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Nokia announces latest rendition of music phone

Nokia will show off its latest music phone next week at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Marguerite Reardon Former senior reporter
Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News reporter in 2004, covering cellphone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate and the consolidation of the phone companies.
Marguerite Reardon

Nokia unveiled its latest XpressMusic phone, the Nokia 5630, on Tuesday.

The new phone, which is less than a half-inch thick, is a full-featured multimedia handset designed for music lovers. It will debut next week at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Nokia

The phone comes with a 4GB microSD card for music, but users can also get external memory cards with up to 16GB of storage. Users can listen through an integrated 3.5mm headset jack or on stereo headsets via Bluetooth. Another cool feature is the "Say and Play" function, which lets people control the music playlist by saying the song or artist aloud.

People who buy the 5630 XpressMusic phone can access Nokia's Music Store, which allows for over-the-air music purchases and downloads. Software designed to work with Nokia Music allows people to transfer and organize their music collection on their PCs.

The phone also has a 3.2-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash. And it supports video recording. Pictures and video can be shared on Nokia's Ovi service or through other social networking sites like Flickr or Facebook.

The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic will initially be available in the second quarter of 2009 in Europe; China; parts of Asia, including India and Southeast Asia; the Middle East, and parts of Africa. It's a GSM phone that also supports 3G service using HSDPA networks.

The estimated retail price is 199 euros or about $258. It could be a while before Nokia makes this phone available in the U.S. market.