Series 40
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Vertu Signature Precious is awash in sea of sapphire...and regret (video)
It may not feature GPS, an accelerometer, or even a camera, but if you've run out of disposable items to encrust with jewels, then Vertu's Precious -- the latest revision to its aging Signature lineup -- may be the mobile phone for you. While its basic array of quadband GSM, 2100 / 850 MHz 3G, Bluetooth and WiFi may seem a touch modest, varieties come slathered in platinum, three types of gold (yellow, white and red), leather, ceramic, and enough jewels to make Her Majesty blush. Its face, known as the "sea of sapphire," is mostly obscured (save for the OLED display), but you high rollers can take comfort knowing it spent more than two weeks in a 2000°C oven to appease your discerning taste. Also hidden are 4.75 carats of ruby bearings, which are said to give the keys a frictionless, satisfying click. The ring tones are exclusive compositions by Dario Marianelli and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra -- though we were bigger fans before they sold out. For a quick glimpse of how the Precious comes together gem by gem, just follow the break. There's no word on pricing or availability, but if you're considering putting up your first born as collateral, you might want to reconsider this cringe-worthy creation. [Thanks, Radi]
Nokia debuts C2-03 at CommunicAsia (video)
Nokia's Mary McDowell announced the company's third dual-SIM device, the C2-03, at CommunicAsia. It's a portrait slider with a 320 x 240 touchscreen display paired with the company's Touch and Type interface. Like the C2-00, it's based on S40 and supports Easy Swap -- a handy feature that lets users hot swap their SIMs. Additionally, the phone sports a new version of Nokia's web browser that compresses data up to 90 percent, and Nokia Maps for Series 40 -- which provides location search and routing while offline. Amazingly, standby time is rated at a hearty 400 hours, and while the built-in memory is somewhat paltry (10MB), the storage can be expanded up to 32GB. It's expected to be released in Q3 for €77, and will roll out across India, China, the south-east Asian-Pacific region, Eurasia, the middle east, and Africa. The C2-02, a single-SIM variant will debut alongside the more intriguing sibling, but we know you're most interested in the dual-SIM darling, so hop past the break for an extended peek.
Nokia outs 1GHz Series 40 handset with ClearBlack display
According to Nokia's Manager of Marketing Services in Argentina, an S40-based mobile phone with a 1GHz processor and ClearBlack display is coming -- and for our part, we're hoping to see it next week at Nokia Connection 2011 in Singapore. There, company leaders (including the outspoken CEO himself), will debut new products aimed at emerging markets. Granted, there's nothing definitive to connect the dots, but given the operating system, it would make perfect sense to get a glimpse at this mystery device -- along with the Nokia C2-06 -- at next week's conference. The Argentina-based tweets that originally outed this handset have been snuffed, but they've been preserved in the form of a retweet and screen caps, letting this casual mistake ripple through the web. Don't feel too bad, Nokia... as mobile fanatics, we're big fans of the unintended reveal. Now, how about outing those sweet Mangoes?
Nokia's upcoming C2-series slider spotted in India, keeps the low-end in check
A prototype of Nokia's C2 series dual-SIM phone was recently spotted in India, adding a resistive touchscreen to the manufacturer's mix of budget offerings. This glossy T9 slider was spotted with a two megapixel camera (sans flash), and sadly forgoes such niceties as WiFi and 3G connectivity -- presumably in the name of keeping cost down. There's no word on pricing (yet), though we do know this handset is running Series 40 6th Edition, and thankfully features Bluetooth (revealing the name of the device as C2-06). All told, Nokia is far removed from the bleeding edge on this one, although it's always comforting to know they're looking out for the little guy.
Unnamed Nokia Touch and Type slider leaks out
Nokia has said that it'll continue to push Series 40 hard as it transitions from Symbian to Windows Phone on the high end -- and some concrete evidence of that strategy has leaked out this week. This attractive little gadget appears to be a slider remake of the X3-02 Touch and Type launched late last year, combining a numeric keypad with a touch-enabled version of Nokia's mainstream dumbphone platform. The fact that they're concealing the keypad here seems to be a tacit admission that the UI is designed to be completely usable from end to end without hitting buttons, which is the way everything's going these days. The name of the new model is unclear -- if you zoom into the upper left of the image, it looks like this phone's got "C0" on it, which is the generic model number Nokia slaps on most of its prototypes -- but considering the shape, we wouldn't be surprised if it ended up falling into the C series. [Thanks, momchil]
T-Mobile launching Nokia X2 on February 16th?
