Nokia has done a lot of trailing as of late in the smartphone space.  While we doubt the Nokia N8 will change that predicament, it is an interesting phone with solid specs and a heaping of features.

Physically, the handset continues Nokia's tradition of producing great hardware with high quality construction.  We love the size - big enough for a spacious display but slim enough to be pocketable.  Display is a 3.5-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (640 x 360 resolution), with excellent brightness and rich colors.

As a phone, the Nokia N8 makes for good calls, with clear sound and very little background noise.  Those on the other end reported similar audio quality.  Speakerphone was great - definitely better than the standard hardware you can find in other smartphones.  Battery is rated at 5.8 hours of talk time and actually lasted well over a day of regular use.

The device runs the all-new Symbian^3, which offers a definite improvement over the tedious UI of S60 5th Edition.  Suffice to say, this is the best user experience I've ever had with a Nokia phone, although it still trails in comparison with the more polished usability of both iOS and Android.

At a time when most high-end offerings come with a 1GHz processor, Nokia's decision to use a 680MHz ARM11 CPU is a bit disappointing.  As a result, the phone performed sluggishly on occasion.  A couple of times, in fact, we thought it was crashing, but was merely taking its time.

The N8 is a quad-band world phone with a whole host of calling features, a number of PIM tools and your typical messaging features.  One thing of note is that Symbian^3's phone book only pulls and syncs contacts from Exchange - you'll have to use other methods to get them from Gmail and Facebook.  Like other Nokia phones, messaging is a serious strength - it can work with Exchange, Lotus Notes, IMAP and POP3, along with HTML and folder support.   All connectivity protocols are well-represented, too, with five-band 3G, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth.  The web browser has Flash Lite support.

Media player is great, with a Cover Flow-style interface and support for a wide range of formats.  The best feature here, though, is the 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash.  It offers a lot of editing options and takes some of the best photographs we've seen from any cellphone camera.

Overall, the Nokia N8 is a great reboot for Symbian.  While we doubt it's the smartphone that will change the cards for Nokia, it is an excellent effort with arguably the best phone camera available now.  Unlocked price is around $550.

Just when you thought Nokia was finally done with S60 5th Edition, they go ahead and announce a new handset running just that.  Except they're now calling the OS, Symbian^1 -- as if that really changes anything.  The new phone is billed as the Nokia C5-03, an affordable touchscreen device with the platform's same old feature set.

Sporting rounded corners, two-tone colors and a clean design, it's actually quite gorgeous for an entry-level smartphone.  It measures 5.8 x 51 x 13.8 mm and weighs a light 93 grams, so it's quite the compact bundle, too.

Details of the Nokia C5-03 include a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen display (640 x 360 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module, aGPS (with free Ovi Maps Navigation), 3G with HSPA,  WiFi, stereo Bluetooth, FM radio, a 3.5mm headset jack, 40MB of onboard storage and microSD card expansion (with 2GB in the box, expandable to 16GB).  Battery is rated at 4.5 hours of talk time.

As it's running the longstanding OS, it gets all of Nokia's usual features, including Nokia Messaging (with Mail for Exchange), Ovi Music and Ovi Store.  There's apps for social networking, too, specifically for Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

The Nokia C5-03 will be available during the fourth quarter, priced at €170 (around $240) before taxes and subsidies.

[Nokia]

Want an inexpensive phone with some fine midrange features?  You may want to grab the Nokia X3 Touch and Type, which bundles both a touchscreen and an alphanumeric keyboard in a candybar form factor.

Physically, it offers a unique combination.  A 2.4-inch resistive touchscreen mated to a 12-button keypad in a compact candybar design.  Surprisingly, the touchscreen was responsive, apart from having a good, albeit small, display.  Keypad is spacious and comfy to use.  Plus, the highly compact size is a nice change of pace from the large slabs of phones today.  Build seems decent and overall appearance is relatively attractive.

As a phone, the X3 Touch and Type makes for average calls.  Conversations generally sounded fine, although muffled voices will occasionally kick in.  Those on the other end reported more positive audio quality, however.  Speakerphone, on the other hand, was quite impressive, with rich-sounding voices and plenty of volume.  Battery is rated at 5 hours of talk time, which should let you use this for over a day without recharging.

It runs S40, optimized for use on a small touchscreen.  Implementation was actually quite impressive, although the hardware itself proved sluggish.  As such, expect lags when launching and navigating deep into menus.

The X3 is quad-band world phone, with the usual roster of capabilities, including SMS, MMS, a bevy of call features, some PIM tools and Bluetooth.  It also has Nokia's Messaging app, which supports various POP3 and IMAP email accounts.  IM is onboard too (via Ovi), as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Both WiFi and 3G are onboard.  The latter works fine, even running YouTube videos after just a few seconds of buffering.  With the screen's size, though, the things you'll likely want to do with either the HTML browser (which comes with Flash Lite support) or a video app are limited.

Media player is basic, but has good support for a variety of formats.  Music playback, with headphones, sounded really good.  The 5.0 megapixel camera has fairly limited editing options, but takes acceptable photos.

