Nokia circles back to Symbian with its 500 smartphone
Though Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 devices should be out shortly, the company announced a new Symbian smartphone today with the 500.
Nokia announced a new smartphone on its Conversations blog today that brought us back to one of the company's classic operating systems.
The Nokia 500 runs on Symbian Anna, which is the latest version of the OS that Nokia unveiled earlier this year. Don't feel bad if you find the release of another Symbian handset somewhat confusing given the manufacturer's new commitment to Windows Phone 7. In fact, we do as well, even if Nokia CEO Stephen Elop revealed in an interview last May that the company was sticking with Symbian until 2016.
Front and center is a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 640x360 pixels and 16 million colors. Below are three physical controls, and a volume rocker and camera shutter rest on the right side. The 500 will come in white and black, though you'll get additional back overs in the box. Colors will include azure blue, pink, coral red, orange, and dark silver.
The feature set offers more than enough to keep you busy. You'll find a 5-megapixel camera with video recording, messaging and e-mail, the latest version of Nokia Maps with navigation, a music player, an FM radio, a 1GHz processor, 2GB of internal memory, a microSD slot (for cards up to 32GB), Bluetooth, 2.1, PC syncing, a personal organizer, Wi-Fi, a full Web browser, and speaker-independent voice dialing.
The quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Nokia 500 supports 3G networks in North America and abroad. It will be available in select markets by the third quarter of this year for 150 British pounds (about $244).