Considering the rumors of the canceled Nuron 2 launch, it seemed like T-Mobile USA might be on less-than-rosy terms with Nokia -- but check this out: we've got shots here suggesting that the X2 will be hitting America's Number Four in just a few days' time. For the record, the X2 isn't a smartphone in the strictest sense of the word -- it's a portrait QWERTY handset running a recent incarnation of Series 40 -- but to its credit, Series 40 is one of the most capable feature phone platforms in the biz. Follow the break for a shot of the device in T-Mobile livery. [Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Nokia X3-02 Touch-and-Type review
It's a difficult time for feature phones, with smartphones fast becoming a viable option at the low-end of the market. On the one hand, most users are expecting smartphone features such as touchscreens and WiFi from their feature phones. At the same time, some folks still want an affordable, solid device that focuses primarily on making calls and sending text messages, with the occasional foray into entertainment and data-based communication. The Nokia X3-02 Touch-and-Type (not to be mistaken with the other Nokia X3) attempts to be that device, by adding a dose of touch and WiFi to the venerable Series 40 platform. Does it succeed? Read on. %Gallery-115007%
Mobiado 105 Damascus handled on video, which is the closest you'll ever get to one
Mobiado's 105 series of Series 40-based luxury candybars is nothing new -- in fact, it's quite old -- but as Vertu has discovered over the years, customers that are looking to spend four or five figures on a phone are apparently often uninterested in smartphone capability for some reason. On that note, the 105 rolls on with the recent introduction of the 105 Damascus, coated in hand-forged Damascus steel from Sweden with sandblasted (or rather, glass bead-blasted) steel buttons and screws to match. That's neat, but you know what isn't neat? The 2 megapixel camera, the 2-inch display, or the "more than" 1GB of memory available. Anyhow, enough venting -- point is, the recently-announced device has gotten a little hands-on time courtesy of Vietnamese site MaiNguyen, and though the steel edges are admittedly pretty beautiful, they wouldn't seem to come anywhere near justifying the phone's heart-stopping $4,500 asking price. Judge for yourself in the video (paired with a hands-on of some neat Damascus steel pen) after the break.
Nokia SVP of Symbian Smartphones talks portrait QWERTY, Symbian 'bashing,' and MeeGo devices
Jo Harlow, Nokia's Senior VP of Symbian Smartphones was in Amsterdam for the kickoff of the Symbian Exchange and Exposition, giving us the chance for a sit down with the seven year Nokia veteran. How could we resist given the recent launch of Symbian^3, Nokia's new iterative approach to Symbian updates, and then Monday's (expected) bombshell that the Symbian Foundation would hand over operation responsibility for the OS to Nokia. While the full transcript is available after the break, we wanted to highlight the following: Symbian user interface improvements are Nokia's top priority. According to Jo, "We are planning a few user interface improvements in early 2011 including split screen text input, portrait QWERTY -- there will be other improvements coming shortly after particularly in the visual appeal of the graphics of the device." While Jo stopped short of saying that changes in the Symbian Foundation will accelerate Symbian updates, she did concede that it eliminates a step making things "simpler" -- and that's a positive thing. Jo also reminded us that Nokia's plans for MeeGo stretch beyond traditional handset formats. And just like Symbian handsets will form a "fat center" in Nokia's device portfolio, she expects Nokia's more diverse MeeGo offerings to be "pretty big and fat as well." Read on for the full interview in addition to Jo's thoughts on Symbian's "infinite possibility to surprise people," Stephen Elop's performance in his first two months on the job, and her frustration at not being able to move faster amidst all of the "Symbian bashing."
