Just rolled in from this morning’s Nokia event where they unveiled a whole slew of phones. Many of them are retooled versions of the previous N-series – the N80i is an update N80 with better web software and the N91 8GB is an 8GB version of the 4GB N91 – but the rest of the phones are fairly compelling. BTW – Do not ask me what that Nokia car is about as I just took a picture of it and then grabbed a coffee.
First up is the N95, the flagship. This thing has it all: 5-megapixel camera, WiFi, GPS, and music player. It has a very unique sliding system. You push it one way to reveal the keypad and the other way to reveal audio transport controls. Amazing? No. Cool? Yes.
This phone includes Nokia Maps and it will come in WCDMA and GSM editions. I see it as being the Nokia that takes off in Asia.
Next we’ve got the US music phone, the N75. It’s a clamshell with external music buttons. It comes with a 1GB smart card and external stereo speakers. Like all the phones in this series it supports most major email systems and runs Symbian Series 60.
The N73 is the candybar version of the N75 with 2GB memory and 3-megapixel camera while the N70 has 1GB of memory and a more compact size.
The N95 was a personal favorite, although the N80i is pretty nice – I’m using it now alongside the N80 and they’re essentially the same except for some software changes. The N-series as a whole is fairly strong at this juncture and well worth looking into as an smartphone line. My one pet peeve – no QWERTY keypad on any of these. This isn’t so important when sending messages, et al, but initial set-up of mailboxes and passwords is a bitch when fumbling with a standard keypad.