Market update (Week 45)

Informing you on the latest (and greatest) mobile phones that hit the stores on a weekly basis becomes a tradition, though in all honesty, we didn't anticipate it to enjoy this amount of demand. So, respectful of traditions, we give you the most recent market update. As previously noted, we won't be able to comment availability in stores near you, as well as carrier-subsidized prices.

Nokia N81

The Nokia N81 is the first to go this week. The quad-band GSM/EDGE and UMTS enabled Symbian smartphone is 17.6 mm thick and weighs 140 g. It boasts a 2.4" TFT display with QVGA resolution, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi b/g with UPnP support and a microSD slot. Nokia N81 is the first device on the new N-Gage platform and sports dedicated gaming keys. A 2 megapixel camera with flash, also shooting VGA videos at 15fps, and a secondary CIF one for video calls are onboard. There is also a microUSB port and an audio/video 3.5 mm jack. Currently, it can be found online for around EUR 360 (USD 528). We also would like to remind you that two weeks ago Nokia N81 8GB, a phone we recently reviewed, was released at the price of around EUR 540 (USD 770).

The Nokia N81

Nokia 7900 Prism

Nokia 7900 Prism is a fashionable phone running on the Series 40 3rd Edition user interface. As s design-centered phone, it comes with some interesting light effects and features a geometric pattern design. The Nokia 7900 sports a 2" QVGA OLED display supporting up to 16 million colors, but the available 49 illumination colors both for the display and the keypad will certainly suit almost every taste. In addition, the Nokia 7900 Prism features "living" wallpaper, which changes dynamically according to the time of day, with the battery and signal strength status icons creating unique graphics for your home screen. In terms of connectivity, Nokia 7900 Prism has quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus dual-band UMTS. In addition to a 2 megapixel camera with flash, the Nokia 7900 Prism comes with 1GB of internal memory (no memory card slot available). As in other most recent Nokia phones, the 7900 Prism uses a microUSB port for data transfers, a less popular connectivity port as compared to the widely accepted miniUSB. Currently, it can be found online for around EUR 310 (USD 454).

Nokia 7900 Prism

Nokia E51

Nokia E51 sports a classic metallic design and is meant for business, as what one can expect from an E-series model, plus some extras on top. The phone is quad-band GSM and supports GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA (3.6 Mbps). Other wireless connectivity includes Infrared, Bluetooth 2.0 and WLAN, while the wired connectivity set sports microUSB v2.0 full speed and a 2.5mm audio jack. A 2 megapixel camera capable of video recording and an MP3 player, FM radio, as well as the supported A2DP Bluetooth profile completes the multimedia capabilities in the phone. The display on E51 is a 2" 16M color one that supports QVGA resolution, while the internal memory of 130MB is further expandable through the microSD card slot. Currently, it can be found online at a significantly lower price than the officially announced retail price of approximately EUR 350.

Nokia E51 is available in three colors

Mitac MIO A702

The last device that hit the stores is the less popular Mitac MIO A702, running on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional. However, smartphone fans will pay due respect to the rich pack of functions of the quad-band MIO A702, which also supports GPRS and EDGE. Its wireless connectivity includes the built-in GPS SIRFstar III, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth v2.0, while the wired connectivity set is limited only to a miniUSB v1.1 slot. The dated 200 MHz TI OMAP 850 processor is quite a shortcoming, while the integrated 64 MB RAM is more than inadequate for such a complex device. The user memory varies from 256 MB to 2 GB ROM, depending on region and is further expandable through microSD and microSDHC cards. Last but not least, the handset has a 2.7" 65K TFT touchscreen with QVGA resolution. The 3.15 MP autofocus camera with LED flash completes the device's functionality. Currently, it can be found online for around EUR 476 (USD 700).

Mitac MIO A702