Welcome the newest member of Magenta’s smartphone lineup, the Nokia E73 Mode!  This 3G-enabled smartphone offers WiFi, a 5 megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS, a full WebKit-based web browser, and support for Mail for Exchange and more.  The E73 Mode is available beginning today for $69.99 with a 2 year agreement or $299.99 retail.  If you haven’t already, make sure to check out some of the first reviews of the E73 (which, for the most part, are positive).  So who’s getting one?

T-Mobile

Today, T-Mobile is announcing the expansion of its HSPA+ network, bringing the total number of cities covered to 25 and total customers covered to 75 million by the end of June.  Covered are T-Mobile customers in  Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, Tampa, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, New Orleans and Charleston.  In addition, HSPA+ has been expanded to Bentonville, Ark..  Anderson, S.C.  and Fayetteville, N.C. are now good to go for HSPA+ service.  For those of you looking to take advantage of these newly released speeds, perhaps the Nokia E73 is the worth a look as it will be available in stores today.  If that doesn’t suit your fancy, perhaps the myTouch Slide or the Garminfone will fulfill your desires.  On the other hand, perhaps the webconnect Rocket will be your choice for serious on-the-go browsing pleasure.  Does this sound like a marketing commercial or what?

Seriously though, T-Mobile is working to rapidly expand their HSPA+ footprint to ensure that customers can enjoy 4G-like speeds.  The company remains committed to its goal of 100 major metropolitan launches by the end of the year!

Check out the full press release below!

T-Mobile Expands Super-Fast Network and Availability of T-Mobile^® webConnect Rocket^™ USB Laptop Stick to Cover 25 Major Metropolitan Areas

BELLEVUE, Wash. — June 16, 2010 — Today, T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced the expansion of its super-fast mobile broadband network, now offering 4G speeds¹ to more than 25 major metropolitan areas across the U.S., and expects to cover more than 75 million Americans with HSPA+ by the end of June. Complementing the network expansion is the availability of the

T-Mobile^® webConnect Rocket^™ USB Laptop Stick, the first HSPA+ capable device from a national U.S. wireless carrier, in T-Mobile retail stores in these new areas.

Now HSPA+ and the T-Mobile^® webConnect Rocket^™ USB Laptop Stick are available in major metropolitan areas across the country including Los Angeles; Dallas; Atlanta; Houston; Seattle; Tampa and Orlando, Fla.; Pittsburgh; Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; New Orleans; and Charleston, S.C. In addition, HSPA+ has been expanded to Bentonville, Ark.; Anderson, S.C.; and Fayetteville, N.C. T-Mobile’s HSPA+ mobile broadband service is already live in New York; Philadelphia; Las Vegas; Memphis; Upstate New York; Connecticut; Providence, R.I.; and the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

“T-Mobile has rolled out HSPA+ service to more than 25 major metropolitan areas in four month’s time, as we drive towards having the most pervasive mobile broadband network delivering 4G speeds in the country,” said Neville Ray, senior vice president of Engineering and Operations for T-Mobile USA. “T-Mobile is delivering unprecedented value to our customers with the availability of a super-fast mobile broadband experience combined with compelling and affordable devices and data plans.”

T-Mobile’s rapidly expanding HSPA+ mobile broadband footprint makes it easy for customers to enjoy 4G speeds on the HSPA+-enabled T-Mobile^® webConnect Rocket^™ USB Laptop Stick. In addition, T-Mobile currently has 15 3G devices that can benefit from enhanced speeds when they’re on the HSPA+ network, including the newest smartphone available from T-Mobile today — the Nokia E73 Mode.
T-Mobile has made considerable progress in the number of areas with faster mobile broadband — and expects to continue this aggressive pace to deliver HSPA+ speeds in 100 major metropolitan areas with backhaul in place, covering 185 million people in the U.S. by the end of this year.

“With the rapid expansion of its HSPA+ network this year, T-Mobile is in a great position of being able to deliver high-speed data service to a broader number of customers today,” said Peter Jarich, principal analyst, Wireless Infrastructure, Current Analysis. “Ultimately, consumers don’t care what technology powers the network they’re using — they care about the quality and experience of their mobile data service, the cost of those services, and the devices available to access them. HSPA+ has the potential to deliver higher data rates across a broader lineup of devices in the next one to two years than competing technologies.”
For more information on where T-Mobile network service is available, please visit
http://t-mobile-coverage.t-mobile.com/coverage.

With T-Mobile boasting the largest Android collection around, the HTC HD2 and the ever-present collection of Blackberry’s a lot of people might ask where does the Nokia E73 fit in. Nokia’s last outing on T-Mobile was the Nuron, which released just a few months back and hasn’t made any headlines since. Thanks to the boys at Engadget and Phonescoop however, who managed to go hands on and report back their findings. Engadget has a video up along with their own review but we’ve decided to run with one of our own handy sources who managed to go hands on with the device as well and the video appears above!

