We're not going to kid you, the
already leaked C5 is not going to woo many smartphone hunters as we traditionally understand this defining term for high-end handsets. Although Nokia dubs it as such, the 2.2-inch display riding 2GB of microSD storage and S60 3rd OS just doesn't hold up. It does, however, come with Nokia Messaging baked in as well as GPS with free Ovi Maps turn-by-turn navigation making it a heck of a featurephone
for the price: just €135 (about $183) unlocked, before taxes and any carrier subsidies are applied. So what we're looking at here is execution of Nokia's strategy to push Symbian downward throughout its product catalog as
Maemo, eh hem,
MeeGo starts filling in the top slots (give it a few years). Besides complicating smartphone
marketshare reports, the emergence of the handset also confirms Nokia's new Cseries of middling devices while giving credence to the
Nokia roadmap leaked last month. So while the C5 might not tickle your fancy, maybe the rumored 12 megapixel N8-00 with 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen rumored to be launching this summer will.
posted March 2nd 2010 3:25AM
I kinda like the way it looks.
As additional it is finally not an overrated smartphone, what you sync with your lappy, your main comp, and your several other devices.
I hope Nokia finally gets exposed for their lack of innovation and vision and that the company gets sunk ceremoniously unless they can finally pull their socks up and produce something that actually functions the way people expect. The "people like buying what they are familiar with" excuse needs to be dropped, their laziness can't be masked any longer. They have been riding this Symbian wave for far too long and for some reason they think it's still the way forward. All their phones over the last few years have basically been the same. The shape might differ slightly but essentially nothing changes. Give people something they want Nokia!! Don't do what you're doing yet again here and call something a smart phone when it might have been 5 or even more years ago, it no longer counts! Be gone with you.
@Punisher
"Give people something they want Nokia!!"
You seriously think an internet gadget site is the place where they should see when deciding what kind of phones they should make?
According to market share and how many phones they sell I guess they are already doing what you suggest.
Funny, when I got my Nokia 6650, it was not classed as a smartphone by Nokia or AT&T, and yet it is running S60 3rd edition, which makes it a smartphone. It handles multitasking well too. It is actually just a flip version of the E71x without the full QWERTY keyboard.
But I guess that is the good thing of having a smartphone in disguise. Then you don't have to pay AT&T for the privilege.
@iamdigitalman
"Funny, when I got my Nokia 6650, it was not classed as a smartphone by Nokia"
Uh... yes they do. About half Nokia's smartphone sales come from letter series (N and E) and the rest from numbered series (mainly 5xxx and 6xxx).
I like that Nokia is targeting the low end and still giving them a smartphone based OS, but this is kind of pitiful. The non-touch screen, 2.2" screen is a joke, and the fact that it's running S60 3rd, which is from fucking 2005, is proof that Nokia has no idea what it's doing with Symbian.
They had a chance to do something significant here. Really. Give it a slightly larger touch screen and S60 5th, price it at $200-$250 and you could really make moves in the US smartphone market. This could be decent Palm Pixi competitor. Instead you choose to hemorrhage more and more marketshare away to Apple, Google, and Blackberry by making stupid moves like this.
@kenny goo
It's not for the US market. Do try to keep up.
@MarkAnderson
I realize that. And if they at least give it S60 5th, if not a slight spec increase and a $200 price point they *could* make moves in the US market and sell this here, but they don't even try that. Instead they're hoping the Nuron is gonna work out on T-Mobile, which I have some doubts of.
Sounds like a huge conspiracy to me.
Apple's impending release of the iPad requires that they attempt to dominate printed media by paying off corporate favors to Aol-Time Warner, who must then capitulate by forcing its editors to write negative articles about Nokia's upcoming affordable phones, a market where Apple has no presence. Thomas Ricker writes the article. He then died. Check for Zima on his breath.
Nokia is huge outside the US. alot americans are tech lazy, they are the iphone users. It is flashy, fancy, not all that pretty, and has no menu. Now, when i say menu, i mean that there is no dedicated button you press that will give you access to apps, music, gallery, connections, etc, the thing every other phone has. They want it always there in front of them, which is what apple gave them, and they gobbled it down.
Symbian is the smartest and simplest OS out there, and Nokia knows that, plus with a price like that, their market will only get bigger. Europe, Asia and almost everywhere else will pick that phone up. I might even pick it up, will be my back up phone.
While I'm not a fan of S60v3 anymore, calling it a feature phone is not a good idea. It actually is a true Smartphone OS. It can do anything a smartphone can do. Now Symbian is moving towards featurephone status but S60v3 is a full smartphone without the jazz of newer touch interfaces.