…to bloat up a perfectly good phone. AT&T announced that they are finally going to be selling the Nokia E71x, their locked down version of the Nokia E71. The good thing about this is that it’s a S60 device on a major US carrier, which doesn’t seem to happen much. The bad thing about this is that when a carrier (at least in the US) gets a hold of a sleek new device that runs great, they love to add all of their extra crap to slow the device down and try to persuade users to buy their Java games and apps through their “app store”.

I absolutely hate this practice and believe that when you first boot the phone up, you should have an opt-out choice. Most of the stuff that may be useful is available to the general public anyway, so it’s not like the carriers are doing anything but stealing device memory (which you most likely cannot reclaim) and infecting your phone with trial-ware and other crap that you will never need.

What else was removed?

The front-facing camera that is in the unlocked E71s. I have not found much use for mine yet, but I hate the fact that AT&T actually made Nokia remove this. I guess they are afraid of people using Skype for video conference without using their minutes, but it’s just another reason I hate US carriers.

Matt Miller was able to grab a nice comparison shot between the E71x and unlocked E71 while at CTIA this week:

Down with crapware and gimping phones just because the carrier doesn’t like a feature!

[Images via Nokia Experts]

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