Overall, the Nokia X3 Touch and Type is a feature-packed phone at a relatively affordable price.  You can get it unlocked for as low as $160.

As has been the case with many of their high-profile releases, Nokia's new flagship business phone has been leaked several times in the past.  Well, the leaks for that one can stop coming, as they finally made the Nokia E7 official.

Sporting a 4-inch touchscreen display and a tilt-sliding four-row QWERTY keyboard, it clocks in at bigger dimensions than most smartphones.  Fortunately, it's quite slim, with the anodized aluminum body measuring a mere 13.6mm thick.  The screen, by the way, comes with Nokia's ClearBlack technology, which they claim features blacker blacks, brighter colors and improved usability under sunlight.

Details include an 8.0 megapixel camera module (with 720p video recording), aGPS (with free Ovi Maps), 3G with HSPA, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0, 16GB of onboard storage and microSD card expansion (up to 32GB).  Designed as much for entertainment as for business, it features an HDMI port and Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound.  Battery is a tad underwhelming, though, at only 1,200mAh.

Running Symbian^3 at the helm, it features a host of business capabilities, including Exchange support, intranet and extranet portals on Microsoft Sharepoint, and Microsoft Communicator Mobile.  Bundled apps include Quickoffice, F-Secure Anti-Theft and World Traveler.

The Nokia E7 will be available sometime in the fourth quarter, priced at €495 before taxes and subsidies.   Check out the promo video below:

[Nokia]

Russian blog Mobile Review has another Nokia scoop.  This time, it's a full preview of the unannounced Nokia C7 and they have what looks like a fully-functional prototype to play with.

According to the tech blog, the upcoming smartphone isn't that far off from the Nokia N8 (which, incidentally, they also leaked).  Aside from running the same Symbian^3 OS, it also shares much of the specs, with some of the meatier hardware features simply downgraded or removed.

Details of the C7 include a 3.5-inch AMOLED screen (640 x 360 resolution), an 8.0 megapixel camera module with LED flash (compared to the 12 megapixel with Xenon flash of the N8), Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi, 8GB of onboard storage (half of the N8's), microSD card expansion, a 680MHz processor, 256MB of RAM and a 1,200 mAh battery.  An HDMI output is notably absent.

Plenty of pictures of the handset are posted over at Mobile Review.  From what we can tell, it looks to have a sleek, compact slate form factor, with that easily-discernible Nokia aesthetic.

Rumored for release between October to November, the Nokia C7 is expected to be priced at around €350 before taxes and subsidies, which is around €100 less than the N8.  They also mentioned a slide-out keyboard version called the C7-01, reportedly slated for 2011.

[Mobile Review via Unwired View]

If you've been keeping up with the gadget rumor sites, you've probably seen the Nokia 5250 numerous times.  The company finally made the oft-leaked device official, confirming it as a music-centric touchscreen phone that offers great value for your money.

Running the Symbian^1 operating system (aka S60 5th edition), it brings Nokia's old UI, along with all the features that long-time users of the Finnish company's phones should be familiar with.  Designed for heavy music users, it features a music player right on the home screen, along with instant access to Ovi Music Unlimited, an all-you-can-download music service available for selected territories.  Other musical talents include an FM radio and a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 pre-installed.

The Nokia 5250 has a  2.8-inch touchscreen (640 x 360 resolution, 16:9 display ratio), a 2.0 megapixel camera module, quad-band GSM/EDGE/GPRS, stereo Bluetooth and microSD card expansion (up to 16GB).  It's extremely pocketable too, measuring  104mm x 49mm x 14mm.  Battery is rated at 7 hours of talk time and 24 hours of music playback.

Aside from the music features, it's quite generous on the social capabilities.  You get to add your favorite contacts right on the home screen, along with quick access to email accounts and social networks.  It also has access to downloadable apps via the Ovi Store.

Pricing for the Nokia 5250 is set at an enticing €115 (around $145) before taxes and subsidies, with shipping slated for the fourth quarter.  For a touchscreen feature phone with Ovi Music Unlimited and an affable design, it definitely sounds like a nice offer.

[Nokia Conversations]

Nokia has announced a new candybar that delivers a refreshing change for the form factor.  Called the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type, the feature phone boasts both a touchscreen and an alphanumeric keypad right on the handset's front panel.

Running the company's old feature phone OS, it's one of the few S40 devices to have a touchscreen on board (a couple of them have previously been released for the Chinese market), making it one of the more interesting non-smartphones to come out from the Finnish company.  We're not sure how well S40 will work on a touchscreen, though, so that should be something to watch out for (or be wary of, if you're thinking of buying one).

Details of the Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type include a 2.4-inch touchscreen (320 x 240 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module with video recording, Bluetooth 2.1, FM radio with RDS, 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card expansion (up to 16GB).  Connectivity suite is pretty complete, with both WiFi and 3G with HSPA on board.

Since it's running S40, you should expect Nokia's familiar messaging strengths, along with support for Java applications.   Communities, an app for access to social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, will come preloaded.  From the photos, the handset looks notably attractive too, with nice sharp lines, a brushed aluminum finish and a slim 9.6 mm profile.

