Nokia brings out three new smartphones, plus new Symbian Belle OS

24 Aug 2011

Struggling mobile giant Nokia has brought out three new mass-market smartphones powered by the latest Symbian Belle operating system and NFC (Near Field Communication) single tap sharing and pairing capability.

The three devices include: the Nokia 700, Nokia’s smallest smartphone; the Nokia 701: which the giant claims is its brightest smartphone; and the Nokia 600, which Nokia says is its loudest smartphone

The new devices work with a new range of NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as Bluetooth headphones and speakers, including the Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset, which can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together.

Symbian Belle increases the number of home screens from three to six providing more room to display applications and services. Live widgets, now come in five different sizes, making the home screens come alive and giving users more flexibility to personalize the user experience. It also includes a pull down menu and taskbar to access notifications from any of the home screens.

“After bringing exciting new features to the Symbian user experience only two months ago with Symbian Anna, we are now driving the platform even further with our most competitive Symbian user experience ever,” said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President at Nokia.

“Symbian Belle and the three new handsets we are launching today show our commitment to continue delivering Symbian products that allow people to choose what is most important to them in terms of user experience, design, functionality and price. These will not be last products or updates we will deliver on Symbian.”

Three new Symbian Belle handsets

At 50 cubic centimetres, weighing 96gm and at 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm, the Nokia 700 (pictured at top) comes with single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capabilities, a 1Ghz processor, 3.2 inch AMOLED screen ClearBlack display, 2GB of internal memory (with the option of using a 32GB microSD card for a total of 34GB), HD video capture and 5MP full focus camera with LED flash.

The Nokia 701 (pictured below) is based on a 3.5 inch ClearBlack display. It also has active noise cancellation for and provides single-tap NFC pairing and sharing capabilities, allowing content to be shared and sound to be streamed wirelessly to headphones and NFC-enabled speakers. Based on the Nokia C7 design, the Nokia 701 smartphone also has a 1GHz processor, 8MP full focus camera with dual LED flash and 2 X digital zoom, 2nd front-facing camera and HD video capture. It comes with 8GB internal memory and the possibility to increase to 40GB by installing a 32GB microSD card.

Nokia 701

The Nokia 600 smartphone (pictured below) comes with built-in FM radio antenna for listening to radio without headphones and FM transmitter that makes it possible to broadcast music from your phone to any FM radio, the Nokia 600 is a music-lover’s dream. With 60 hours of music playback time, it also has the ability to stream music wirelessly to NFC-enabled accessories.Nokia 600

 

Available at a lower price point than the Nokia 700 and Nokia 701, the Nokia 600 still comes with a 1 GHz processor; 5MP full focus camera with LED flash and HD video capture, and 2GB of internal memory with ability to increase to 34GB using a 32GB microSD card.

“With the announcement today Nokia has made it clear that Symbian will continue to play an important role in its product portfolio alongside Windows Phone 7,” said Nick McQuire IDC. “There is a sense of urgency in the way improvements and innovation are being delivered to the platform that demonstrates how committed Nokia is to make Symbian products a competitive smartphone choice.”

Below: The Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset, which can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together

Nokia NFC headset

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com