Our previous articles covered the major market players’ latest advancements in the field of technology presented at the Mobile World Congress exhibition. As seen by many, the expo’s leader is the SonyEricsson company which put on display quite an impressive variety of hi-tech devices and revealed their plans for the first half of 2008 (and partially for the second). Indeed, the ultimate WM-based PDA phone, an UIQ smartphone supplied with a 5 Mp camera and featuring miniature dimensions, a slim Cyber-Shot 5 Mp camera phone, a fashion folder from the Walkman family equipped with 8 Gb of storage – a striking collection. These products attracted maximum attention, and there’s no secret to it: SonyEricsson had been lacking ideas and revolutionary solutions for quite a long time, so the public were enoromously surprised.

The Samsung company is now experiencing a situation of the same sort. The company’s flagship from the Ultra Edition II line now has a replacement, that’s the U900 Soul model, the potential bestseller. However it doesn’t look like a revolutionary product – it’s rather on the conservative side. The G600 model has been selling for about six months so far, and U900 is just its fashion variant (however, there are a number of changes – an updated firmware platform, additional camera functions, 3G support). The G810 model poses more interest – it’s basically a G800 that adopted Symbian OS, it carries Wi-Fi and GPS modules. The handset is very versatile and sports high quality of assembly and materials. Similar to the previously mentioned handsets, it’s more on the safe side rather open to designers’ experiments – anything that G810 has was previously seen in Nokia N95 and N95 8 Gb, and those began selling more than year ago. Samsung just invented a refreshed alternative to the fading N95, but little more than that.

Nokia didn’t exhibit anything of extraordinary interest at all, so we’d rather start with telling you about their new services.

The new S60 Touch interface was announced, however the demo version used an emulator, and real life working prototypes are anticipated to appear by the mid-year. Everything concerning it still remains rather vague. One thing that’s obvious is Nokia’s high expectations about the Touch family, might also mean a massive portfolio expansion in all market segments by the year of 2009.

The development of GPS navigation modules remains on Nokia’s priority list. The company invested enormous sums of money in developing this market direction, a number of navigator companies were bought and incorporated into Nokia, so the estimated sales of GPS devices are as high as 35 million copies of GPS handsets in 2008, which is a number high above than the number of copies sold by all the GPS market players combined in 2007. All the four new announced phones come with a GPS module. Such a model range (N82, N95/96, N78, 6120 and 6220 – by the beginning of the year!) gives us reasons to think that Nokia’s plans are quite close to coming true.

The company announced Nokia Maps 2.0, a serious update to their navigation service belonging to the OVI group. This isn’t just a cosmetic update, but rather a whole new revision of the application. The interface is now even more comfortable and intuitive. Pedestrian routes now enjoy dedicated markings on the map, an unique feature among all the GPS services so far, as stated by the company representatives. The feature list involves voice alerts for the pedestrians, satellite maps, hybrid maps. As of now, Nokia Maps 2.0 is already available for download at http://nokia.com/betalabs

The mobile blogging service based off Twango is the next Nokia’s step in this field: http://share.ovi.com

Another sign of convergence is the Location Tagger application which combines three important functions: Sharing, GPS and Photo. Once a photo is taken , the Photo function adds a meta tag to the photo, that is the coordinates of location where the photo was taken. Once the photo is published on the web, the viewers can access this information and learn of the location origin.

Let’s get back to the portfolio right now. N95 8GB is to be replaced with the new N96 model. As thought by many, the handset turned out to be a very ambiguous product. The storage size has doubled, being 16 Gb. Memory cards are supported, so the handset becomes a clear leader in terms of the maximum supported storage capacity in a long-term outlook. The rest of changes are rather scarce. DVB-H support is added, and a number of GPS improvements to be discussed further, the maximum optimization for viewing videos. A special handset holder is meant for more stability while watching videos, however it’s doubtful if it really helps. The model is based off S60 v3.2 platform.

The device design is much in keeping with the N81 style. Nokia does that intentionally, however this kind of style doesn’t look too smart or aspiring. We’d rather prefer a transition to a more elaborate concept – all of the latest Nokia products are notable for their rounded shape, glossy plastic and cheap looks.

Nokia N96 Specifications:

Form Factor: double slider
Dimensions: 103 x 55 x 18 mm
Weight: 125 g
Camera: 5,0 Мп auto-focusing, Carl Zeiss optics, LED flash
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 16 M colors, 2,8’’, TFT
Storage: 16 GB, microSD slot
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP
Supported networks: HSDPA 850/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE class 32
Navigation: integrated GPS module
Extras: TV-out, DVB-H Class C, VGA 30 fps video recording
Standby: up to 220 hours
Talktime: up to 3,6 hours

The handset hardly looks interesting. The changes are very few, but this will do for another ‘leet’ shelf filler, and the loyalty to the N95 concept will surely attract a significant number of buyers. Also, such a small number of improvements over an existing model effectively stands for a lower development cost so actually Nokia doesn’t lose here. Given the fact that the market of all-in-one solutions is dominated by

The second novelty is N78, which is a quite affordable product sticking to the same design concept, but lacking any prominent features. The only reason to buy it might be the design, the rest of virtues are, better to be looked for in N82, which is considered to be one of the market’s best offers. The hundred euros difference is more than justified when choosing from N82 and N78, the latter being more of a shelf filler which can only challenge mid-end products by other companies, e.g. SonyEricsson C702.