Nokia C3 Touch and Type hands-on
Nokia continued the precedent set by the X3-02 at Nokia World last week by rolling out the C3 Touch and Type, its second Series 40-based handset to make use of that pretty unusual touchscreen / numeric keypad combo. Unlike the X3-02, the new C3 variant features a more traditional keypad layout by dropping the *0# row down below the 789 row, but since T9 only makes use of the first three rows to do its thing, it shouldn't make much of a different in practice for typing usability. Besides a 2.4-inch QVGA display, you get a 5 megapixel camera, full HSPA, microSD support up to 32GB, and 802.11n (yes, n!) WiFi, making it a surprisingly well-equipped device considering that it falls toward the bottom end of Nokia's budget-themed Cseries. We played a bit with the diminutive candybar at Nokia World, and though you can't really tell from the pictures, we know where Nokia's saving the money on this one: the build. Put simply, it feels like a pretty cheap phone all the way around with flimsy plastic, a so-so display, and a resistive touch layer with plenty of give. Trust us when we say that's not a knock -- at €145 ($189) fully unlocked and subsidy-free, you're getting a lot of capability -- but would-be buyers should be warned that this doesn't have anywhere near the premium feel of the N8. That said, it's extremely thin, light, and small -- and the on-screen controls are all plenty large for fat-fingering your way through the UI -- so we could see it making a serviceable backup phone even in the developed markets where Nokia doesn't plan to push a lot of these. Check out the gallery!
Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type puts a touchscreen on your Series 40 featurephone
Nokia has just revealed its X3-02 handset, which does the unthinkable and marries a relatively standard 16-button keypad with a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen. Now, we might have our reservations about Nokia's S40 OS being able to translate to a touch-friendly UI, but the beauty of this phone is that touch comes as essentially a free extra rather than the fundamental navigation paradigm. It's augmented with 3G, 802.11n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, and the whole thing is wrapped within a 9.6mm-thin brushed aluminum shell. All that, and the X3-02 will only cost €125 (before sales taxes and subsidies, as usual) when it launches later this quarter. See it on video after the break. Update: Nokia has informed us the X3-02 uses a resistive touchscreen, no real surprise given its price.%Gallery-99601%
Nokia X2 follows X3's footsteps, welcomes Series 40 to the Xseries fold
A number of Series 40 devices were branded with Nokia's "XpressMusic" label back in the day, so why not Xseries, too? Well, Nokia must be on the same page, because it has just announced the X2 candybar without a trace of smartphone DNA to its name after the X3 kicked things off a few months ago. The relatively low-end phone clocks in with a 5 megapixel cam with flash, 2.2-inch QVGA display, Ovi Store and Facebook support, dual loudspeakers, integrated FM radio, dedicated music keys, and microSD expansion up to 16GB (32GB would've been nice, but considering the scarcity and overwhelming price of said cards, it really doesn't matter too much in practice). The 13mm-thick piece is due before the end of June for €85 ($113), which is a heck of a value by our rough math.
Nokia C3, C6, and E5 try to smarten up the dumbphone market
The countdown is over and the mystery is solved. Nokia just let us in on the secret of its "everyone connect" teaser: a trio of new middling handsets. Yes folks, hardware, but not the N-series flagship many of you were hoping for. Instead we've got a handful of affordable QWERTY cellphones bent on bringing messaging and social networking to the masses. Naturally, these devices aren't going to compete for the attention of the N8-00 crowd -- that's fine, they're not meant to. Today's launch is part of Nokia's global strategy to push the smartphone experience down into the dumbphone market. 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.%Gallery-90347%
Nokia's Series 40 to 'offer a compelling touch experience'
Even though it's lived a long, fruitful (some might even say wildly successful) life as Nokia's one and only high-end feature phone platform, Series 40 is suffering from a bit of an identity crisis now that S60 pushing deeper than ever into categories traditionally considered dumbphone strongholds -- one needs to look no further than the C5 to see that strategy in action. So, what's next? Quite a bit, actually. Cellularmania appears to have gotten hold of an official document assuring developers that the company is continuing to drop money into taking Series 40 to the next level this year, promising a "compelling touch experience" along with confirmation of earlier rumors that we'd see dual-SIM devices for certain markets where it's a big deal. It's still unclear what kind of mix we're going to see in Nokia's product portfolio 5, 2, or even a single year from now, but Series 40's still got a seat at the table -- for now, anyway.
Nokia 6303i Classic announced, 'guarantees fun for a long time without charging'
If you were waiting for a mild refresh of Nokia's 6303 Classic before taking the plunge on a new handset... well, you're a strange character, but the good news is that your time has come at long last. The 2.2-inch QVGA display and 3.2 megapixel camera are both carried over; otherwise, you've got a micro-USB connector, 3.5mm headphone jack (good for the integrated FM radio), microSD expansion up to 8GB, Nokia Messaging, and up to a respectable 8 hours of talk time. Needless to say, this isn't a high-end piece -- it tops out with tri-band EDGE, but it'll run just €105 ($144) unsubsidized when it hits "select markets" this quarter.
