MWC08: Nokia announces four new S60 mobile devices

We were expecting some device announcements at Mobile World Congress from Nokia and the did not disappoint with the announcement of 4 new devices. They announced the Nokia 6220 Classic, 6210 Navigator, N78, and N96. I had the opportunity to meet with various product managers to talk about the devices and also took several pictures and some video that will be posted later when I get some time away from the show floor.

The 6220 Classic is a very compact mobile phone designed for the person coming from a feature phone to the S60 platform who wants phone that excels in still photography since it has a Carl Zeiss 5-megapixel digital camera with a Xenon flash. It also has a GPS receiver and HSDPA support.

Another of the 6000 series announced was the 6210 Navigator that focuses on and provides a great GPS experience. The 6210 has a very cool feature for the pedestrian/commuter that needs GPS navigation support and that is the integrated magnetic compass that corrects for your location on the Earth. I took a video of this in action that I will post later and the amazing thing about the compass is that the phone also has accelerometers integrated so that as you rotate/turn the phone the compass adjusts the maps so you always know where to head. We could have used this last night in Barcelona when we came out of a subway station and did not know which way to go from there. Nokia also gives buyers the full voice and visual turn navigation functionality for free, which is normally a EUR69 per year subscription service.

The Nokia N78 is the successor to the very popular Nokia N73. The N73 was actually one of my favorite Nseries devices of all times with a nice form factor, great camera cover design, beautiful display, and extremely long battery life. The Nokia N78 features WiFi, HSDPA (including a device with support for the U.S. available at the 2nd quarter launch), keypad that lights up depending on the application's needs, FM transmitter to listen to your tunes in your car with little effort required, 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and all the rest of the great features and applications found in S60.

The device I am personally most interested in is the Nokia N96 that takes the N95 to the next level. The N96 includes 16GB of flash memory, 2.8 inch display, DVB-H receiver, high speed USB port, full Flash support in the web browser, and the same dual slide design like the N95. The N96 has a form factor similar to the Nokia N81 8GB with a flat keypad that lights up. There is a very handy kickstand that pops out from the camera bezel that allows you to waatch video content with the N96 resting on a table. The stereo speakers have also been moved up to the right side (top of the device when rested on its side with the kickstand). The device still includes a 5 megapixel camera and GPS receiver as well.

The 6210, 6220, and N96 should be out in the 3rd quarter of 2008 and the N78 should be out in the 2nd quarter.

Full disclosure: I am here at the Mobile World Congress event, along with a few others, as a beta program funded by Nokia. My travel to and from and lodging at the event were paid for by Nokia. I did not receive any payment for writing about Nokia and there was no requirement to write anything as an obligation/service of this trip. It did burn through another full week of my paid time off from work and my wife isn't too happy about that.