High-end N9 and three entry-level phones revealed as manufacturer pledges to bring up to 10 Symbian-based smartphones to market in the next year
Nokia has said it is making “significant progress” on the new strategy it set out earlier this year following a string of handset announcements and developments at its Nokia Connection 2011 event in Singapore.
The N9 (pictured) comes with a 3.9-inch AMOLED screen made with scratch resistant glass and eight-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor with HD-quality video capture.
A swipe gesture has replaced the home key so when a user is in an application, swiping from the edge of the display takes it to the home screen.The phone features turn-by-turn drive and walk voice navigation with a new navigation app for drivers. It also features Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities.
The N9 will be available later this year in black, cyan and magenta and will come in 16GB and 64GB models. Pricing will be announced in due course.
The C2-02, C2-03 and C2-06 will launch with Series 40. The C2-03 is a dual-SIM handset to allow users to personalise up to five SIM cards.
All three ship with new Nokia Maps for Series 40, where local maps and places of interest are pre-installed on the phone so users can view maps and plan routes when the phone is in offline mode.
They all come with an FM radio, media player and memory support that can be expanded to 32GB. The C2-06 will cost €80 (71) on prepay while the C2-02 and C2-03 will cost €75 (66). All will be released in Q3.
Nokia also reaffirmed its commitment to Symbian by stating that it will start shipping N8s, E7s, C7s and C6-01s with the new Symbian Anna software update. By the end of August, existing owners of these devices can also download Symbian Anna and over the next 12 months it plans to bring up to 10 new Symbian-based smartphones to market.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said: “Earlier this year, we outlined a comprehensive strategy to change our course. Innovation is at the heart of our strategy, and today we took important steps to demonstrate a new pace of innovation at Nokia. It’s the beginning of a new era for Nokia.”