Nokia N82 and N78 screens compare:

The feature list of N78 includes such selling points as FP2 support, an FM transmitter, a GPS module, a 3.5 mm headset jack and a Wi-Fi module.

Nokia N78 Specifications

Form Factor: candy bar
Dimensions: 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm
Weight: 102 g
Camera: 3,2 Мп auto-focusing, Carl Zeiss optics
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 16 M colors, 2,4’’, TFT
Storage: 70 Mb, microSD slot
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP
Supported networks: HSDPA 850/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE class 32
Navigation: integrated GPS module
Extras: FM-transmitter, VGA 30 fps video recording
Standby: up to 320 hours
Talktime: up to 4,3 hours

In addition to the few new Nseries devices, the company exhibited the sequels to the 6110 Navigator and 6120 Classic models, which are dubbed 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic respectively. The continuity in the series is obvious, however the design is a bit weird once again; the functionality is on quite good level. GPS modules come integrated into the both models, meta tagging is possible for the photos taken. 6120 comes with a digital compass, a 2,4’’ screen, a 3.2 Mp auto-focusing camera, the body is remarkably slim.

A good replacement for the older model, we hope that this one sell better due to a more popular design solution and better specifications.

Nokia 6210 Navigator Specifications

Form Factor: slider
Dimensions: 103 x 49 x 14.9 мм
Weight: 117 g
Camera: 3,2 Mp auto-focusing, LED flash
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 16 M colors, 2,4’’, TFT
Storage: 120 Mb, microSD slot
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB
Supported networks: HSDPA 850/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE class 32
Navigation: integrated GPS module, accelerometer, digital compass
Standby: up to 220 hours
Talktime: up to 3,6 hours

6220 Classic bears little functional differences from its sibling; it utilizes the candy bar form factor, the dimensions are rather compact, and the 5 Mp auto-focusing camera powered by Carl Zeiss optics looks really interesting, also supplied with a xenon flash and an active lens guard. This model makes a nice photo-oriented offer for a fine price (€325 at the beginning of sales) enjoying the full S60 functionality and integrated GPS features. We think this one is the best model covered in this whole article and will score best sales, also due to the lack of direct competitors. The device is very well-balanced against the K850 and C902 SonyEricsson phones which lack smartphone capabilities and GPS, while G900 belongs to a different price bracket.

The device allows recording videos at an VGA resolution (640x480) and a framerate of 30 fps, the video quality is comparable to the company’s flagship models N96, N82. The camera module is the same, namely Tesar 2.8/5.6, which stands for a fine quality currently outpacing all the competitors.

It’s noteworthy that 6220 Classic isn’t a part of the Nseries. The manufacturer doesn’t let cheaper models enter the series, setting the minimum starting price requirement at €350 (N72, N78, N81 are all good examples). The money are charged for the brand name, design and just because of a different positioning. At the same time, Nokia 6220 Classic is meant to become the company’s cheapest, mass sold and most affordable 5 Mp handset. The price of €325 is but a guiding one, it will surely decrease over time, thus greatly improving the quality/price ration. No other company has anything similar in the portfolio, so 6220 is about to take the advantage and hit the top lines in the sales chart.

Nokia 6220 Classic Specifications

Form Factor: candy bar
Dimensions: 108 x 47 x 15 mm
Weight: 90 g
Camera: 5,0 Mp auto-focusing, Carl Zeiss optics, : LED flashlight, lens guard
Screen: QVGA (240x320), 16 M colors, 2,2’’, TFT
Storage: 120 Mb, microSD slot
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB
Supported networks: HSDPA 850/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE class 32
Navigation: integrated GPS module
Extras: FM-radio with RDS, VGA 30 fps video recording
Standby: up to 250 hours
Talktime: up to 3,5 hours

Summarizing the experiences, we can say that Nokia displayed but a few of their intention and Nokia’s products presented at Mobile World Congress were rather short on new ideas – merely a planned portfolio expansion. The most interesting announces are still to be heard by the middle and the end of the year. An photo flagship with optical zoom is expected to arrive as well as a number of touchscreen, and the current announces are but an insignificant update to the company’ portfolio in order to maintain the sales at a stable level. The most interesting of these might be Nokia 6220 Classic. This is the most inexpensive 5 Mp camera phone so far, it’s equipped with a LED flash, a lens guard, a GPS module and almost every S60 feature. It’s rather small-sized, enjoys a strict design and is a likely candidate for price reductions in the future. Definitely this will make a key Nokia product during this year, enjoying a lack of competition in its class.