Nokia prepping updated QWERTY E-Series smartphone?

CNET Australia's Joseph Hanlon has made an interesting discovery at Showcase Nokia 2008 in Sydney - a secret 'side-by-side photo' of the E61i (Nokia's current QWERTY candybar smartphone) and its successor, the E71.

There have been a few rumours floating around about the E71 and the picture that CNET is advertising looks very much like the last mockup we saw a few months ago. However, we've actually got some specs to speak of. We could be seeing:

• HSDPA 3.6Mbps
• WiFi (most likely 802.11b/g)
• Bluetooth
• microSD support
• 3.2 megapixel camera (up from the E61i's 2 megapixel)
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• GPS

The E71 also looks to be far more compact than its older sibling, being only 57mm wide and only 10mm thick - something we'd like to see to believe.

If CNET is right, we should be seeing this sometime in late Q2 2008.

[via CNET Australia]