The Nokia  X3-02 Touch and Type is slated for availability in multiple markets before the end of the third quarter, priced at €125 ($161) before taxes and subsidies.  It will come in five color versions (White Silver, Petrol Blue, Lilac, Pink and Dark Metal).

[Nokia Conversations]

While Nokia may be far from being the most trusted smartphone name in the US, the Nokia E73 Mode on T-Mobile brings plenty of things that make it a compelling option for business and messaging-heavy users.  Not only is it stylish and well-designed, it packs in an impressive range of features too at an affordable price.

Physically, it takes on a QWERTY candybar form factor in the same mold as the E72.  This means it's especially sleek, making it as comfortable to hold in your hand as it is to slip in your pocket.  Construction and design are really good, with both the look and feel of a high-end business smartphone.

The screen measures 2.4-inches with a 320 x 240 resolution.  Display is clear and vibrant, with just enough sharpness to make it easy on the eyes, but does wash out considerably outdoors.  The QWERTY keyboard has a comfortable size and curved shape, making it very easy to type up messages.

As a phone, the E73 Mode manages good quality, with a rich sound and barely any interference.  Those on the other reported a little less fidelity, although the audio still came out rather well.  Speakerphone performed similarly, sounding a bit hollow, but with plenty of volume.  Battery life is rated at up to six hours of 3G talk time, which helps it run for a good two days (or more) of normal use.

The capabilities are heavily geared towards business users, with support for quad-band world roaming, VoIP calling and a VPN application.  Messaging is especially robust, with support for Exchange and Lotus Notes, apart from the usual POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP.  It even adds push delivery, an attachment viewer, a hefty amount of IM clients and  social networking apps.

Supporting both 3G and WiFi, it allows for fast internet browsing in most situations.  The MiniMap browser renders pages accurately, with a useful host of features, such as multiple windows, RSS and Flash support.  It's also got aGPS, with free turn-by-turn navigation via Ovi Maps.

Like all Nokia smartphones, the media player is very good.  Plus, the hardware handily runs all supported videos well, albeit the smaller screen might not be the most ideal for viewing.  The 5.0 megapixel camera has decent options, but only manages average-quality shots.

Priced at $69.99 on contract with T-Mobile, the Nokia E73 Mode is one of the best phones you can nab at this price range.  It's an excellent value.

A new exclusive Nokia phone has been announced for T-Mobile US. Well, sort of exclusive, since the Nokia Mode E73 looks a heck of a lot like the Nokia E72, adding only support for the carrier's AWS bands, some notable changes in the navigation array and UMA capabilities for WiFi calling.

The business-minded E-series has been one of the Finnish company's few US successes, so it isn't surprising that the S60-powered smartphone is making it to American shores. As you can tell from the photo, it sports a comfy QWERTY keyboard and a sharp-looking screen, housed within a rugged candybar form factor.

Details of the E73 Mode include a 2.36-inch landscape display (320 x 240 resolution), a 5.0 megapixel camera module, aGPS (with Ovi Maps Navigation), 10.2 Mbps HSDPA, WiFi, full HTML browser with Flash lite, stereo Bluetooth and microSD card expansion. Designed as a work phone, it gets a slew of bundled apps to help business users in their day-to-day affairs, such as Mail for Exchange (corporate mail), Ovi Files, QuickOffice and Adobe PDF Manager. It also offers support for IBM Lotus Notes Traveler.

If you've ever tried the E71 and loved it, you're bound to feel the same affinity here. Perhaps, even more so, since T-Mobile is retailing it for $69.99 on a two year contract. Yep, a full-fledged smartphone experience with arguably one of the best lines of business handsets in the market for cheap. Of course, it's Nokia's almost phased-put S60 OS, but I'm guessing that's not such a bad pill to swallow.

[Nokia via Engadget]

Nokia just announced the company's first dual-SIM phones and they're seriously low-end. Called the Nokia C1-00 and the Nokia C2, both handsets feature basic capabilities housed inside a candybar form factor.

The first of the two phones, the C1-00, isn't a full dual-SIM phone. While you can load two SIM cards into the device, you will need to alternate use between them, holding down a button to switch from one to the other. It runs S40 and boasts the longest standby battery time for any Nokia phone - a hefty six weeks, according to the press release. Details of the handset include a smallish color display, VGA camera module, torch light function, FM radio, music player and microSD card expansion.

Offering a more complete dual-SIM experience, the Nokia C2 can operate with both networks active, ready to receive calls and texts. Even better, the second SIM is hot-swappable, allowing you to slip a new SIM card without turning off the phone or lifting the battery cover. It doesn't have a camera, but features Ovi Mail, Ovi Life Tools, Nokia Messaging, FM radio, music player, microSD card expansion up to 32GB and battery standby time of up to 16.5 days.

Neither phone has 3G nor WiFi, but both come with a wireless browser for surfing web sites via GPRS. Pricing for the Nokia C1-00 is pegged at 30 Euros ($36) and the Nokia C2 at 45 Euros ($55), with no contract. The former should be available in several markets shortly, while the latter is expected to debut during the fourth quarter.

[Nokia via Gizmodo]