Three more phones have been announced from Nokia today – and they are all marvelously focused on social networking and mobile messaging. Featuring QWERTY keyboards and a range of different features, the C3, C6 and E5 are each tweaked to appeal to a slightly different market segment.
The two mainstays of these devices are “social networking” and “affordability”. Let’s have a look.
The C3:
The cheapest of the bunch, this runs on Symbian Series 40 – which is still the mostly widely used OS in the world, thanks to the proliferation of Nokia devices. Of course, that means that this phone will be incredibly familiar to use for pretty much anyone in the world. It’s also the first S40 phone that has links to social networks right there on the homescreen. So far so good.
The price is right as well – without a network subsidy, you should be able to get this for under €100. Which is pretty good for a phone that has a 2MP camera and up to 8GB internal memory.
The C6:
This is much the same as the C3 – it just packs more feature for more money. The C3 is technically a feature phone – but the C6 runs on S60, which Nokia classes as its “smartphone OS”. This one has a nice big touch screen with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. So along with the full social networking, email and messaging features, it’s also a pretty decent web phone.
Like I said, this is pricier than the C3, coming in at around €220. But you get a 5MP camera with that, as well as the full set of Ovi web features (including the desirable Ovi Maps).
The E5:
The E-series is one of the jewels in Nokia’s crown. This Blackberry-alike series has one of the nicest physical QWERTY keyboards going, and there’s no reason to believe the E5 won’t follow that trend.
There are no real surprises with this phone. It’s modeled from the successful E63 and E71 devices – so it carries a lot of the same enterprise features, email syncing and web access. Thing is, at €180, it’s pleasantly low priced – though it won’t be hitting shelves until the second half of the year.
What we think?
I often get people asking me about what kind of new device they should get. One of the first questions I ask is “what do you want to do with it?” If the answer is mostly email, text and messaging then there was a time when I would have advised getting a Blackberry. But not anymore. For quite some time I’ve been advising my friends to look at Nokia first – the E63 for price-conscious consumers, and the E71 and E72 if you have a little more cash to splash. With the release of these three phones, Nokia has even more firmly placed itself in my mind as one of the best companies to go to for messaging handsets.
Now if it could just get around to releasing some decent, competitive smartphones in the iPhone and Desire spec bracket, I’d be delighted.
