Nokia E72 officially announced!

Just when we saw that leaked video of Nokia E72, the Finnish giant decided to push the button and announce the new device to the world. My initial impression is – WOW! It seems that the E72 fixes all the “problems” (if I could call them problems at all) of its predecessor – E71, and it even looks better.

Here’s what’s improved in the E72 when compared to the E71:

• 5 megapixel camera as opposed to E71’s 3.2 megapixels
• standard 3.5mm audio jack as opposed to 2.5mm
• new version of Quickoffice which can sing along Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Office 2007 files
• I also guess the E72 runs Symbian S60 3.2 (Feature pack 2) like AT&T (NYSE: T)’s E71x — E71 runs S60 3.1
• slightly improved keyboard, like the one found on the E63

Rest of the specs seem identical — we still wait for Forum Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to include the E72 in their list of devices when we’ll have all the specs — and include a GPS, WiFi, HSPA, Bluetooth, QVGA screen… you name it.

The Nokia E72 is expected to begin shipping in late Q3 2009 at an estimated retail price of 350 EUR before taxes and subsidies.

Update: Stefan here, Dusan is traveling today, and it looks like Forum Nokia finally uploaded the E72 to their website! It’s also on Nokia’s consumer website; not to mention Nokia’s Press site uploaded the datasheet (PDF file). Here are the highlights:

• 114 x 59.5 x 10.1 mm
• Three colors: Zodium Black, Metal Grey, Topaz Brown
• 128 g
• 2.36 inch display, 16.7 million colors
• Micro USB
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• Compass + GPS
• 1500 mAh battery
• GSM talk/standby: 12.5 hours/20 days
• 3G talk/standby: 6 hours/24 days
• Quad Band EDGE
• Tri Band HSPA! There will be two versions, one is  850/1900/2100 (NAM), the other is  900/1900/2100 (EU + ASIA)
• HSDPA maxes out at 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA maxes out at 2 Mbps
• WiFi b/g
• 640 x 480 video recording @ 15 frames per second
• And yes, Dusan’s hunch was correct, it runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2

Update: Stefan here again, one more thing, Mark from the Nokia Blog found some live pictures, told Engadget about them, and now I’ve embedded them after the jump!

Update: Third update, happy I’m not blasting your RSS reader with posts yet? Nokia Conversations uploaded this video. Towards the end there is a shot of the E72 in all 3 colors, I’ve taken a screen grab and posted it after the jump.

Update: Fourth update, only because I know how much people love comparison photos. These come from A Bugged Life:

E72 left, E71 right:

E72 bottom, E71 top:

Update: Fifth update: more live pictures added after the jump, this time from VR-Zone.