New devices from Nokia have been a little thin on the ground this year, which is very much part of the company plan. So, any stray fruit following the shaking of the rumour tree is always welcome, which is why the potential news of a 4-inch Nokia E7 smartphone sounds appealing. Read on to find out what else, besides the Symbian^3 OS, the Nokia E7 has to offer...

Details of a device claiming to be the Nokia E7-00 have emerge from @asrialbaker, from i-Symbian.com, with the most interesting being the arrival of Nokia's first 4-inch touchscreen device. It gets better, not only will the Nokia E7 be running the Symbian^3 operating system, but the screen will be AMOLED so delivering the best possible image quality possible.

Check out our Nokia E72 review

Then there is the construction, which is thought at this stage to be anodised aluminium making the Nokia E7 incredibly strong but light. Measuring in at just 14mm, it's also going to be a compact little number. It's worth pointing out that the image on the screen above is a render, as no one at this stage isn't sure what the 'final' look will be.

What's more, rather like the Nokia N97 Mini, it will come with a tilting slider to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. No mention of processor speed at this stage but memory will consist of 256MB or RAM, 1024MB of ROM. The rumour rounds out with a claim of launch and on-sale of July 2010.

Now, the guys over unwiredview seem to think this device may well be the Nokia N98 that first appeared before Christmas. Whatever this device turns out to be it certainly looks novel and interesting. What do you think, do you want a 4-inch screen with full QWERTY or is that looking a little too big for every day use? Then again, does this seem like the natural device to take over from the Nokia E72 as the most loved messenger device? Let us know what you think in the Comments below.