Nokia C3, C6, and E5 try to smarten up the dumbphone market
By Thomas Ricker 
posted April 13th 2010 4:00AM
posted April 13th 2010 4:00AM
Let's start things off with the colorful C3-00 (available Q2 for €90 pre-tax and pre-subsidy) -- Nokia's first Series 40 QWERTY. The quad-band GSM candybar crams its social networking tools onto a 2.4-inch QVGA homescreen with Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi, and 55MB of internal memory (and up to 8GB supported on microSD) coming along for the ride. It's also packing the Opera Mini browser in addition to the standard Webkit fare for browsing the mobile internet on the C3's paltry EGPRS data connection. But hey, €90. Moving on, we've got the more ambitious C6-00 (Q2, €220) 4-row QWERTY slider with quad-band GSM/EDGE and quad-band HSDPA/UMTS on the 850/900/1900/2100 frequencies. The familiar looking C6 runs S60 5th on that 3.2-inch nHD (640 x 360 pixel) touchscreen (resistive, we presume) with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera and flash riding the backside. Of course, it also features integrated A-GPS for free Ovi Maps turn-by-turn navigation as is the case for all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones. Finally we've got the E5-00 (Q3, €180) for those in need of a S60 3rd device that's a bit more business-minded than the C3 but twice the price (but still cheap). That means tri-band UMTS, A-GPS, WiFi and another unfortunate 2.4-inch LCD. Full press release after the break.
Social networking and messaging brought to life with the Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5.
Espoo, Finland – Nokia has announced three new handsets – the Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5 – designed to put better messaging and social networking tools in the hands of more people around the world, at affordable prices. These new handsets feature full QWERTY keyboards, and enable access to a range of different email accounts, IM communities and social networks. "Our messaging device range is very successful," said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's Head of Markets. "Services that provide easy access to the world's consumer and corporate email and instant messaging are really popular on our QWERTY smartphones such as the Nokia E71 and Nokia E63. People want the best messaging and social networking experience on an affordable device, whether it's sending a simple text or instant message, an email, or a direct message from their Twitter account. The Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5 are made for just that."
The Nokia C3 is the first device to bring a full QWERTY keyboard to the world's most popular mobile phone platform – Series 40 – and is the first in the range to enable access to social networks directly on the homescreen. People can view, comment, update their status and share pictures to their favourite social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
At an estimated price of EUR 90, before taxes and subsidies, the Nokia C3 also comes with Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat, meaning first time users can set up email and chat accounts straight from the device, without the need for a PC. Other notable features are the Wi-Fi connectivity, a two megapixel camera, rich colour 2.4 inch screen and support for up to an 8GB memory card. The Nokia C3 is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2010 in a variety of appealing colours, including golden white, slate grey and hot pink.
The Nokia C6 is a Symbian-based smartphone combining the benefits of a 3.2 inch touch screen with a full slide out keyboard. The large screen provides a great Internet experience, as well as offering access to Facebook feeds directly on the homescreen. A full suite of email and social networking capabilities means the Nokia C6 is perfect for people who want to stay up to date while on the go.
Expected to be available in the second quarter of 2010 at an estimated price of EUR 220, before taxes and subsidies, the Nokia C6 has an impressive feature set including a high quality five megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, and Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation. In addition, thousands of apps – from games and videos to news aggregators and web services – are available in the Ovi Store.
Rounding off the trio is the latest addition to the Nokia Eseries range, the Nokia E5. Designed for those that want to be productive in both their professional and personal lives, the Symbian-based Nokia E5 follows the successful blueprint of devices such as the Nokia E72 and Nokia E63. The Nokia E5 combines high quality business features with all of the personal networking and entertainment capabilities that a busy professional expects from a smartphone.
The Nokia E5 is perfect for managing busy schedules with a variety of productivity applications available in the Ovi Store. And with direct access to over 90 percent of the world's corporate email through Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, it's easy to keep in contact from anywhere.
