Nokia E61 Prototype B3.0 : The “Smailer” | Unreleased Rare Black and Silver colour
Type: RM-89
💎 Rarity Index: S (Ultra Rare)
👁 Evaluation in my collection: Great – 9.8/10
🕵 Nokia Codename: Smailer
⏱ Life timer: 0 | 📦 Boxed: NO
📅 Release Year: 2006 | 💰 Release Price: ~250 €
📊 Units Sold: ~1M (final units)
📰 Why this phone matters: This unit is a remarkable historic artefact: a prototype Smailer RM-89 hardware build of the Nokia E61, finished in an unreleased two-tone silver and black housing that never reached consumer production. The color layout is unlike any retail E61, combining a silver frame with a black upper section and a unique keypad palette that does not exist on final units. The keypad itself uses a mixed color scheme reminiscent of the later E62 look, but with a configuration that was never approved for market release.
Inside the casing you find the clearest testimony to its origin: model field XXXX, prototype build B3, product code 0523307, internal R&D IMEI beginning with 004400, and full Property Of Nokia, Not For Sale, Made In Finland labeling. This confirms the phone as an authentic preproduction engineering unit created during early development cycles before cosmetic design and final materials were locked down.
Externally the device presents the full QWERTY keyboard layout, 5-way joystick and wide landscape display that defined the E61 family. Yet this prototype stands apart because of its unreleased finish: a rare two-tone silver and black shell matched with a hybrid keypad coloring that blurs the line between E61 and E62 aesthetics. The magnesium-alloy structure and rugged business-class construction already appear in place, but the cosmetics clearly represent a transitional stage in Nokia’s decision process.
Although this prototype may never have carried final firmware or passed network certification, its hardware is essentially complete. It captures a frozen moment when Nokia was experimenting with materials, colors and layouts for what would become one of the defining smartphones of the business-centric Eseries. For collectors and historians, this unit is far more than a phone: it is a one-off window into Nokia’s internal design evolution, a rare glimpse of what the E61 might have looked like had this striking silver-and-black, E62-influenced combination reached the market.
📝 Reviews when released: All About Symbian 🔗