Nokia announced today that it’s bringing a US “optimized” version of the E63 smartphone stateside with an estimated retail price of $279. Citing a “loud and clear” demand for more QWERTY form factor devices in the US, Nokia sees that E63 as a solid entry level compliment to its more expensive E71.
The E63 features a QWERTY keypad (omg, srsly?!), 3G, Symbian S60 3rd Edition OS, and the ability to switch between two separate home screens (i.e. 1 for work, 1 for play) at the push of a button. It will also include a full HTML browser with Flash support and will be available in either ruby red or ultramarine blue. You can snap up an unlocked E63 in the near future (no specific release date yet) through various retail channels throughout the States.
If you need to use the E71 with anything but Microsoft Exchange email services, it will turn out to be a pretty decent device. Other than the camera that is just sad, the device is pretty quick and is feature packed. The operating system is pretty old in the tooth, despite all the updates Nokia put into it.
The moment you try to connect to an Exchange server, the device turns extremely slow; email composition is eons behind Blackberry and the functionality as a whole is depressing. The E63 is probably no better as it is an older device.
Nokia designs great hardware, paired with dreadful software. Bummer. They are losing ground to Apple, Android and soon enough, Windows Mobile. Symbian needs to go away.