devices do HSDPA and AGPS; the Grouper makes do with a 2 megapixel cam, though, while the Thresher steps up to 3.2 with an integrated flash. The Thresher's signed up for September and the Grouper for July, but as with all of these, it's anyone's guess whether those dates will hold.

Finally, the Snapper flip is a lower-end device that we could envision replacing the 6555, lacking the Grouper's style but still staying strong with triband HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS, and a 2 megapixel camera. This one's tentatively targeted for August.

When Nokia unveiled its N86 back in February, we Yanks were given no hope whatsoever that a US release was in the cards. We're doing our best to stifle our excitement, but it sure looks like a stateside launch is a lot closer now that said handset has made its way through the dark and murky halls of the FCC. Seen here in a lovely, washed-out shade of black, the 8 megapixel, OLED-equipped dual-slider seems no different than the one we toyed with in Barcelona, save for the whole US-friendly aspect, of course. C'mon Nokia, come clean with the price and ship date, won'tcha?

[Thanks, eleminop

Say what you will about S60 5th Edition, but here's the thing -- of the smartphones in the news today, only one has a massive AMOLED display. Samsung's i8910 HD is almost irrefutably the baddest-ass S60 device ever produced and one of the most heavily-spec'd smartphones ever made for any platform, featuring the aforementioned 3.7-inch 640 x 360 capacitive touchscreen, an 8 megapixel camera, an S60-specific implementation of TouchWiz with 3D enhancements, and HSUPA. Bottom line is that if this phone can't get you worked into a lather, S60 definitely isn't for you -- and lucky Brits now have the opportunity to make that gut check thanks to Orange's retail launch. You can grab it for a totally reasonable £97.50 (about $151) on a £35 per month plan, which seems like a pittance to pay for one of the monster handsets of 2009.

[Via All About Symbian]

If flash animations and S60 5th edition are your idea of a good time then you'll want to head on over to Nokia's new interactive N97 landing page. From there you can get as close as you'll ever get to Nokia's flagship slider with 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel resistive touch-screen display prior to its expected June launch. So go ahead, take 'er for a spin and then hit the newly live pre-order button after you're convinced that this is the smartphone for you. Sure, there's lots of potential June competition out there but take heart: the Android-powered Samsung i7500 lacks a QWERTY, there's no guarantee that a next-gen iPhone will launch in June, and the Palm Pre might be a big fat dud. There, feel better about your choice?

Update: Tipster Chris just let us know that the N97 shows a $699 phone-only price on the "find products" tab over at Nokia USA. That's $6 cheaper than the N96, strangely enough. See screen-grab after the break.

Update 2: Pre-order is go for the US.

[Via mivadika, thanks Nikos K.]