Subsidized Nokia E71x Handsets Arriving at AT&T

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Such is the word from BGR: The small QWERTY S60 handsets from Nokia are set to hit AT&T stores in just a few days. The E71x is the more capable and slightly smaller cousin to the E63 I’m evaluating. It offers a better camera sensor, GPS and HSDPA support over the less expensive E63, and it’s encased in a nice-looking metal as opposed to plastic. More importantly, this device is subsidized. What’s that? A Nokia smartphone that won’t cost you $500 or more? :)

Yup, the device has a list price around $450, but you can often find it unlocked for around $320. BGR suspects that the AT&T will give you an E71x for $199 after all rebates and a two-year commitment. This is a large part of what Nokia needs in order to gain market share here: work subsidy deals to help offset the hardware costs. To be honest, I’d like to see this handset subsidized down to $149 or even $99, but $199 is a step in the right direction.

The other challenge, in my opinion, is to rework the S60 interface a little bit. Even though I’m more used to it than ever before, it seems like such a chore to navigate around sometimes. The lack of third-party apps is biting me on a daily basis, too: I’ve got the Twitter problem solved, but Facebook is an unresolved challenge. There’s no true Facebook app for S60 that I know of yet.

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