Nokia debuts trio of Symbian 3 phones

Nokia's ready for a fight and came out swinging at Nokia World with the introduction of three new smartphones: the Nokia E7, Nokia C7, and Nokia C6-01.

The trio joins the previously announced Nokia N8 in running the revamped Symbian 3 platform, which includes more than 250 new features and improvements, such as a simplified user interface, enhanced multimedia features, and more customization abilities. According to Nokia, the devices will also offer a richer Ovi Store experience with promises of more popular and unique apps and a more user-friendly interface.

As for the devices itself, there's a little something for everyone, both in design and price. Specific release dates were not announced at this time, but all three are expected to ship before the end of the year. Here's a breakdown of each model.

Nokia E7: The E7 was designed with the business user in mind and features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and 4-inch, polarized AMOLED touch screen with ClearBack technology--perfect for working on office documents and e-mail, Nokia says. We're looking forward to checking out the ClearBack display, as it claims to improve outdoor visiblity. The smartphone offers Exchange ActiveSync support, as well as a 3G support, an 8-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and HD video capture, and free navigation via Ovi Maps. The E7 will be available in five colors--gray, green, white, blue, and orange--and will retail for around 495 euros ($636 U.S.).

Nokia C7: For the social butterfly, there's the Nokia C7. The smartphone has a 3.5-inch AMOLED, glass touch screen with multiple home screens that can be customized with live updates from your social networking accounts, including Facebook and Twitter. The handset also comes with an 8-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 3.0, and 8GB of mass memory. The C7 has an estimated unlocked price of 335 euros ($430 U.S.).

Nokia C6-01: Last but not least, the more budget-friendly (260 euros; $334 U.S.) C6 packs social networking and multimedia into a small package. It has a stainless steel and glass design with a 3.2-inch AMOLED, ClearBack display, and comes with the same camera as the other two, a front-facing camera, and support for Ovi Music (not available in the U.S. yet), among other things.

Overall, quite a promising lineup from Nokia but it remains to be seen if any will be picked up by a U.S. carrier. For more, check out CNET UK's hands-on impressions of the Nokia C7 and Nokia E7. What do you guys think?

Nokia E7, C7, C6-01 (photos)

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