Estimated price of the Nokia E5 is EUR 180, before taxes and subsidies, with expected availability in the third quarter of 2010.
Looking nice but we want to know about the new N series handset with xenon flash, there are so many handsets on the market & about to be released Nokia needs to pull its finger out & announce that there new flagship phone will be other wise they will loose more market share.
@Newwales
That will also come soon. They are just waiting for the right moment to announce. They are still ironing out the S^3, which is supposed to be complete at the end of Q2, i believe. So you should see a new device launching(not shipping) at the end of Q2 or start of Q3.
@Newwales
maybe in the US only mate, Nokia's doing just fine in Europe and China and the emerging markets sector.
@williamlau05 Hopefully these phones will appeal to the american youth & give Nokia a greater presents in the US, I dont know why the Nokia is not big in the US as they have always make fantastic phones, the only problem with Nokia is there touchscreen phones have been a bit lacklustre & hopefully theres & symbian^3 (when released) will increase the sale of nokia in the US.
Very good work Nokia, keep them coming.
@Newwales
N8 will be here this April. Confirmed by Eldar i think?
I'm waiting for that N8 too most of all.
@Newwales, Nokia have always been somewhat reluctant on letting operators strip their phones off of features, and USofA operators just love to do that. They also like to sell their device immediately instead of striking deals where operators will pay them monthly for each sold device. And they also ain't fans of non-GSM cell networks (which is quite understandable - they own like 70% of all the crucial GSM patents).
Those things made it hard for Nokia to penetrate the USofA market where the 'rules' were quite different than in the rest of the world, and allowed Motorola and RIM to grab a huge portion of cell phone market. Similarly, you'll hardly see much of Motorola and RIM (and even Apple) in the rest of the world. Actually, Nokia is still following those principles much more than anyone else, that's why even in Europe if you want to grab a subsidized phone you'll get only a handful, usually lower-spec, Nokia headsets to choose, while you'll have a choice over a dozen of Samsung, SE and LG headsets. And I guess the same deal is in Asia and Africa as well. But since Europeans are quite used on switching operators quite regularly, or purchasing prepaid SIMs whenever they go abroad to save on roaming charges, people rarely purchase subsidized phones locking them in a contract for years - at least when it comes to high-end feature phones and smartphones.
I don't see the situation changing in the near future. Nokia is quite content with their absolute dominance in the rest of the world, especially in the emerging markets. Certainly enough content to care for the tiny fraction that USofA market is. They'll most likely be cooperative with USofA operators, but they will have to agree on Nokia's terms, not other way around, and as I don't see that happening in the near future, I don't see how the current situation will change. Maybe now when they've partnered up with Intel things start moving in more USofA-friendly way... We'll just have to wait and see...
@Newwales
i dont know what you mean, whats the point in bringing out a flagship phone if only, for example, 2 people can buy it, what theyve done is made a phone where 22 people could buy it.
great thinking on nokias part, its about time someone tried to bridge the smartphone/dumbphone divide
i may look into one if my bank balance keep getting lower and lower at its current rate :P
integrated A-GRS for free Ovi Maps>>>> A-GPS
Nokia is killing blackberry market slowly
@travisonfire
I agree, i can easily see that C3 and E5 are direct attack at Blackberry in India at-least and Micro-max mobile (a new local company selling similar cheap QWERTY phones).
Meh ok low and mid devices.
Waiting for that N8 that should be here this month.
Two of the three of them are smartphones. Waving your arms around going "It's not a smartphone OS!" didn't work last time and it's not going to convince anyone now.
@sockatume
Wait you mean, even though the mighty North America ignores Nokia and looks down on Symbian, it doesn't automatically make them irrelevant and their OS obsolete?
@sockatume
I don't think that's what Thomas is saying at all. He's saying that they're bringing Smartphones down to the price points at which you'd usually only see dumbphones and hence trying to "Smarten up the dumbphone market."
