The microUSB is winning its ways into becoming the default port for lots of mobile phone companies, letting smaller companies ask themselves if they should also adapt to the trends. Two years ago the GSMA announced to have managed to persuade a large group of mobile phone producers to move to microUSBs by 2012.

The microUSB is becoming the main port for mobile producers such as Nokia, Apple, RIM, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Alcatel - is Alcatel even on the market anymore? Didn't heard anything from their company lately.

Sure, now everybody will ask if the next generation iPhone will feature a microUSB too, but I seriously doubt. The USB port is not proprietary for Apple and it might take a longer time until we will really see it happening.

For those who want to move on to Primus, one of the least popular mobile phone carriers out there, they've just adeed two devices. They may not be the newest possible, but we can consider them as being great addition. Nokia Surge 6790 is focused on messaging and was launched by Rogers for the first time on October 2009. It packs a 2.4 inch screen, full slide-out qwerty keyboard, 2MP camera, Bluetooth and a 2.5mm headset jack. On a three-year deal it can be yours for $50, on a two-year contract you can have it for $149.00, while on one-year deal you can buy it for $199.00. Have it for $249.99 off-contract.

The second device released by Primus is the HTC Magic+ (foto), a smartphone packing a 3.2 inch touchscreen display (320x480), full qwerty keyboard, 3.2 MP camera, GPS and Wi-Fi. Pay just $79.00 with a three-year deal up-front, $399.00 with a two-year deal and $449.00 with a contract for 12 months. Buy it off-contract with $599.00. High prices for the HTC, don't you think so?

Via MobileSyrup

Android has become in the last quarter of 2010 the best sold operating system in the world, overcoming Nokia's Symbian. With almost 39 million handsets sold around the world in Q4, Android passes over Nokia, which stalls at a level of 31 million handsets sold in the same amount of time.

Android is right now spreading around the world fastest than even the iPhone, so this is a remarkable achievement. The battle at the top is between Google, RIM and Apple, and it seems Google is taking over the mobile phone world. Nokia, on the other side, seems to lose a lot of ground - and fast. Apple and Android are growing quarter after quarter, while Nokia stalls or goes down. The Finnish producer's future ideas does not even seem interesting for the market anymore, so I can't see a very shiny future for them.

Source: MobileCrunch

It's unusual for a Nokia to be available first in the US, and then in Europe, but it will happen with the new E73 Mode. The new smartphone will come to T-Mobile and will feature a full qwerty keyboard and will run Symbian. The design is the same as in each of the E7x series, but will also come with 3G connectivity and Wi-Fi, plus Ovi Store integration. It seems the smartphone will hit T-Mobile on 16th June.

The phone will have a 2.36 inch screen, five-way scroll key, 3.5 mm audio jack and Bluetooth. We don't know anything about the price yet, but I don't think you will have to pay more than $250 for it off-contract.

Source: Endadget

As reported before, Nokia 7230 should have been available through Bell on 28th May and here it is. The device comes in black or pink, has a 2.4 inch display (240x320), 3.2 MP camera, 3.5 mm headset jack, FM Radio and a 2GB microSD card. It weighs 100 grams and ban be bought at different prices, depending on Bell's data plans.

On a three-year contract you will have to spend $29.99, $79.99 if you will tie up a two-year deal, $129.95 if you want a one-year contract and $149.95 if you want it to be unlocked in every network. 

Announced in November 2009, Nokia 7230 is an unimpressive device, good for anyone who won't have to browse the internet and do anything else besides calling. It doesn't have Wi-Fi, GPS or Infrared, but offers Bluetooth. The camera is decent, but don't be too demanding from it. The stand by time is up to 370 hours and the talk time is around 5 hours and a half on 2G and 3 hours and 40 minutes on 3G.

Via

If you are not prepared to wait anymore for the new Nokia N8, coming soon in the UK, then you can have its Chinese brother, called "N8-00". Well, short note to the Finnish producer: this can happen when you announce a smartphone and delay its release date even if many informations about him were already leaked. 

