Nokia E71x (AT&T)

At $149.99 with a two-year contract, the Nokia E71x is AT&T's best smartphone deal right now. A variant on the Editors' Choice–winning unlocked E71, this handset is strikingly slim, classy-looking phone with excellent e-mail and Web support—all at half the price of competing handsets. AT&T subscribers looking for a phone that can act as a mobile office can't go wrong with this Nokia.

Nokia

http://www.nokia.com

• Price as Tested: $0.00 - $399.99 List
• Service Provider: AT&T
• Operating System: Other
• Screen Size: 2.4 inches
• Screen Details: 320x240, 16 million color TFT LCD screen
• Camera: Yes
• Megapixels: 3.2 MP
• 802.11x: Yes
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Web Browser: Yes
• Network: GSM, UMTS
• Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
• Processor Speed: 381 MHz

Nokia 7205 Intrigue (Verizon Wireless)

Now that cell phones with full QWERTY keyboards are permeating the mainstream, handsets with numeric-only keypads are beginning to look old-school. Fortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean unattractive—especially in the case of Nokia's new 7205 Intrigue. After years of catering only to GSM customers (with the exception of a few low-end CDMA models), Nokia brings a sexy yet solid handset to Verizon. The 7205 is a well-made, good-looking flip phone that's a considerable improvement over last year's drab 6205.

Nokia

http://www.nokia.com

• Price as Tested: $179.00 Street
• Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
• Operating System: Other
• Screen Size: 2.2 inches
• Screen Details: 240x320-pixel, 262K color TFT
• Camera: Yes
• Megapixels: 2 MP
• 802.11x: No
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Web Browser: Yes
• Network: CDMA
• Bands: 800, 1900
• High-Speed Data: 1xRTT, EVDO
• Special Features: Music

Nokia 7510 (T-Mobile)

The Nokia 7510 is a middling midrange phone on T-Mobile, with a handsome body and an attractive interface but generally mediocre performance. It's got one big plus, however: unlimited calling over Wi-Fi hot spots for only $9.99 per month. In a recession, that may make the 7510 the right choice for heavy talkers.

Nokia

http://www.nokia.com

• Price as Tested: $49.99 - $199.99 List
• Service Provider: T-Mobile
• Operating System: Other
• Screen Size: 2.2 inches
• Screen Details: 320x240, 16.7-million color TFT LCD display; text-only monochrome external display
• Camera: Yes
• Megapixels: 2 MP
• 802.11x: Yes
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Web Browser: Yes
• Network: GSM
• Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE

Nokia 1606 (Cricket)

A simple flip phone for the inexpensive wireless carrier Cricket, the Nokia 1606 delivers decent call quality in a slim, light package. Cricket users, who are always looking to save a buck, may be tempted by its stylish looks. But ultimately the Nokia 1606 provides a false economy; you can get more for your money on Cricket with the competing Motorola VE240—including Bluetooth.

Nokia

http://www.nokia.com

• Price as Tested: $119.00 List
• Service Provider: MetroPCS
• Operating System: Other
• Screen Size: 1.8 inches
• Screen Details: 1.8", 128x160, 262k-color TFT LCD screen; 96x32k monochrome external screen
• Camera: No
• 802.11x: No
• Bluetooth: No
• Web Browser: No
• Network: CDMA
• Bands: 850, 1900, 1700
• High-Speed Data: 1xRTT

Nokia 7510 (T-Mobile)

The Nokia 7510 is a middling midrange phone on T-Mobile, with a handsome body and an attractive interface but generally mediocre performance. It's got one big plus, however: unlimited calling over Wi-Fi hot spots for only $9.99 per month. In a recession, that may make the 7510 the right choice for heavy talkers.

Nokia

http://www.nokia.com

• Price as Tested: $49.99 - $199.99 List
• Service Provider: T-Mobile
• Operating System: Other
• Screen Size: 2.2 inches
• Screen Details: 320x240, 16.7-million color TFT LCD display; text-only monochrome external display
• Camera: Yes
• Megapixels: 2 MP
• 802.11x: Yes
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Web Browser: Yes
• Network: GSM
• Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
• High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE

Nokia 5800 XPressMusic

Although Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic hasn't yet hit the PC Magazine Labs for full testing, I was able to spend a little time tinkering with the device. The time I had with it left me asking one big question: "Why, Nokia, why?" Casting aside some of its greatest strengths in favor of a trendy touch screen, the 5800 XPressMusic comes off as a buggy iPhone imitation, rather than a triumph from the world's number-one cell-phone maker. And that's a pity, because Nokia's "Comes With Music" program, which offers a year's worth of free music downloads for your 5800, could truly rock the mobile world.

Nokia

http://www.nokia.com

• Price as Tested: $359.99 List
• Service Provider: AT&T, T-Mobile
• Operating System: Other
• Screen Size: 3.2 inches
• Screen Details: 640x360, 16-million-color LCD touch screen
• Camera: Yes
• Megapixels: 3.2 MP
• 802.11x: Yes
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Web Browser: Yes
• Network: GSM, UMTS
• Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100
• High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
• Processor Speed: 377 MHz

Nokia Web Runtime in Firmware Upgrade

Up until now, I haven’t been that interested in Nokia’s widgets/web runtime as I saw it as currently having a very small user audience. Only the very latest (S60 3rd FP2) phones were to carry the runtime and I had been told by several people at Nokia that retro-fitting older devices via an additional install wasn’t planned. It was going to be a very long time before a significant number of user phones had the runtime.

This changed today when I read about the latest N95 firmware upgrade on AllAboutSymbian. The new firmware includes the web runtime! This is great news and will accellerate the growth of widget capable devices and makes the web runtime a more attractive proposition for developers such as myself.

A Few Thoughts on the Nokia Web Run-Time for S60

I saw a demo of the Nokia Web Run-Time for S60 (aka Widgets) this past Monday. It is an interesting development technology for the Nokia Series 60 (S60) based phones of the future (current S60 models will not support it). The idea is to leverage web developer skills to create applications for S60 phones. Applications are developed using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The source code is compiled, placed into a Zip file, and copied over to the phone for installation there.

It seems like a sure-fire way to encourage quick generation of new applications for the next S60 models. There are a couple of interesting issues though. First, given the inherent insecurity of most browser based applications, will the Web Run-Time create security issues for the S60 phones? Second, the apps are installed unsigned. This would seem to eliminate the possibility for those with restrictive mobile phone service providers from participating in the presumed burst of S60 applications. Finally, how will all those owners of current generation S60 phones feel about seeing cool new web applets appear that they can’t use?

That said, I’m looking forward to seeing the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 based phones appear with Web Run-Time. It might give Windows Mobile 6 and even the Apple iPhone a run for the money.

Your Music Player is Ringing - Nokia Web Event

It looks like there’s going to be a Nokia Event on March 11th that we can all watch on the web. Not a a lot details are shared, other than a header saying, “Your Music Player is Ringing.” Could it be a new phone? A new service? What do you think?

Your Music Player is Ringing
March 11th, 2009 10:00 CET (4AM Eastern)
events.nokia.com