Utter failure. They sure failed to impress the crowd with these dumbphones that sport the already failed Symbian OS.
@jussipussi
Idiot.
@JFH
HA! ...nice
@jussipussi
Sir you are an absoluter nutta! I don't think you've ever own a symbian driven mobile phone.
@jussipussi
Sir you are an absolute nutta! I don't think you've ever own a symbian driven mobile phone.
@Nino
You have to understand him. He's mad because they didn't hire him as a janitor to Keilaniemi offices. And he applied twice. First time after he dropped out from high school and second time he failed as an adult film actor.
Where do dumbphones end and smartphones begin these days?
Because these phones don't seem to offer much, if anything, less than the original iPhone -- the $600 phone without GPS, expandable storage or a camera flash -- which just three years ago was considered by many to be the second coming of "smartphones."
@nak
The last main difference was with native apps, more advanced apps and full customizing the OS, and trying to be a pocket or phone sized computer.
Apart from that nothing in fact Windows Phone 7 could easily be classed as a dumbphone compared to Windows Mobile, Android.
@OCEAN CLAK
By your example the Iphone qualifies as a dumb phone, customize the OS ? not on an iPhone.
These are smartphones Engadget get over yourselves.
@fourthletter
until they implement app switching, iPhone isn't a smartphone IMO. Native apps blurred the line, but they got the smartphone love before they had an SDK.
If they added Qt app support to S40, does it become a smartphone, too?
Remember hand calculators?
Uber-expensive to expensive to not-too-bad to cheap to giveaways.
Commodityville - a killer destination for small manufacturers to have to go (and quote a few big manufacturers, too).
@nak, from the first days of a `smartphone`, much before Apple stepped in the game, headsets with following features were considered smartphones:
1) Ability to run native 3rd party applications
2) Ability to run multiple applications at once
3) Expandable storage
4) Computer-like OS
They were touted as `smartphones` because they were more of pocket computers than phones. By those standards, iPhone is not yet a smartphone, but nor is any Android headset (non-native environment, although that line is blurring with further Android fragmentation). In strict, old-days terms, only WinMo 6.5 (and earlier), Symbian and Maemo based headsets can be called - smartphones.
But that line, separating dumb/feature phones and smartphones has been long gone due to the market fragmentation and general advances in dumb/feature phones. Even if you go by the previous 4 bullet-points, you'll get to a point where you'll call an s40 device a - smartphone - it can run 3rd party J2ME apps and web apps (how is it any different than Android and webOS?), it can do rudimentary mutitasking (at least on par with the iPhone), it has expandable storage, and it has an OS that allows all that so it's more of a computer-like OS than it is phone-centric OS.
The only way to distinguish today's dumb/feature phones from smartphones seems to be the hardware and, consequentially, the price.
@fourthletter
If you jail break it you can and a lot more, plus now has multitask
@OCEAN CLAK
"If you jail break it you can and a lot more, plus now has multitask"
Since when we call plasebos, real medicines?
Meh. It's the same old business model of Nokia, release dozens of boring models every couple of months.
BTW, SE is also releasing a new Walkman phone, the "Spiro." More dumbphones aplenty.
@pika2000
You are right, but you are not. These are not dumbphones.
Cool, we're getting there, still not cheap enough to make me want to upgrade from my Sony Ericsson k800i though.
If i loose or break this one today I will probably go out and buy another one.BEST PHONE EVER!!
I really don't understand why Microsoft and Nokia are pushing out these midway phones. People don't want a cheap facsimile of a smartphone, they want a smartphone that's CHEAPER.
Dumbphones still exist because there are still people who only use their phones for calls (and they'll continue to exist as long as the 50 and over continue to age) and because less expensive smartphones don't yet exist. I like the idea of a phone with nice hardware (yeah, a 5 MP camera is downright decent), but until you can shove a Snapdragon into a phone and sell it for $20, there really shouldn't be a market eagerly awaiting these Nokia/MS Kin phones.
@Dante of the Inferno : These actually are smartphones, except the C3 which is probably bound for development markets.
@Dante of the Inferno
I bet you are from US. That's the fundamental shift in thinking. You think that having a snapdragon is a requirement for a smart-phone.
Of the above 3, C6 and E5 are real smartphones, with many features not even available in current iphone or similar phones. These have real multitasking, folder creation (both these still not available in iphone as of now) and also have plenty of apps suitable for most people's needs + free navigation, that too offline, no data needed.
Now, the only way to check this out yourself is to have one of these phones for 1 month and you will realize yourself how much these phones are worthy every buck spent on them.
Ofcz, they will have their own cons, but if you are open minded and have some patience, pros are far more than cons.
@Dante of the Inferno
The thign is that Symbian is more smartphone than iphone easily. Dare i say even more than Android too. The multitasking have been there gor 8 years already with so many other thigns that are just coming to Android. Is the experience as nice, no imo.
It's good to remember that actually these phones are the thing that sells. 5800 have sold +14 million while N97 around 4.
While Symbian^3 doesn't yet offer anything amazing i'm eagerly waiting for N8.
@hary536
lol, i totally agree with your first sentence.
@Pdexter
But that's the problem. You say "yeah, it's a quaint, ok phone, but I'll hold out for the better smartphone." How many of your less-wealthy, tech-loving friends are going to jump on a phone like this? Will they wait for the better phone, like you are, or are they going to say that this is too expensive for the features and keep a dumbphone? I'm more inclined to believe that most people won't shell out extra money for a "smarter" phone unless it can do exactly what they want it to do. Midway specs don't cut it when phones cross into the hundred(s) of dollars range.
I don't think that everything needs Snapdragon and higher to be good enough, but I do think that any "smart" phone needs some considerable horsepower to deliver what people want these days, including PRODUCTIVE apps and multitasking between them.
@Dante of the Inferno
If the OS is "heavy" you need a strong processor to be "productive". If you run Symbian, you dont need that.
Also, you are completely wrong about these phones. They are unbelievable value for money. Consumers considering a phone in a given price range will spot these as having such value. That is a win for Nokia. Most of these phones will connect to ovi, another win.
On the OS side, its logical they refresh the Qwerty devices now. S^3 is on its way, so the next hardware launch will see touchscreen onlydevices with S^3. Logical and smart.
Just wish the N8 was here already!
@Dante of the Inferno This phone is definitely for me i'm waiting for the Nokia's N8 or Samsungs camera flagship.
Example with C6 we are talking about qwerty phone with 5mpx camera (so as it's the same 5mpx module we have been seeing for long time it's better than any HTC, iphone camera already), full qwerty with dpad, metallic back, 3.2inch screen with 2x the resolution compared to iphone, full live multitasking, one of the best GPS that's totally free and OVI services(OVI mail, OVI music, OVI store and so on) and all this for 22 euros. Imo that's not bad.
@Pdexter
* This phone is definitely not for me
@Pdexter
*220 iso 22
@hary536
Well said. Pound for pound, these phones are amazing and provide a lot of value for a consumer on any level.
will C3 (being a dumbphone and all) have the free turn-by-turn OVI maps? or is that only being offered in Symbian?
@threetee14 : It doesn't appear to have GPS, making it kind of moot.
Well, this is what some people have been forecasting. the pushing of symbian s60 os into lower price group.
C3 looks really cool!
Hoping the C6 camera as good as N95s.
@eka
unless it has a Carl Zeiss lens, it won't be, but will still probably be better than what you get from Apple and others.
How does the E5 differ from the E63? It looks like exactly the same specs and form factor. Different colors?
@trwrt
E63 is all plastic and got 2mpx camera with older looking 3rd edition feature pack 2. E5 got the E series metal build, newer Symbian layout, thinner and 5mpx camera with pretty much the same price.