The Chinese version of the Nokia N8 has a 3.3 inch touchscreen, a quad-band GSM radio, a pair of VGA cameras (which I think it's really funny), 2GB microSD storage capacity, Bluetooth, USB port and, surprise, English user's guide support. Sure, there are also other usual stuff included, though the Wi-Fi is missing. 

The fake N8 can be bought with $99.20 from DealExtreme, but I wouldn't really recommend doing it. I'd rather wait for the real N8 and pay more than spending $100 on this fake device. I am eager to see what will Nokia build on this in the coming weeks...

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Nokia X6 will come in South Korea early next month, so this means it will be already available next week. This is the third Symbian phone that hit South Korea, after Nokia 6210 and Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. The version that will be available in Korea will be a Music Edition, meaning the users will be able to buy and download songs directly from Nokia Music Store. The smartphone will cost around $498 and will be available via KT, a South Korean mobile phone carrier.

Nokia X6 is a music-centered touchscreen display and portable entertainment device from Nokia, the Finnish producer bringing it to replace Nokia 5800. It started being available in Europe and USA in the fourth quarter of the last year, has a 640 x 360 16:9 3.2 inch display, a 5.0 MP camera (with 4x digital zoom), runs Symbian v9.4 and packs 128 MB RAM. It's powered up by a AMR 11 processor, clocked at 433.9 MHz and has 512 MB flash memory.

Depending on the version, the storage capacity can be 16GB or 32GB. It has 3G, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, Bluetooth and TV-Out.

Via

We talked about the new Nokia N8 this week too, but now we have more informations about it. Besides the fact that we know it will be released in UK soon, now we also have an official video of it, released by Chris Bennetts, Senior Product Manager at Nokia. They really start proving this is a smartphone worth buying.

The first video (there will be two more in the coming weeks) talks about customizing the homescreen, internet browsing, messaging and maps. It seems the new Symbian 3 will come up with more features than we expected before. The user will have now more widgets available and a redesigned task manager. There's also a new qwerty keyboard and other minor changes, but not very important ones.

Nokia N8 will not be very fast, but it will not be slow either. There are just few months until the release and things might improve. I can't wait to test the new phone, that's for sure.

Via

Vodafone UK's website shows the new Nokia N8 as "coming soon", but it seems the smartphone will not appear until August at least. We've seen different shots of the 12MP sharpshooter, and we highly anticipate this phone as being one of the most interesting Symbian-release of this year.

If you want to preorder the phone, Amazon Germany offers you this possibility with around 470 euros. Neither Amazon or Vodafone talked about the official release date, but rumors suggest it might be 24th August. Anyway, we will also have some other answers and even a price range when the phone will get from "coming soon" to "pre-order status"

Source: GSM Arena

Even with Nokia N8 ready to be released in few months, it is well known it will not run the new version of Symbian, 3.0. Instead of the new Nokia, it seems "an Asian vendor" will run it for the first time, as Lee Williams (Symbian Foundation Executive Director) says. We don't know which vendor it will be, but if it's Asian then will probably be LG or Samsung.

Rumors suggest the new Symbian is almost ready to be launched, but Symbian wants a highly expected smartphone to integrate the new operating system in it, otherwise it may not be such a hit they want it to be.

Source: Engadget

In those days, when everybody talks about the WWDC and about Jobs' iPhone 4, Nokia makes an important step into getting the business larger in Asian countries. They've just released the C3 in Indonesia, and the guys there formed queues as you can usually see in USA when a high-waited device is launched. Like the queues you should expect next week, when you will be able to purchase the new iPhone device.

Nokia also though of organizing special events in 10 Indonesian cities, including Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta, where users can buy the new C3 with lower prices. 

Nokia C3 is launched for the first time in Indonesia, and will be launched in other countries (including UK) in the coming weeks. The smartphone is a qwerty keyboard device, which is about $120 unlocked, has QVGA display, Wi-Fi, Social Media intergration, Bluetooth, FM Radio, 3.5mm headset jack, 2MP camera and microSD support.

