X

Nokia goes small, bright, and loud with new smartphones

Nokia unleashes a trio of new Symbian smartphones with some large claims. Meet the Nokia 600, 700, and 701.

Bonnie Cha Former Editor
Bonnie Cha was a former chief correspondent for CNET Crave, covering every kind of tech toy imaginable (with a special obsession for robots and Star Wars-related stuff). When she's not scoping out stories, you can find her checking out live music or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.
Bonnie Cha
2 min read
Nokia claims the 701 has the brightest screen in the world. Nokia

In addition to detailing its upcoming Symbian Belle operating system, Nokia introduced three new smartphones today, the Nokia 600, Nokia 700, and Nokia 701. The trio is expected to ship in Q3, and will all run the new operating system, but each comes with its own claim to fame.

Nokia 600
The Nokia 600 is being touted as the company's loudest smartphone to date. This is because the handset features a loudspeaker that's rated at 106 phon. The phone also has a built-in FM transmitter and receiver; the latter is built in to the phone, so you no longer have to plug in headphones to listen to the radio.

The 600 offers a 3.2-inch, 640x360 nHD capacitive touch screen and a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video capture. The smartphone is powered by a 1GHz processor and has 2GB internal memory, which can be expanded up to 32GB via the expansion slot. NFC support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS are also all onboard.

The penta-band HSUPA/HSDPA handset is priced around 160 Euros or $230 U.S. and will be available in black, white, pink, and lime.

Nokia 700
Meanwhile, the Nokia 700 goes after those who prefer their devices to be on the smaller side. Claiming to be "the most compact touch monoblock smartphone" in the market today, the 700 measures just 4.33 inches tall by 1.99 inches wide by 0.38 inch thick but still has a pretty healthy feature set.

This includes fitting in a 3.2-inch ClearBlack AMOLED touch screen, full wireless options and penta-band support, a 1GHz processor, NFC support, and a 5-megapixel camera. In addition to being the small, the 700 is also Nokia's greenest phone to date is constructed from material, such as bio-plastics, recycled plastics, and recycled metals.

The Nokia 700 will be available in an array of colors (gray, silver/white, red, blue, and purple) and is expected to retail around 270 Euros or $388 U.S.

Nokia 701
Last but not least, we have the Nokia 701. The 701 is a bit more higher end the previous two, with beefed-up specs like an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, a front-facing camera for video calls, and 8GB of internal memory. Plus, it has a new graphics coprocessor that delivers four times the graphics memory of previous Symbian phones.

The Symbian Belle device also delivers the "brightest screen in the world" with its 3.5-inch IPS LCD display with ClearBlack technology. According to Nokia, the combination brings better brightness and contrast, so we're quite eager to see it in person to see if it's true. The 701's screen, as well as the others, is wrapped in Corning Gorilla Glass for extra durability.

Expected retail price for the Nokia 701 is 290 Euros or $417 U.S. before taxes and subsidies.