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.

{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2009\/03\/20\/subsidized-nokia-e71x-handsets-arriving-at-att\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_32c51fcb9c52fb03c0da5df742bbb376","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}