Some highlights from the Engadget review:

• The E73 also shares what might be its single most important trait with the E71: rock-solid construction.
• If there was a complaint to be levied against the E71’s design, it’d have to be the keyboard;
• It seems Nokia got a little too ambitious here with the spec sheet; they should’ve picked a rocker or an optical pad, not both, because we found the pad uncomfortable to “swipe” when it’s surrounded by a raised ring.
• On the bright side, T-Mobile has done a marvelous job of staying hands-off with the E73’s software build, leaving it nearly bone stock
• Nokia isn’t really playing up the E73’s front-facing camera, and it turns out there’s a good reason for that.
• Speaking of the camera, the E73’s primary shooter — a 5 megapixel unit with LED flash — wasn’t half bad,
• What ultimately makes the Mode a potential winner, though, is the price — we’re talking about $69.99 for a legitimate 5 megapixel smartphone that looks (and feels) like it’s been wrought from a single ingot of steel.

From Phonescoop:

• It’s an elegant messaging device with hardware that works as well as it looks and feels.
• While the software is powerful and lets users do pretty much anything, its bogged down user interface is beyond old and frustrating to use.
• Nokia has placed a nice D-pad in the middle of all these buttons. It’s the perfect-sized squircle, with just the right amount of edge so that it is easy to find and use.
• The E73 excelled at collecting T-Mobile’s signal.
• Call clarity with the E73 was outstanding. Nokia knows how to make phones that are superior as phones, and the E73 is no different.

Let me just preface this by saying, I absolutely love the look of this phone. Call me old fashioned or even totally crazy but I just love me some Nokia E73 goodness. Tried and true Nokia still makes some of the best looking phones on the planet. Perhaps they aren’t the most feature rich, or the most up to date but Nokia has been a staple in my phone lineup since my very first phone. With a rumored June 16^th release date right around the corner we’re hoping this phone might sway some of you who are still on the fence about Android, can’t find yourself owning a Blackberry and will take a phone that might be a little dated, but works like a charm. Any takers?

12►

First came the rumors, then the announcement, and now, for your viewing pleasure, we have the promotional video for the new Nokia E73 Mode.  Now, I don’t think this is the best phone advertisement, especially with all of those great HTC and DROID commercials out there, but it’s an ad.  Watch it for yourself, though, and make your own opinions.  Nonetheless, the ad does a good job of showing what the phone can do, which is almost anything you could legitimately ask it to do.  Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Nokia

Good news for those qwerty loving Nokia fans out there!  Today, T-Mobile and Nokia have officially announced the Nokia E73 “Mode.” This portrait qwerty will carry Symbian S60, WiFi, a 5 megapixel camera with flash and auto-focus, a 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS (with OVI Maps for free turn by turn directions), a full WebKit-based web browser (are you listening RIM), and support for Mail for Exchange, IBM Lotus Traveler, Ovi Files, QuickOffice, Adobe PDF Manager, and ZIP manager, making this a great business phone.  Don’t worry though, you can keep your business life and your personal life separate by changing the appearance of the home screen on the fly, based on your lifestyle.  Everything is pointing towards a June 16th release date and it will put you back only $70 with a two year contract.  Press release after the break and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Continue Reading

Way back in February we got wind of a Nokia device heading to the big Magenta. Nokia whose presence has been sorely lacking in the T-Mobile lineup is about to jump back in a big way. T-Mobile is billing the Nokia E73 as a phone for “professionals who are looking to balance all aspects of their busy lives and want to try devices to help optimize their productivity.” While this phone likely won’t see the level of success that Blackberry, Android and Windows Phone have already enjoyed, it might entice individuals who have a hidden place in their heart for the golden days of Nokia. Maybe. Coming June 16^th, we’ll find out. Pricing details are unknown but we’ll update you as we find out!

We’re again working on thin info here but we’ve already said at least once that T-Mobile has the Nokia E73 on the books for the summer. Now, our sources are telling us that training for this device will begin sometime in June with a launch shortly thereafter. We know that this device isn’t likely to receive the sort of frenzy a new Android phone would, Nokia might be down but they aren’t out. Choice is a welcome thing in the T-Mobile lineup and while we all hope for a “super-phone”, the E73 should be a perfect choice for those looking for a break from the Android/Windows Phone/Blackberry experience.

Well, folks, the FCC  has just passed another mysterious Nokia phone (FCC ID: QTKRM-658) with T-Mobile AWS 3G bands (1700/2100). What could this mysterious Nokia phone possibly be? Let us go back to late February. If you may recall, we heard whispers from our sources that the Nokia E73 was headed the way of Magenta this June. Could this possibly be the E73? That’s what we’re thinking, unless, our beloved Magenta has something else up its sleeve that’s 10x better and will put all current handsets in T-Mobile’s lineup to shame (We can dream, right?).

Leave your hopes and dreams in the comments!

Thanks, Lyfe!

PhoneArena Via FCC

To be honest, there is little hope the release of this news will garner the same excitement now as it would have back in 2008.  It has been hoped that Nokia would make a resurgence in the US market and grace us with their phones that are still sleek, modern and generally pretty damn durable.  It’s been whispered to us that the Nokia E73 will make a T-Mobile appearance sometime in June.  The force is strong with this whisper so we’re willing to take the gamble and put this one in the rumor but likely category.  Details regarding the specs on the E73 remain a totally mystery, though I’m sure we can expect it to run some form of Symbian.

While it’s nice to see Nokia get back in the T-Mobile game, is it too late?  Have Android, Blackberry and the coming resurgence of Windows Phone 7 all but eliminated the chances of a Nokia resurrecting itself? What say you?