Via Unwired View

Rogers, the Canadian phone carrier, put the Nokia N97 Mini for sale on different contract plans. Off-contract the phone would be $499.99, which is probably too big thinking that the device is just the Mini version the the original N97. On a three-year contract you will have to spend $99.99 for purchasing it, which is a pretty good deal, but I can't see myself tying me up on a contract for three years just because of the N97 Mini. Buy it on a two-year plan and you'll have to spend $399.99 which is, again, too expensive in my opinion. Let's not talk about the one-year deal possibility, which is one of the worse offers possible: $449.99. No, thanks!

Few specs of the smartphone: the screen is a 3.2 inch, with 8GB memory, 512 MB NAND memory (256 MB for the Nokia N97), weighs 138g and has a 1200mAh 3.7V battery. The camera is a 5.0 MP, there's a qwerty keyboard on it (with the "space" key on the right - oddly enough), powered up by a 434MHz processor and having an 128MB SDRAM. Not impressive. Not impressive at all, thinking about the price too. The offer is decent if you want 100% the smartphone, but otherwise I would think about something else.

Via MobileSyrup

After we talked about Nokia C3 being launched in Indonesia, now there's another C series handset almost out. Actually, there are some leaked images showing the new Nokia C7, including an 8MP camera. The smartphone is a full-touch device with a nice design based, it seems, on the Motorola XT800 ZHISHANG, which was announced last December. C7's camera will also come with dual LED flash and stereo speakers.

According to what the source of the images says, it seems C7 will run S60 5th Edition as operating system, but we wouldn't be very surprised if there is actually going to be Symbian^3, the same Nokia N8 comes with. There is also a secondary camera located right above the display, a 3.5mm headset jack and the screen is surrounded by a metalic frame. Unfortunately, those are the only specs available right now, se we will have to wait a bit more to find out everything about this handset.

Via GSM Arena

One of the newest devices from the Finnish device Nokia, called 5530 XpressMusic. just got a software update. The new version, 30.0.009, is said to bring universal kinetic scrolling, but also some other goodies. Now the users will enjoy the feature or scrolling throughout the whole UI. The web browser also receives a 7.2.3 version so the new features and the full screen mode are now set by default.

Nokia 5530, which seems to me to look a lot like the Nokia N97 (besides the physical keyboard) , will also get two new applications (Ovi Sync and Shazam) and will also have better RAM optimization. The new update will give the user a 2MB more free RAM (which may not be so much) and the music players icons have also undergone minor design changes.

You can update the software by using Nokia Software Update application. The entertainment phone packs a 3.2MP camera, works with Symbian OS 9.4 + S60 platform 5th Edition, has a nHD 640x360 pixels (2.9 inch widescreen) and packs 128 MB SDRAM. There is also Wi-Fi available, and also Bluetooth 2.0. It has a 3,5 mm headset jack and video-out jack.

Via GSM Arena

Each day another news on a phone from the "E" series of Nokia. The Finnish producer seems to have alpha-tested the new Nokia E5 and they may have approved it for the launch in North America and Australia. However, it seems the E5 is not having any 3G support for the North American 3G bands. Anyway, a different approved model number (RM-634) seems to have availability in North America, Australia and South America too.

The data sheet also says there's a model of the smartphone with 850/1900 3G bands, which makes the device good enough for AT&T or any other Canadian carriers, such as Bell. Everybody says there's a good chance of this phone actually hitting the United States sooner than later.

The phone was announced at the same time with C3 and C6 and has almost the same design as any other phone from its series. It has a QVGA display, full qwerty keyboard, Wi-Fi, aGPS, Ovi Maps with free turn-by-turn navigation, as any other new Nokia handset, 3.5mm headeset jack and a 5MP camera. There is not any official pricing range yet, but it seems the phone will cost around $220 unlocked, which means the phone will be way cheaper with an upfront deal.

