The Nokia E61 variant that is customized for the U.S. market may be coming soon. A few select press people have checked out the device and provide their take on it. As usual, it looks like Cingular will be removing the WiFi capability so you may want to get the unlocked E61 yourself to take advantage of that wireless technology.
Readers know I love to use my Nokia E61 device as my daily smartphone and I am very pleased with it. I bought it on ebay from an importer for about US$375, which is much cheaper than I have paid before for my high end smartphone devices. The keyboard has a couple of funky characters on it, but it really doesn't affect my usage of the device. All About Symbian put together a summary article on the Nokia E62 which appears to be the U.S. version of the device coming to Cingular in September. The Nokia E62 will be a bit different though since it appears that no 3G radio or integrated WiFi will be included. This would have been a great device for Cingular to use to help launch its HSDPA/UMTS network, but it looks like GPRS/EDGE will only be supported. Cingular usually takes out the WiFi radio so that is no surprise. Rumors state the device may cost as low at US$100 with new contracts and carrier subsidies, which makes sense seeing that you can pick up a more powerful unlocked E61 for just about US$300 now. It also appears that Nokia may have improved some of the keyboard shortcuts for Cingular, which I would love to see and have on my E61. I am hoping that T-Mobile will also pick up this device since they would most likely leave in the WiFi radio to market the device with their US$30 WiFi/EDGE unlimited data plan.
