During Nokia World in London, Nokia announced the E7, a smartphone targeted at business users that runs the Symbian^3 operating system. The Nokia E7 sports a 4-inch polarized AMOLED touchscreen with a 640 x 360 pixel resolution, and offers 802.11b/g/n WiFi connectivity, GPS, USB on-the-go support, a 3.5mm headphone jack with TV-out, and free Ovi Maps with navigation. It also has an 8 megapixel camera.
The E7 offers both a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard. It measures 123.7mm x 62.4mm x 12.6mm (4.8in x 2.4in x 0.5in) in size and weighs 176g (6.2oz). The E7 also comes with a host of business apps from the Ovi Store preinstalled, such as Salesforce for Symbian, Bloomberg, F-Secure Mobile security, Microsoft Communicator Mobile, and JoikuSpot.
Nokia has just introduced a new smartphone called the Oro, based on the existing C7, but with an added touch of luxury. Nokia has a tradition of producing expensive, high-end luxury phones with its Vertu brand, but the Oro is branded Nokia through and through. It features 18-carat gold plating, hand-wrapped leather, and a sapphire crystal on the home key. The sapphire crystal is said to offer beauty and greater durability when compared with traditional glass.
Technology-wise, the Oro has the same guts as the C7, so you will find a pentaband 3G radio, a 3.5-inch AMOLED display, and an 8 megapixel camera with flash, but no autofocus. All the gold and leather in the world will not make that lens autofocus, unfortunately. Unlike the C7, the Oro will ship with the latest version of Symbian, dubbed Anna.
The Oro will be available in limited quantities in Europe, Eastern Europe, China, and the Middle East in the third quarter of this year. It will cost upwards of 800 EUR (US$1125), but if you have to ask the cost...you know the rest. And in case you were wondering, Oro means gold in Italian. Take a look at the video below where Alessandro Lamanna, Vice President of Marketing at Nokia pontificates about the new Oro.
Nokia may be hard at work behind the scenes on its Windows Phone smartphones that are expected to debut before the year is out, but it hasn't stopped producing Symbian smartphones, and the 603 is the latest Symbian effort from the company. The Nokia 603 features an all-touch interface and the latest Symbian Belle operating system.
The Nokia 603 sports a 3.5-inch ClearBlack display with nHD (360 x 640 pixel) resolution. It is powered by a 1GHz processor and has a 5 megapixel camera that can shoot 720p HD (1280 x 720 pixel) video. Nokia says the 603's battery will keep it going for seven hours of talk time or over 19 days of standby. The 603 supports HSPA+ 14.4Mbps connections on the 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz bands, and features Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC support. The phone measures 113.5mm x 57.1mm x 12.7mm (4.47in x 2.24in x 0.5in) and weighs 106.9g (3.77oz).
Running the latest version of Symbian, Belle, the 603 features the latest Nokia Browser and Maps applications. It also comes with Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Shazam, YouTube, Microsoft Office Communicator, Quick Office, Adobe PDF reader, and Vlingo all pre-installed. Nokia will be offering the 603 in black and white color options, each with six interchangeable back plates of various colors. It will ship in Q4 of this year, and is expected to cost around 200 EUR (US$275). Check out the video for more looks at the Nokia 603.
Nokia 603, High-Quality All-touch Smartphone with Symbian Belle: