Finland’s Nokia has announced three new handsets which aim at the burgeoning music, youth, and fashion-conscious segments of the mobile phone market. Although the world’s leading handset maker doesn’t seem interested in bringing the new units to the U.S. market right now, they could be a sign of things to come…and who knows, maybe a GSM-savvy U.S. provider might see some potential in the phones. After all—last we checked, the segments of the U.S. market were still into music, youth, and fashion.
The Nokia 5700 XpressMusic is a candybar-style phone which sports a “twist” design which lets users switch between four usage modes—music player, video call, camera, and smartphone—with just the flick of a wrist. The 5700 XpressMusic touts a dedicated audio chip and integrated speakers for music playback (of course, headphones and Bluetooth are also supported), along with a 2 megapixel video-capable camera, microSD storage, and video support; the phone can tap into 3G data services to download music and video over the air, and features a bevy of smartphone functions (this is an S60 device) for surfing the Internet, keeping up with your mail and messaging, and accessing location-based services. On the audio front, the 5700 XpressMusic supports WMA, AAC, eACC+, and MP4 audio (sorry, protected purchases from the iTunes store are exempt), and enables purchase of music from Internet music stores using Windows Media DRM. Expect the 5700 XpressMusic in the second quarter of 2007 at a price of €350 before taxes and subsidies.
The new Nokia 5070 will only cost €100, and it targets the social-networking-crazed youth market with messaging, synchronization, and “leisure” features aimed at younger phone users. Nokia doesn’t tout software which ties the 5070 in with popular social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook; instead, the phone offers quick access to friend’s contact and messaging details, and enables users to send quick voice messaging via Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging. The phone also sports a built-in camera (no resolution specified), integrated Web browser, an FM tuner, a stereo headset, and a selection of pre-installed Java games like Soduku. The 5070 should be available in the second quarter of 2007; it’ll be available in red or blue.
Finally, trend-concious phone users (again, outside the U.S.) might want to check out the Nokia 7088, the latest entry in the company’s L’Amour Collection of designer phones. The 7088 is the first CDMA model in the collection (which, hey, maybe means it’ll cross the pond) as well as the first slider phone Nokia’s deemed elegant enough to bear the name. Nokia touts the 7088 has having a “jewel-like” select key and a carefully sculpted directional pad, all wrapped in a metallic frame with leather-inspired textures. (Note Nokia doesn’t say they’re using actual leather.) The phone touts an integrated video-capable camera, an 128 by 160 pixel LCD display, a two-way speakerphone, voice recorder, and calendar feature. Nokia expects to roll out the 7088 to the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, China, and Latin America during the second quarter (Europe doesn’t even get to set hands on this one). No pricing information was released.
