In pics: Nokia's new phones

In pics: Nokia's new phones

As the annual GSMA Mobile World Congress began in Barcelona, the slowdown pangs were palpable. The event known for its eye-catching launches looks muted this time, with a thin array of product rollouts. Among these are some additions to Nokia’s line-up. The world's no. 1 cellphone manufacturer took stage on day 1 of the show to announce two new business handsets, the super-thin E55 and the sliding E75. The company also launched two phones in its Navigator series, 6710 and 6720. And far from Mobile World Congress, the company made another big launch: Nokia N86, company's entry into the `fat' megapixel cellphone club. Here's further looking into the Nokia's new line-up.

E55

Nokia showed its thinnest smartphone ever, E55, at the mobile show event What makes E55 Nokia's thinnest ever smartphones are its keys. Nokia claims it is the company's first compact QWERTY device, and has half as many keys as the company's previous thinnest smartphone, E71. The phone is also Nokia's first smartphone with the longest battery life of up to a month on standby time. E55 runs on Nokia's S60 software and has an AGPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) receiver, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a 2.4-inch, 320x240 pixel screen and a 3.2 megapixel camera. It also packs a 3.5mm headphone socket for listening to the digital music player or the built-in FM radio and support for Nokia's Ngage gaming platform. According to Nokia's executive vice president Kai Oistamo, "The Eseries phones have traditionally been seen as enterprise devices, but the E now stands for efficiency." The phone will ship in the second quarter for around (US$340).

E75

Nokia also unveiled the successor to the 9000 series Communicators, E75. The phone sports a QWERTY keyboard that slides out from behind the 2.4-inch, 320x240 pixel display, and a regular dialling keypad just below the display. The phone packs a 3.2 megapixel camera, AGPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM radio and music player. Nokia's executive vice president said, "E75 simplifies connection to Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, POP3 and IMAP e-mail services, or Web mail services such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail." E75 will ship in March for €375 before subsidies and taxes. Nokia claimed that E75 will be the first device to provide access to corporate email through the Nokia Messaging service at no extra cost. Nokia plans to make it available across all Eseries models and 40 other devices, extending push e-mail to over 100 million Nokia users.

6710 Navigator

Nokia also pulled curtains off its new entrant in the Navigator range, 6710 Navigator, its follow-up to 6210 Navigator. The phone's 2.6-inch 240 x 320 pixel display has been optimised for outdoors use with a light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the display according to the environment. 6710 Navigator packs AGPS receiver and Nokia Maps software featuring navigation tools for pedestrians. The device has a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, Bluetooth, WiFi and support for push email. Nokia's mapping and navigation solution has been upgraded, and comes with a dedicated key on 6710 Navigator. Navigation has also been integrated with Ovi, allowing easy synchronisation between a PC and the phone. The phone also comes with full voice guidance. The phone is a quad-band GSM with support for tri-band UMTS (depending on region). Both HSDPA and HSUPA high-speed data is supported. 6710 comes with an FM radio and 3.5mm audio socket. It will ship in the third quarter for around €300 before tax and subsidies.

Nokia 6720 Classic

Nokia also unveiled an entry in the classic range, Nokia 6720 Classic. The phone packs plenty of GPS features, including Nokia Maps 3.0 with integrated A-GPS, City compass, map rotation and pre-installed maps in microSD. 6720 Classic sports a 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and full panorama support. The phone runs on Symbian S60 with GPS and offers 3.5G support. The phone is capable to geo-tag locations and can be shared over high-speed HSDPA technology. It also support's the company's NGage gaming platform. Nokia said that the handset will come with `active noise cancellation' for clearer voice calls. It will offer around 8.5 hours of talk time, over 20 days of standby time, around 9 hours of video playback and 27 hours for music. It will also deliver almost 14 hours of GPS pedestrian navigation and over 7 hours of in-car navigation. Nokia 6720 classic is expected to ship in the second quarter with an estimated retail price of $313.

Nokia N86

Away from all action at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia launched its 8 megapixel phone, N86, in Singapore. The phone boasts of 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens camera with auto-focus running on Symbian OS. The phone has dual flash LED, 8GB of internal memory. The slider phone has a 2.6-inch non-touchscreen OLED display and packs aGPS, microSD slot (up to 16GB) and 11.5 hours of standby battery time with 3G enabled. Incidentally, Sony Ericsson too showed of its 8 and 12 megapixel camera phones in Barcelona on the same day.