It's not hard to find Nokia users that believe the E71 is the finest S60 device (if not the finest device, period) that the company has ever made, so expectations for the E72 are at a stratospheric high. Impatience for a retail release is also at a stratospheric high, coincidentally, so Americans will be pleased to see that Amazon now has the unlocked North American version of the "zodium black" phone listed for $469 -- without a release date, unfortunately, so it's still a guessing game as to when these will actually be shipping out. All things considered, it's not a bad price for an unbranded phone of the E72's capabilities, but when you figure how easy it's been to find awesome deals on North American Nokias around the interwebs this year, it still might give some potential buyers pause -- just imagine if it were $299?

[Thanks, Ani]

It's not going to turn as many heads as the recently-launched N97 update, but Nokia's other S60 5th Edition handset got its own firmware boost earlier this week. Version 21.2.025 for the NAM 5800 XpressMusic doesn't seem to do much in the way of new features, so odds are this is going out strictly as a stability release -- which, in itself, is a testament to the fact that Nokia seems to care more about the North American market right now than it ever has before. Keep it coming, guys.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

We've just taken delivery of one of the very first retail Nokia N97s ever to be sold anywhere, and we wanted you to revel in the experience with us. We haven't formed any impressions yet, but we're being told that the retail device includes some last-minute improvements to keyboard feel -- and we can confirm that it feels pretty usable (the tiny right-aligned space bar could still be an issue for some, though). Stay tuned over the coming days for plenty of coverage on this sucker, but for now, enjoy a quick unboxing, won't you?

The Nokia Blog's got it on good authority that the Finnish phone maker's giving its North America distributors the heads up to expect the N97 to arrive on June 2nd for $699, although that price might end up lower. We've been hearing an expected June launch for some time, so it's definitely not out of the question. This does, however, serve as both an exciting and somewhat painful reminder that, should a couple other rumors pan out, June's gonna be a busy month for smartphones.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We can understand that Nokia would want to charge a little bit of an "early adopter fee" to anyone nabbing an E75 on day one -- but we also figured it wouldn't last long at the original $529.99 seeing how the similarly-equipped E71 is way, way less. Fortunately, the discount came even quicker than we'd expected. The company's US flagship stores will be charging $429.99 this weekend only for the dual-keypad business slider, a price that makes it a whole lot more palatable when put in context of the entire product lineup. Thing is, the E71's officially $289.99 for those same two magical days -- so it's still got some catching up to do before the new-phone-smell premium evaporates altogether.

If you're up for a trip to New York or Chicago (both are lovely this time of year), you now have a shot at scoring the North American version of Nokia's landscape QWERTY slider, the E75. Of course, "scoring" costs you $529.99 in this case -- and you can only get it in black right now -- but if you spend a lot of time in the seedier parts of either of these towns, the concept of scoring for several hundred dollars should be very familiar.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

We'd initially been told that the first round of bunk Nokia 5800s for the North American market would have to be exchanged despite the fact that the 3G reception fix was a simple "configuration change," but now... not so much. Firmware 20.2.014 has just gone live through Nokia's Software Update application, bringing the same rich, buttery 3G quality to buyers of those first few devices. Other than that, changes are unknown and presumed to be minor, so if you're still struggling with getting your 5800 to appreciate the finer things in life -- like HSDPA, for example -- give this one a shot.

[Via Symbian Freak]

Update: We've been contacted by Nokia and told that the "configuration change" cannot, in fact, be fixed via firmware update. Sorry, early adopters, looks like you're in for a date with customer care after all.

We received a call this afternoon from our good friends at the Nokia flagship store in Chicago to let us know that the updated North American version of the 5800 XpressMusic is now in stock and ready to go. This means that existing owners should be good to exchange their units, and of course, new buyers can go ahead and dive in. Not all at once now -- we don't want riots at the entrance, now, do we?

Yes, the business end of the current N85 is black -- but for most North American buyers, flipping the thing around reveals a copper back. Stylish, yes -- nice, sure -- but it's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea. For you stealthier types, it seems that an all-black version is starting to circulate with retailers, featuring a light gray pattern on the back to complement the 5 megapixel cam. Seems that vendors are taking advantage of the situation and jacking the price of the new version just a tad, but just look at that beaut -- can you blame 'em?