Nokia's 6260 slide reviewed, reviewer ponders why it exists
If you're looking for the cream of the Series 40 crop, the Nokia 6260 slide's for you. Mobile-review, for one, is definitely not in the market for the cream of the Series 40 crop, but they've still gone ahead and put the 5-megapixel slider through an exhaustive review that covers every angle. The bottom line is that the half VGA screen's pretty good, the keypad's more than usable, the volume's loud, and the picture quality delivered by the Carl Zeiss optics is superb, but the site raises a good point: what's the market for a Series 40 phone that reaches well into S60 territory? Then again, if you're drooling as you read this, you don't really care about the answer to that purely philosophical question, now do you?[Thanks, inf]
Nokia slips out 5 megapixel 6260 slide with AGPS, a first for S40 devices
Peeped in spy pics on these Interwebs since June, Nokia just went official with the 6260 slide. Unfortunately, "slide" in this case reveals a numeric keypad not a QWERTY. Otherwise, it's pretty much an iterative step beyond the 6220 classic. As such, we're looking at a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, WiFi, and HSDPA/HSUPA data to quickly share photos and video on Nokia's Ovi service with the promise of support for other photo and video sharing sites you might actually use. The 6260 slide also features Nokia Maps riding AGPS -- a first for a mass market, Series 40 device. Ships in early 2009 for about €299 before taxes and carrier subsidies, naturally.Update: Detailed specs just released show a 2.4-inch, 320 x 480 pixel display on this 15.4-mm thick slider with quad-band GSM/EDGE and tri-band UMTS radios and microSD expansion. [Thanks, L] Read -- Press Release Read -- Detailed Specs [Warning: PDF]
S60 gets a better calculator -- thanks to Series 40
Hey, S60 owners, have you had this nagging sense over the past year or two that you're somehow getting slighted by Nokia, but you haven't been able to put your finger on why? No worries, we've figured it out: it's the calculator. Nokia's mainstream dumbphone platform has featured a far better and more capable built-in calculator app than S60 for a while now, which really doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense; granted, you can get better ones from third-party developers, but the point is you shouldn't have to. Thankfully, Nokia agrees, and they've started to toy around with the idea of replacing the S60 calc with its little brother's -- a relatively easy process, since the latter is written in Java. On one hand, it'd be a shame to see a core S60 app move from native code to Java, but on the other hand, if it's a better app and the JVM is transparent, who really cares? Anyway, the ported app is chilling in Nokia's Beta Labs as we speak, just waiting for customer feedback before the higher-ups make a judgment call on whether to integrate it into future S60 releases. The power's in your hands, people, so you may as well take advantage.
Series 40 6th Edition premieres on Nokia's Supernova series
It's that magical time of the season again where Nokia's mass-market platform, Series 40, gets a little spec bump to keep up with the Joneses. The latest cut is 6th Edition (which follows 5th Edition, in case there was any doubt there) which will get its official world debut on the Supernova 7510 fashion phone in the fourth quarter of this year. What magical gifts can users expect? Most importantly, Flash Lite 3 comes in the box, which means support for video; plenty of other Series 40 phones have shipped with Flash support, but version 3 is fresh. It'll also support a significantly enhanced browser, UI transitions (think S60 3.2), and support for Windows Media Audio 10 and Windows Media Video 9, among other things. Yeah, at the end of the day it's still a dumbphone, but it looks like Nokia's doing everything it can to blur the lines. [Warning: PDF link][Via IntoMobile]
Mobiado's Professional 105 ZAF is thin, pricey
Vertu isn't the only game in town when you're looking to blow thousands on a handmade designer handset, and believe it or not, it's not the only game in town when you're looking for a Series 40 luxury phone, either. Mobiado crafts lovely shells of premium materials (you know, like steel) around the same guts that power Nokia's latest standard-issue dumbphones, producing devices that are more exclusive than they are powerful -- but let's be honest, power isn't necessarily what Mobiado's clientele is going for. The company's new Professional 105 ZAF takes its lengthy name in part from the fact that this is the "thinnest luxury phone in the world" at just 10.5 millimeters and features a 2 megapixel camera, 3G radio on the 2100MHz band, microUSB connector, and -- get this -- a battery cover "made entirely from one piece of sapphire crystal." If that's not form before function, we really don't know what is. Though it's not available in the US, the Professional 105 ZAF should be showing up shortly in boutiques around the world in a choice of six conspicuous shades.[Via Mobile Phone Helpdesk]
