Cingular has officially launched the Nokia 9300 Communicator for direct consumer sales. This handset was being sold since November, but only to business customers.

The 9300 is one of Nokia's Series-80 devices and has an extensive feature set. Its main draws are the lack of WiFi and high speed 3G networks.

Its main features include a 65.000 color (640 x 200 pixels resolution) screen, EDGE and 80 MB of memory with an expandable 2GB optional MMC card. The infrared and Bluetooth capabilities give users two wireless ways to send or receive data to/from a PC or laptop.

The Nokia 9300 seems to be the first US device that includes BlackBerry Connect, software that lets users connect to Blackberry e-mail systems. Unfortunately for potential US customers, an update to the device, called 9300i, is already available only in Europe.
Looks like the updated 9300i includes all the features of the 9300, with the addition of 802.11g WiFi network access.

The Nokia 9300 is available from Cingular for the price of $299.99 after a $50.00 rebate and a 2-year contract.