Nokia E72 NAM Approved by the FCC

The sight of devices passing the FCC's battery of tests usually means that they are nearly ready to be introduced for sale, and this is likely the case for the already-announced Nokia E72 QWERTY smartphone.

The version of this device that appeared at the FCC website earlier this week will be a quad-band GSM phone that offers the 850, 1900, and 2100 MHz HSPA bands.

There is no logo on the unit in the pictures submitted to this government agency, so it's possible this will be another Nokia model offered directly to the public, not through a wireless carrier.

More about the Nokia E72
Nokia E72 will continue the emphasis on communication seen in many recent smartphones from this company. It will ship with Symbian S60 Feature Pack 2 (v3.2), and an advanced version of the Nokia Messaging application which features personal and corporate email, as well as instant messaging support.

Despite being a QWERTY device -- similar to the E71 and E71x -- the E72 will feature an optical navigation pad in lieu of a traditional directional pad.

It will also have:

• A 5 MPx digital camera with flash, auto-focus, and geo-tagging ability
• A 3.5 mm headset jack
• A new voice control function which enables control of the entire device
• Built-in mobile VPN
• Hardware-accelerated data encryption with remote lock and wipe abilities
• QuickOffice v5.3 supporting Microsoft Office 2007 documents
• and more

Pricing and Availability
The E72 has already been announced to appear in European markets in late Q3 at a price of about 350 Euros before taxes and subsidies.

The North American variant (E72-2 or E72 NAM) that has just received FCC approval has not been given a release date window, nor possible pricing.

Source: FCC via Engadget Mobile