Nokia unwraps E6 and X7 Symbian handsets

Nokia has revealed the E6 and X7, two new Symbian-based devices that will run the recently announced 'Anna' version of the operating system.

The Finnish company launched the business-focused E6 and multimedia-oriented X7 handsets on Tuesday.

"We are further strengthening Nokia's smartphone portfolio with these two new devices," said Jo Harlow, head of Nokia's Smart Devices business, in a statement. "With these new products and more Symbian devices and user enhancements coming in the near future, we are confident we can keep existing Nokia smartphone customers engaged, as well as attract new first-time and competitor smartphone users."

These are the first handsets to run Anna, the newest version of Symbian, which has a redesigned home screen, updated email and calendar functionality, and usability changes. Nokia has also added a number of new features to the Ovi Maps application included in Anna.

The E6 is a glass and stainless steel-constructed handset and offers the combination of a Qwerty keypad and 2.46-inch VGA resolution (640 by 480 pixels) capacitive touchscreen display. The X7 is a touchscreen smartphone with no keypad.

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The E6 — which will come in black or silver in the UK — measures 115.5 by 59 by 10.5mm and weighs 133g, including the battery.

It has standard modern smartphone specifications such as HSPA connectivity, A-GPS, microSD card support up to 32GB, Wi-Fi and an 8-megapixel camera capable of capturing 720p HD video at 25fps. It can also be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot for other devices.

USB devices can be docked onto the E6 using a supplied adaptor cable and the phone's micro USB connector, allowing users to transfer files directly from external storage devices.

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The E6 has a number of business-focused features, such as support for Microsoft Outlook contacts, and calendar and notes synchronisation. It also allows users to create, edit or share Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the move and comes with the Microsoft Communicator Mobile pre-installed.

Some of the updates to the Symbian Anna OS have also been squarely aimed at the enterprise audience, such as hardware-accelerated device encryption and better support for email features like meeting requests.

Nokia has not yet announced pricing but told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that it expects the E6 to begin shipping to customers in the second quarter of 2011.

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By contrast, the X7 is an entertainment-focused handset with a 4-inch 16:9 nHD resolution (640 by 360 pixels) Amoled touchscreen display, which Nokia said makes it perfect for movie playback and gaming.

Other key specs include Wi-Fi, HSPA connectivity, A-GPS and an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash that is capable of capturing 720p 16:9 HD video.

The X7 will come with an 8GB microSD card pre-installed but will support cards up to 32GB. Like its business-focused stablemate, the X7 also supports USB-to-go, meaning that the phone can be used with external storage devices.

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The X7, available in silver or black, runs the same Symbian Anna operating system as the E6 and comes with the full suite of Ovi software, including the newest version of Ovi Maps, which adds public transportation directions and integrates some social-networking functionality.

Unsurprisingly given its multimedia and entertainment focus, the X7 supports download and streaming of video content and comes pre-loaded with video-editing tools to make sharing home-made films easier. It also supports "a majority" of Flash 10.1 content via Flash Lite 4 and offers WebTV widgets for on-demand streaming of internet TV.

The handset also comes with the Galaxy on Fire HD and Asphalt 5 games pre-installed. Like the E6, Nokia expects the X7 to go on sale in Q2 2011.

Older Nokia handsets — namely, the N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 — will also be able to upgrade to the Anna version of Symbian "in the coming months", Nokia said.

Nokia is planning to discontinue its sale of Symbian-based handsets within the next two years following the announcement of its partnership deal with Microsoft to produce handsets that run on the Windows Phone 7 platform.

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