At the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, handset maker Nokia announced four new mobile phones for the North American market, including three new CMDA designs and a svelte new GSM model.
“This new collection of CDMA handsets offer an exceptional range of features, including Bluetooth wireless technology, to consumers shopping for various form factors and at multiple price points,” said Timo Ihamuotila, senior VP of Nokia’s CDMA business unit. “Combined with Nokia’s driving mission to build high-quality, easy-to-use devices, these new phones bring an outstanding level of value to the CDMA market.”
The Nokia 6175i phone is a full-featured, mid-priced, 3.4 ounce, CDMA fold-style phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera with a 4x digital zoom, a 128 by 160 pixel TFT internal LCD display capable of displaying 262,000 colors, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. The 6175i also includes PictBridge technology to enable photo printing without first transferring the images to a computer: just connect (via Bluetooth, even!) to a PictBridge compatible printing device, and ta da that snapshot of a three year-old wearing pasta on his ears is available for framing. The 6175i also has a built-in GPS receiver, an stereo FM receiver, and can play streamed audio and video in a variety of formats.
The CMDA 2865 and 2865i are 3.5 ounce, monoblock-style phones featuring the same 128 by 160 pixel display, with a built-in FM receiver, push-to-talk capability, an integrated speakerphone, and Bluetooth Wireless connectivity.
Nokia’s third CDMA offering is the compact, 3.7 ounce fold-style Nokia 2365i with a 128 by 160 pixel internal screen, a 96 by by 65 blue/black external display, a built-in FM receiver, a hands-free speakerphone, and integrated Bluetooth wireless networking.
Finally, for the GSM market, Nokia is touting the new 6126, weighing just 3.9 onces and a soft-touch finish and a push-to-open latch button apparently designed to create “phone envy.” The 6126 offers a 320 by 240 pixel QVGA internal display capable of displaying 16.7 million colors, an integrated music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+) and support for an optional 1 GB SD card and/or a wires or wireless (Bluetooth) stereo headset. Also included: a 1.3 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom with a video capture mode, support for streaming audio and video, built-in 3D games, and synchronization of calendar, to-do lists, and contacts with an “Active Standby Mode” in which the idle screen keeps users informed of pending calendar and to-do items.
Sadly, Nokia hasn’t released any pricing information for any of the new models, although the 6175i is described as “mid-priced” and the 2365i as “value priced,” which sort of leaves the 2865 and 2865i at just “priced.” The GMS 6126 is expected to be priced toward the higher end of Nokia’s offerings.
The CDMA 6175i, 2865/2865i, and 2365i are expected to be available in the second half of 2006. The GSM 6126 should be available during the second quarter of 2006.