It's official: Nokia has a fix. It seems that a "configuration change" -- which we're assuming means a software-based setting of some sort -- was responsible for the 3G disaster on the first batch of North America-spec 5800 XpressMusics to hit the market, and the company has been able to fast-track a new firmware (not a common occurrence for those guys, but clearly, time was of the essence here). Revised units will be on sale "shortly," while existing owners are being asked to call Nokia's customer care, or alternatively, they can step into a flagship store to have their device exchanged. Too bad we can't update these things ourselves, but at least we get the pleasure of unboxing it all over again, eh? Follow the break for the full statement.

When you're dealing with a major signal reception issue on a phone, it's easy to believe that the problem isn't gonna go away without retooling the innards and releasing revised hardware -- but for North American owners (and would-be owners) of Nokia's stricken NAM version of the 5800 XpressMusic, there's new hope. The Nokia Blog is claiming that word from an inside source confirms that the problem has already been fixed with an unreleased firmware update, which would lead us to believe that Nokia could conceivably get devices back on the shelves relatively quickly -- and that current owners will be able to fix their woes without physically exchanging phones. Of course, firmware updates have never come out of Espoo at a firehose pace -- particularly for North American versions of devices -- so we'll believe this is resolved when we've seen it with our own eyes.

This whole 3G performance thing on the North American version of Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic is shaping up to be one of the great made-for-TV gadget industry dramas of the year. First it didn't work, then we found that it kinda did, and now Nokia has put out a totally cryptic statement that clarifies little about what's going on (likely because they don't know either, if we had to guess). In a nutshell, they're acknowledging that "some" NAM 5800s are having issues, they're investigating why, and owners are advised to contact Nokia Customer Care. Here's where it gets crazy, though: they go on to say "only NY and Chicago affected, in Dallas and Miami the devices are working OK. The investigation is ongoing on the device itself and the network used in these cases." It's possible that there's a very specific combination of equipment being used in these two markets that's causing the 5800s to choke, but in all likelihood, it has more to do with the spectrum in use -- in which case, the problem is probably far more widespread than just two cities. If this shakes out to be a hardware issue and Nokia's gotta send 'em back to the labs to get retooled for a few weeks or months, are they better off canning the model and moving on?

While we did manage to eventually commandeer 3G on our Nokia flagship store-purchased NAM 5800 XpressMusic -- albeit not first without leaving the Chicago area -- The Nokia Blog went by the NYC store yesterday afternoon and found out the phone had been pulled from shelves. We put in a call to the store ourselves and confirmed that the NAM version is currently being eschewed in favor of the Euro-spec edition. No word on when it'll return, but we're still waiting anxiously for Nokia's official statement on the matter.

We powered up ye olde NAM 5800 XpressMusic today, and the weirdest thing happened: it worked on 3G. This comes after a day of frustration trying to get it hooked up to UMTS yesterday -- a sentiment echoed by several others who took the plunge. The only theory we can come up with is that we were in Chicago yesterday at the Nokia flagship store -- a place where many of the "defective" units were sold -- and today we're elsewhere, so it's conceivable that there's an issue with AT&T's 3G network in Chicago. We've noticed an uptick in 3G loss on other devices in Chicago the past few days, so it's possible that the 5800 is just particularly sensitive to crappy networks; then again, there seem to be others in New York that have the same issue, so it's anybody's guess. All we know for sure is that we're showing a big, fat "3.5G" logo in the upper left corner of our unit at the moment -- and we're going to cross our fingers that it stays that way. We have a request out to Nokia for official comment on the issue, and we'll let you know as soon as we have more.

So when Nokia said "in the coming weeks" at CES, we definitely expected the North American E63 to be available in the US before now. But hey, if you've hung in there this long, there's nothing sweeter than snagging a device you've been longing after for longer than originally anticipated. According to Symbian-Guru, the Chicago flagship location has received stock of the blue model, while the red flavor should be arriving at any moment; there's been no direct word on stock at the New York location, but we can't imagine the Nokia mother-ship leaving those in the Big Apple hanging. In case you've forgotten, $279.99 buys you a QWERTY-packin' S60 handset, though you should be absolutely sure you're okay without HSDPA.