Via Unwired View

After Motorola announced the FlipOut, a weird phone in my opinion, Nokia didn't wanted to lose ground and announced another giant: Nokia X5-01. The phone was announced at the annual Nokia Connection event in Singapore. The phone has a square form, a 4-rows qwerty keyboard, and for listening to music in a shuffle mode you will have to spin the phone in a circle. Wow, that's something! Unfortunately it's difficult to do it with your headphones connected on.

An other weird new feature is the ability to shake the phone so you can "feel" how many messages you have. That's smart too, hide the phone under the desk in a meeting and do it. But for reading the messages shouldn't you actually look at the phone? That's probably going to help you just when you are going to check for messages, and you don't have any. You won't have to look at the phone to see that you don't have any new SMS.

The phone will come in 5 colours (blue, pink, purple, black, green), will have a 5MP camera with LED Flash, 200MB internat storage with microSD possible extension until 32GB. The phone will be powered by Symbian S60 3rd Edition and will cost around $200, but we don't know when or where it's going to be released.

Via MobileCrunch

Koodo finally decided to go live with their HSPA and they will do it by the end of this month. The device they will use for that matter is Nokia 3710 which will cost $175 or $25 on the Tab. There's a Koodo HSPA included in the SIm, but you can also purchase a Koodo SIM for $10. Another mobile phone that will work with HSPA at Koodo will be Smasung SGH-T356, but not right now. This device will cost around $300,, which is too much for a phone of its quality.

Nokia 3710 is a black / pink / plum mobile phone from Nokia, unimpressive though. It was announced last year in June and released in December. It features a 240x320 2.2 inch display, 2.5mm audio jack, 70MB internal memory (the microSD can hold up to 8GB). There's not Wi-Fi, no Infrared, but it features Bluetooth 2.1. The camera is a 3.2 MP with LED flash and focus, while the secondary camera is a VGA destined to be used for video calling. The phone also features Stereo FM and GPS.

Via MobileSyrup

TELUS, the carrier which will deliver Nokia E72 has already priced the new E72, which is going to be available on 11th July. Their website is now updated and they've already showed the price. The prices are $99.99 with a three-year deal and $349.99 off-contract. The new smartphone from the Finnish carrier is the successor of Nokia E71, based on similar design and form factor and with similar feature set.

The display is a 2.3 inch 320x240 pixels and has up to 16.7 million colors. The camera is a 5MP with autofocus and LED Flash (2592x1944 pixels), as operating system there is the S60 3rd edition. It features a qwerty thumb keyboard with optical navigation key. The processor is a 600MHz AMR11 and the memory is a 250MB internal user storage. There are 512MB ROM and 128 MB SDRAM, with around 71MB free executable RAM.

The microSDHC card supports up to 16GB. Other specs include Wi-Fi, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.0, microUSD, 3.5mm headset jack and weighs 128 grams.

Via MobileSyrup

The new smartphone of Nokia, C7, was confirmed on their website through an XML file. It confirs that the phone is going to feature a 360x640 pixels touchscreen display (standard for several models of the Finnish company), HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Nothing sure about the camera yet, but sources say there is going to be a 8MP. Ok, we know some things about it now. But we still don't know one of the most important thing: how the phone actually looks.

Nokia hasn't confirmed anything on this matter. We only have the image above, which is the first Nokia C7 we've seen, but it's still not confirmed. We haven't heard of a release date either, but we know the phone may come with Symbian^3. Because the C6 is not more than €220, we expect the C7 to be affordable too.

Via Unwired View

There's a bug report from MeeGo on the internet showing another leak of a Nokia mobile phone, which is possibly the N9 first leaked six months ago. Nokia didn't officially announced the phone yet, but it's expected to happen at the Mobile World Congress next week. The specs of the N9 include a powerful 1GB RAM and a 1.6GHz Intel processor, powering up the device running, probably, Nokia's new operating system.

Nokia lost a lot of field in the last years, and are still on top thanks to their incredible period until several years ago, so they certainly hope the N9 will be a hit on the market. With Wireless N connectivity, a WVGA resolution display and an FM transmitter, could the N9 bring Nokia back in the game?

Source: GSM Arena