Nokia Turns Aggressive, Launches E7, C6, C7 Smartphones

Nokia World, LONDON, UK – Although Nokia has faced a major change in its leadership recently, it went for an aggressive launch at the opening of the Nokia World, announcing three new Symbian^3 smartphones, the C6-01, C7 and E7.

It is important for the company, who still possesses the largest market share in the smartphone segment, to promote new products which are in tune with today’s fashion. The handsets showcased today all rely on touchscreen interfaces, have modern designs, and run on the revamped Symbian operating system, which for developers’ delight, is open-source.

The Nokia N8 (video below), which is yet to arrive to store shelves, will continue to be a flagship for the Finnish giant, who maintains that it is the very best that smartphones can offer today. It is scheduled to release this or the next month, but it wasn’t the main attraction in London.

The Nokia E7, a device which the manufacturer managed to keep under wraps, features the most radical design of three new products. With a swivel-keyboard different from the on the N97, a large 4″ touchscreen display and funky colours, it is by far the “most” unique business-focused smartphone in the market. Its screen is enhanced with ClearBlack technology, what could be considered Nokia’s variant of Super AMOLED.

The device contains an 8 megapixel camera, supports HD video recording, has an HDMI-out port, and measures only 13.6mm in thickness, even though it offers a four-row hardware QWERTY keyboard. It feels as if it is a Nokia N8 with a keyboard. Many Nokia N8 accessories might work on the E7.

In terms of enterprise features, the E7 boasts of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, encryption and wipe options, intranet access, and remote device management.

It will be available in dark grey, silver white, green, blue and orange colours, with shipping to begin before the end of the year, and costing EUR495 (US$644) without subsidies or taxes.

The Nokia C7 was known to the mobile press for some time owing to numerous leaks. It is a touchscreen-only handset which portrays an oval-shaped form factor, and comes in charcoal black, frosty metal and mahogany brown colours.

The Cseries line is targeted towards delivering an affordable smartphone experience, and combining it with social networking and multimedia capabilities. The C7 is no exception, and in the hardware section it has a 3.5″ AMOLED touchscreen display, an 8 megapixel camera with HD video recording support, active noise cancellation, 8GB internal memory, and microSD memory card support.

The handset has been priced EUR335 (US$436) without subsidies and taxes, and just like the E7, it should begin shipping before the end of the year.

The Nokia C6-01 doesn’t share much with the variant C6-00, but can be seen as a lower-end C7, featuring a 3.2″ AMOLED touchscreen display with ClearBack technology, an 8 megapixel camera with HD video recording, microSD memory card support, and the same social networking features from the C6.

The device will cost a cheaper EUR260 (US$339), and depending on the regions, customers may choose from silver grey or black as their desired colours.

The smartphones announced today are ideal for the market Nokia needs to penetrate. All that is left now is a good marketing strategy, especially for the United States, a region Nokia has been losing in recent years. Nokia’s new CEO Stephen Elop will have a hard time fixing the company’s plan for that region and also to combat the rise and rise of Apple’s iPhone series. The promise let by Nokia of a before-end of year release is completely new to the company’s reputation, and may be beneficial if these devices arrive in time for the Christmas sales season.