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Nokia's Astound debuts at T-Mobile, lazily announced on Twitter
T-Mobile has followed through on a promised April 6th release of its Astound -- a Symbian^3 device from Nokia -- adding yet another option to the carrier's venerable lineup of smartphones. We've already broken this one down in recent months, but in case you've been forced under a rock here lately, a recap awaits: the device features a 3.5-inch AMOLED display, an impressive 8 megapixel shooter with dual-LED flash, and a front-facing camera for Qik video chatting. The re-branded C7 also serves up your data connection by way of USB tethering and WiFi (though sadly, not at 4G speed). It's altogether likely to be one of Nokia's last homegrown creations to grace the 'polka dot' network, and at $79.99 after rebate, the Astound appears to be a fitting swan song, indeed.
Nokia Astound for T-Mobile coming April 6th for $80 (hands-on with video)
Want to know where those next 150 million Symbian devices that Nokia wants to sell are going to come from? Well, here's a little sliver of your answer. We've just swung by Nokia's swank dinner event well outside CTIA's convention center grounds in Orlando tonight to check out the official introduction of the rumored Astound for T-Mobile. Make no mistake -- this is a straight-up C7 in every sense of the word, featuring the same 3.5-inch AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera, and 720p capture as the original announced last year atop Symbian^3 -- so the only real differences are the T-Mobile branding (or should that be AT&T branding?) tastefully featured along the bottom chin and a slight platform bump to Symbian^3.1, which we're told features "some, but not all" of the PR2.0 update's features like portrait QWERTY support and a refreshed browser. Interestingly, the carrier will be offering WiFi calling on this one -- just as it did on the E73 Mode -- and you'll be able to do unrestricted video calling over Qik thanks to the front-facing cam. Look for it to launch on April 6th for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate on contract (and pre-orders start tomorrow). Follow the break for our hands-on video and Nokia's press release.%Gallery-119426%%Gallery-119427%
Nokia C7 pre-orders go live in some markets
By and large, Nokia's positioning the C7 as a lower-cost alternative to the N8 -- but with a relatively small pricing gap between the two in some regions, it seems like a lot of folks are going to want to just take the plunge and go for the 12 megapixel beast. In Finland, the C7 is now up for pre-order on Nokia's official web store for €439 ($582) unlocked, which isn't terribly much less than the N8 that can be had for €499 ($661). Well, with the delay, it actually can't be had just yet; wouldn't be interesting if the just-announced C7 ended up shipping first? The store is quoting late October for delivery, so it's at least a possibility.
Symbian^3 C7 with nHD display confirmed on Nokia's own site
If Nokia's N8 is just too much smartphone for you then perhaps you'd like to take it down a notch with the C7. As part of the C-series of Nokia devices, you can expect it to trim some of the specs off the N8, but not much as the flagship device of the family. You know, something very similar to the apparently leaked image and specs (pictured above) we saw a few weeks back. Parsing the XML posted on Nokia's own site reveals an ARM-based Symbian^3 C7-00 device with a Nokia favorite 360x640 nHD pixel display resolution and 3G UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios. Obviously no pricing is available but you can expect it to be fairly inexpensive for what you'll get. [Thanks, Glen]
Nokia C7 caught with 8 megapixel camera?
After seeing the C7 listed in what looked to be legitimate Nokia documents, we now have our first look at the handset -- or at least a device that claims to be the C7-00. Purported specs scrapped from a Chinese site suggest an 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, stereo speakers, 3.5-mm headphone jack, and a display measuring about 3.5-inches. It's unclear if said display is resistive or capacitive or if we're looking at an S60 5th or Symbian^3 OS until somebody switches the damn thing on. Until then you can ogle the profile and backside shots after the break.
