I lost an E71, and was really happy to know that AT&T started selling it for only $99. Then I went to an AT&T store, used it, and realized that AT&T replaced many of the E71 features with proprietary programs that in many cases cost money to use. I ended up buying an E71 unlocked on Amazon for $300.

Why do carriers do this? I would have gladly given AT&T my money and signed up for a 2 year contract if the phone they sold wasn't crippled.

If you think that Danish carriers suck, then you clearly haven't researched those in the US. Not only are our phone guarantees voided by debranding, but they are locked to one network indefinitely (especially for the carriers that don't use SIM cards). Oh yeah, and we have to pay more for the service and the phone.

This is my main concern with AT&T Nokia phones... when the E71x came out for $99 I was really excited until I found out how much the firmware sucksed. I ended up buying an unlocked E71 for $300 just to get Nokia's original OS.

Nokia should really do something about this, because many people in the US are getting the wrong opinion of Nokia's phones just because of AT&T's crapware.

I bet the surge would be a fantastic phone if it had the original Nokia S60. :(

I'm not entirely sure why they are hating on the web browser so much... if it's the same one the E71 has, it's perfectly capable of handling pretty much any webpage. I use a gigabyte or so of data every month on my E71.

I would pay 600 for one as well.

Why would they make it exclusive to sprint? It seems like kind of a stupid idea.

I love you!

I am currently in high school in the US and know at least 5 people who have an E71, and it gets compliments pretty much every week to this day.

The point is not that you can't listen with other earphones. The point is that you can't change the volume, skip songs, or pause the music without carrying around Apple-licensed earphones.

Yeah, best purchase I ever made. Many of my iPod-carrying friends envy me (oh man, it's small AND it has a screen??)

Or, say, you could get a Sansa Clip with an actual screen, actual buttons, and an FM radio that works with all headphones.

...I really don't see why anyone would get this unless they are already locked in to the iTunes system.