It’s finally happened.  There are now a bunch of prepaid smart phones available to you, the buying public.  Don’t you just love news like that?  You can now get smartphones without a contract.  For years, I suffered with a contract cell phone plan just for the pleasure of having a beautiful iPhone (and they really are beautiful).  But now that you can get smart phones from companies (all prepaid) like MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile, and Straight Talk, it’s opened up a whole new prepaid world where you don’t have to sign your life away in order to get a nice phone for daily use.

This article focuses on the Nokia E5 Straight Talk smartphone and the Nokia E71 smartphone.  These phones are two of the hottest prepaid phones out right now.  Available on the official Straight Talk website in and some WalMart stores across the country, these phones are being sold quite quickly.  One of the reasons these Straight Talk smartphones are flying off the shelves (and the Straight Talk smartphones aren’t alone–MetroPCS is moving some serious numbers too) is that they work with a top flight unlimited plan.  It’s only $45 per month and both of these phones run on this plan.  In fact, this plan is the only option you have for these phones.  You unfortunately don’t get to choose between the unlimited and the 1,000 minutes plan, which is $15 cheaper.

Still, the fact remains that you would probably want the unlimited plan anyways since it will give you the most bang for your buck with these smart phones.  Both phones let you manage email from multiple accounts, but the Nokia E5 may be the stronger at that particular task.  The Nokia E71 is supposed to have a stronger body, since the E5 is made mostly out of plastic except for the battery plate to the rear of the phone.  The E5 has a slightly more powerful screen and a less sticky keypad, but overall there are some very close similarities between these phones.