Nokia unveiled two new business focused handsets: the E66 slider and the E71 with a full qwerty keyboard. The company said it expects both phones will retail for around $538, not including carrier subsidies, and will start shipping in July.
“The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 were designed for people who lead a mobile lifestyle and want quick and easy access to their personal and work e-mail. With both of these devices, we have responded to consumer feedback by making calendar and contacts available at the touch of a button,” Soren Petersen, senior vice president of Devices at Nokia, said in a statement. “Equally important, people want well-crafted devices that are as beautiful to use as they are to behold. Stainless steel was chosen as the core material for these devices, giving them additional strength and a touch of class. Furthermore, the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 offer all the latest multimedia features that people desire.”
The E66 also includes an “orientation sensor” that automatically optimizes itself for full screen viewing or silences the ringer when the device is turned over.
The world’s top handset maker also said that it has sold more than 10 million E-series handsets.
Matt Thornton, telecommunications analyst at Avian Securities, reported from a Nokia management meeting late last week that the E71 is “very impressive with a form factor that is thinner than the Pearl or Curve and width somewhere in between the two.”
Thornton also wrote that he believes the company is on track to deliver its first touch-screen device, the Tube, in the second half of this year, likely in the fourth quarter.