Nokia in Barcelona: Email, navigation on S60 3rd

With two capable messaging devices announced by Nokia today at the WMC the E in Eseries means more email than ever. Business-minded Nokia E75 and E55 have a distinct QWERTY implementation each and the full connectivity package. The enterprise series duo is followed closely by the latest in the company's navigator line - Nokia 6710 Navigator - and the Nokia 6720 classic. This here pack of Nokia newcomers here follows pretty closely the previous WMC publicity pattern. We have a classic and a Navigator again, the only difference is the headliners are Eseries this time around, as opposed to Nseries last year. The new Nseries on the touch-enabled Symbian are out of the spotlight for now, as all new arrivals run on the good old S60 3rd.

Nokia E75

Nokia E75, which is set to top the Eseries, is the most complete feature pack and the worst kept secret, a couple of leaks revealing already most of the details. Anyway, it's all official now and we can have a closer look at the dual keyboard layout including a full slide-out QWERTY thumbboard and a regular alphanumeric keypad.

The E75 is the first handset to ship with Nokia Messaging built-in while other advanced emailing features include the proprietary ultra-easy email setup, the preinstalled Mail for Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, POP/IMAP support and a number of 3rd party email solutions like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail. There's a full set of synchronization options and the two customizable personal and work homescreens known since E71 are also aboard.

Nokia E75

The connectivity set includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, microUSB v2.0, a 3.5mm headphone plug and stereo Bluetooth. The handset features built-in GPS with A-GPS support and Nokia Maps. Nokia E75 also has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and VGA video recording, and offers an FM radio.

Nokia E75 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset with tri-band HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) support for worldwide coverage. Nokia E75 runs on S60 3rd edition, FP2 and has a 2.4" QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT display with 16M colors. Nokia E75 will ship with a 4GB microSD card to top the 50 MB of onboard storage. The phone will be available in Silver Black, Red and Copper Yellow and is expected to start shipping by next month with an estimated retail price of 375 euro before taxes and subsidies.

Nokia E55

The other Eseries arrival, Nokia E55 is most notable for its QW-ER-TY keypad, which is enough grounds for Nokia to pitch the handset as the smallest messenger around. The form factor is actually the major difference between the two latest Eseries phones.

The E55 is a candybar that will make potential E51 upgraders cheer. The emailing skill is absolutely identical to the E75, and so is the rest of the spec sheet. The minor exceptions are the triple download speeds (HSDPA 10.2 Mbps) and HSUPA support (max upload speed up to 2 Mbps), both in favor of the Nokia E55. Sounds like a bargain over the missing full QWERTY for quite some users. The extended talk and standby times are another great asset of the E55, thanks to its 1500 mAh Li-Po battery. Just as a reference, the QWERTY side-slider E75 is powered by a 1000 mAh unit.

Nokia E55

Nokia E55 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset with tri-band HSDPA (10.2 Mbps) support for worldwide coverage. Nokia E55 runs on S60 3rd edition, FP2 and has a 2.4" QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT display with 16M colors. Nokia E55 will ship with a 2GB microSD card to top the 60 MB of onboard storage. The phone will be available in Black and White Aluminum and is expected to start shipping in Q2 of 2009 with an estimated retail price of 265 euro before taxes and subsidies.

Nokia 6710 Navigator and Nokia 6720 classic

The other two new offerings fall in the 67xx line - the 6710 Navigator and the 6720 classic.

They both have quad-band GSM/EDGE support and tri-band 3G with HSDPA/HSUPA. Just like the Nokia E55, data transfers are at full steam with 10.2 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload speeds.

Both devices are powered by Symbian S60 rel. 3. They have QVGA screens with 16 million colors and microSD card slots for extending the memory. Both feature integrated GPS receivers with Nokia Maps 3.0 and preloaded regional maps.

5 megapixel cameras with Carl Zeiss optics and LED flash are the other common feature. Maximum still image resolution is 2592 x 1944 pixels and video is captured at VGA@15 fps. Audio is well-heeled too - 3.5 mm audio jack, Bluetooth with A2DP and FM radio with RDS.

These two show off some impressive standby times - 18.5 days for the Nokia 6710 Navigator and 20.5 days for the Nokia 6720 classic, with about 7 hours of car GPS navigation.

Now let us look at them one by one and check out the differences.

Nokia 6710 Navigator

Nokia 6710 Navigator is a Symbian powered slider and is clearly the more navigation-centric of the two - there's even a dedicated key to bring up the navigation software and a touch area for easy zooming. The screen is 2.6 inches big and is optimized for outdoor use. The phone offers full voice navigation and can work without a SIM card.

The supplied nav software is of course Nokia Maps, version 3.0, with preloaded regional maps. What really sets it apart is that real time information is accessible while navigating - current traffic, weather, POI content (e.g. look up what movies are showing near by).

Nokia 6710 Navigator

On the connectivity side, the device is fully loaded - quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G, Bluetooth with A2DP, WLAN and push email. Connection to a computer is via a microUSB port and there's a standard 3.5 mm audio jack. The Nokia 6710 Navigator can work with 16 GB microSD cards, a 2 GB piece is included in the box.

Nokia 6720 classic

The Nokia 6720 classic is a candy bar smartphone sharing a lot of DNA with the Nokia 6710 but there are differences that may be deal-breakers.

First up - no Wi-Fi. It does however have the same 3G capabilities. Navigation software still includes Nokia Maps 3.0 with preloaded maps but there's no voice navigation and no real time content.

The display is smaller - 2.2 inches - but the phone boasts two full days of longer standby and just under an hour more of GPS navigation. The 3.5 mm AV plug also accommodates TV-out and the handy microUSB port is here as well. The maximum supported microSD card capacity is 8 GB, 1 gig ships with the phone.

Nokia 6720 classic

The Nokia 6720 classic also supports Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform, which gives access to a large catalog of cool games.

Nokia 6720 classic is expected in Q2 of 2009 with a price tag of 245 euro and Nokia 6710 Navigator is coming in Q3 for 300 euro.

Ovi Store

And finally, Nokia just announced their very own app store. Nokia will unify their current services including Download!, MOSH and WidSets into a single online portal. Ovi Store will open in early May and will be available on S40 and S60 devices (including already available models).

The store will deliver games, applications, WidSets as well as media. It will be location aware and integrate with social networks to bring you content your friends have enjoyed.

Nokia has partnered with EA Mobile and Glu to deliver mobile games, Qik which offers live video streaming from your mobile and social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.