Nokia bares 2 no-compromise, mass-market smartphones powered by Symbian Belle

MANILA, Philippines - Nokia has launched two feature-packed, mass-market smartphones, bringing the latest smartphone functionality at attractive price points and including market-leading innovation with Symbian Belle.

The Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 extend the range of available designs, features and functionality in the Nokia Symbian smartphone range.

Symbian Belle powers both devices, with single-tap NFC technology sharing and pairing, the most personal user interface so far and a more powerful mobile Web browsing experience.

As well as allowing content to be shared between devices, NFC capabilities allow any of the two new smartphones to pair with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers or Bluetooth headphones and headsets.

To extend the range of available NFC-enabled accessories, Nokia is also announcing the launch of the Nokia Essence Bluetooth stereo headset, which can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together.

While both smartphones contain recognizable Nokia features, they each represent a very distinct set of priorities to allow users to choose what matters most in a smartphone.

The most compact touch-screen monoblock smartphone in the world (Nokia 700) and a sleek and stylish smartphone with the world’s brightest mobile display for indoor or outdoor use (Nokia 701), all bring firsts to the Nokia product portfolio.

“After bringing exciting new features to the Symbian user experience only two months ago with Symbian Anna, we are now driving the platform even further with our most competitive Symbian user experience ever,” said Nokia vice president Ilari Nurmi.

“Symbian Belle and the two new handsets... show our commitment to continue delivering Symbian products that allow people to choose what is most important to them in terms of user experience, design, functionality and price. These will not be last products or updates we will deliver on Symbian,” Nurmi added. 

The Nokia 700 is not only Nokia’s most compact smartphone in the Symbian range, it is also the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the world.

“With the announcement... Nokia has made it clear that Symbian will continue to play an important role in its product portfolio alongside Windows Phone 7,” said IDC’s Nick McQuire.

“There is a sense of urgency in the way improvements and innovation are being delivered to the platform that demonstrates how committed Nokia is to make Symbian products a competitive smartphone choice,” McQuire added.

At only 50 cubic centimeters, weighing 96 grams and at 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm, the Nokia 700 not only becomes Nokia’s most compact smartphone in the Symbian range, it is also the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the world.

What it lacks in size it makes up for in functionality, with single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capabilities, a 1Ghz processor, 3.2 inch AMOLED screen ClearBlack display, 2GB of internal memory (with the option of using a 32GB microSD card for a total of 34GB), HD video capture and 5MP full focus camera with LED flash.

The Nokia 700 is also Nokia’s most eco-friendly smartphone. With a long battery life, extensive use of eco-friendly materials and features to minimize battery consumption, it is the perfect smartphone for any environmentally conscious smartphone user.

The Nokia 701 is a sleek, slim smartphone incorporating the world’s brightest ever mobile phone display, based on a 3.5-inch ClearBlack display that makes it perfect for indoor and outdoor use. 

It also has active noise cancellation for the clearest sound quality and, like the other new smartphones, provides single-tap NFC pairing and sharing capabilities, allowing content to be shared and sound to be streamed wirelessly to headphones and NFC-enabled speakers.

Based on the popular Nokia C7 design, the Nokia 701 smartphone also has a 1GHz processor, 8MP full focus camera with dual LED flash and 2x digital zoom, second front-facing camera and HD video capture. It comes with 8GB internal memory and the possibility to increase to 40GB by installing a 32GB microSD card.

Symbian Belle is the latest in a series of planned software updates to the Symbian platform, which started with Symbian Anna and will continue into 2012.

Symbian Belle increases the number of home screens from three to six, providing more room to display applications and services.

Live widgets now come in five different sizes, making the home screens come alive and giving users more flexibility to personalize the user experience.

It also includes a pull-down menu and taskbar to access notifications from any of the home screens and further enhancements to the Web browsing experience.

All in all, Symbian Belle provides Nokia’s most competitive, seamless and intuitive Symbian experience so far. 

One of Symbian Belle’s most exciting features is the single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capability. This allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones, as well as pairing with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers and headsets.

Gaming fans also benefit from the NFC capabilities of the new handsets with the ability to unlock additional levels in Angry Birds or find a hidden blade in Fruit Ninja just by touching two NFC-enabled devices together.

On the Nokia 701 smartphone, which comes preloaded with Asphalt 5, two friends can even pair to compete on the same racetrack.

The new Nokia Essence Bluetooth stereo headset uses special active noise cancellation technology to eliminate an unprecedented 99.8 percent of background noise, delivering pure, high-fidelity sound no matter how noisy the surroundings for people who don’t want to sacrifice audio quality when going wireless. 

Using NFC technology, the Bluetooth headset can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together.