Transforming the mobile music experience

HONG KONG – Nokia unveiled the Nokia 3300 music phone for digital entertainment at a regional event with the theme "Feel the Rush Music Connects" here recently.

Also launched during the CeBIT 2003 in Hanover, Germany, the feature-rich Nokia 3300 was designed specifically for enjoying music.

Encompassing a portable digital music player (MP3/AAC), a stereo FM radio, a digital recorder, new True Tones for an authentic music-like experience, as well as enhanced messaging and games, the Nokia 3300 offers broad possibilities for digital entertainment in a high-quality, fun package.

The Nokia 3300, which works on the GSM 900/1800 bands, is expected to start shipping in the second quarter in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Africa.

"Today’s consumers place great value on the entertainment features of their phones, and Nokia is meeting these expectations with a total music offering. The Nokia 3300 connects our consumers with music and much more. It was designed to let consumers enjoy their music when they want it," said Loren Shuster, director of Nokia Asia-Pacific’s Entertainment and Media Business Unit.

"With real music like True Tones in the Nokia 3300, we are pleased to introduce a new breakthrough in ringtone evolution, completing the high-quality music offering of this phone," Shuster added.

The new device features a portable MP3/ACC digital music player with integrated hands-free loudspeaker, a stereo FM radio, a digital recorder and advanced ringtones.

The innovative music key puts the music services just a click away, making access to the music player and FM stereo radio easy and fast. Users can also transfer music files from a compatible PC to the Nokia 3300 with the new Nokia Audio Manager PC software.

To experience high-quality sound, the user can enjoy preloaded music samples as well as preloaded ringtones, both polyphonic tones with 24 voices and new True Tones.

The Nokia 3300 is the first GSM mobile phone supporting True Tones, which provide ringtones with real music, allowing users to have songs, nature sounds, special effects and engine sounds to alert them of incoming calls.

According to Nokia, this is part of its continued effort to enable consumers to personalize their phones with ringtones in a new and innovative sound format. True Tones will be part of Nokia’s wide range of mobile services for music when the Nokia 3300 phone is commercially available.

True Tones are based on the Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) technology that has been selected by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as the wideband codec for GSM and third-generation wireless WCDMA applications.

While the Nokia 3300 is designed with music in mind, it also enables consumers to play games, send multimedia messages and connect to the Internet in the same device.

The ergonomic game controls and other action keys of the device are designed for two-hand use, and with the 128 x 128 pixel color display, they offer ease of play.

There are also preloaded Java games in the Nokia 3300 for immediate enjoyment. While playing the games, the user can conveniently listen to the music player or the stereo FM radio through the stereo headset.

In addition to ringtones, services and content, Nokia will provide a wide range of color graphics, featuring music artists, cartoons and movies, as well as downloadable games. Additional Nokia tones, graphics and games can be accessed through a bookmark on the phone’s mobile Internet browser.

The Nokia 3300 music phone is equipped with a Pop-Port connector enabling the use of USB cable for easy transfer of music files, and has a 64 MB MMC memory card as standard in the sales package.

For an additional measure of fun and personalization, the Nokia 3300 comes with a selection of optional Xpress-on color covers. It has a volume of 115 cc and weighs 125 grams.

Users can listen to the digital music player for up to 11 hours and the FM stereo radio up to nine hours. The Nokia 3300 has a talk time of up to three hours and a standby time of up to 270 hours.