Nokia E66 and Nokia E71 finally out

After tons of leaked info and photos, Nokia finally announced officially the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 Symbian smartphones. They shouldn't have bothered, since the full specs and press photos surfaced online quite some time ago, but nevertheless it's good to know that Nokia keeps track of its future phones.

The Nokia E71 has got a full hardware QWERTY keypad and comes as a successor of the Nokia E61i. The Nokia E71 brings much more style to the E-series since it packs a waistline of only 10mm. However the display has shrunk a bit to 2.36 inches (as compared to the 2.8-inch one of Nokia E61i).

Nokia E71 White Steel and Nokia E71 Grey Steel

The Nokia E66 is the same business-grade device as the Nokia E71, however without the QWERTY keyboard. It comes as a successor of the Nokia E65 and is equipped with a large 2.4-inch TFT display of QVGA resolution. Infrared port (are they serious?), microUSB port, and Bluetooth (A2DP and EDR) are also on board.

Nokia E66 will also sport a built-in accelerometer, which would allow auto screen rotation, as well as silencing of incoming calls when the device is turned over.

Nokia E66 White Steel and Nokia E66 Grey Steel

Besides that both the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 feature built-in GPS receiver which works with Nokia Maps, 3 megapixel auto focus cameras capable of shooting video in up to VGA resolution at 22 fps (which is actually usable) and of course - HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity. Also both come equipped with microSD card slots that will allow expanding the available 110MB memory with up to 8GB worth of additional storage.

Email messaging is the highlight of both devices as they both support a wide range of personal and corporate email standards such as Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email solution, as well as System Seven and Visto Mobile. These new Symbian smartphones also come with a new switch mode for switching between personal and work home screens. Encryption is also on board as well as mobile VPN support.

Dressed in stainless steel cases and etched graphics (E51-style), the new handsets will be available in grey steel or white steel colors. Both Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 are expected to begin shipping in July and both devices are expected to retail at 350 euro before taxes and subsidies.