Nokia has announced the 603, a Symbian smartphone running the latest version, Belle. The 603 is a colourful, affordable, no compromise smartphone preloaded with the latest apps and featuring single-tap pairing, sharing and tag reading with NFC.

This baby was designed to appeal to first timers in the smartphone world, and is made affordable without the compromise of quality. It comes preloaded with maps, latest social networking apps, HD games etc.

What to expect

- 3.5-inch, 360 x 640 pixel ClearBlack LCD display

- A powerful 1GHZ processor to make your apps run quickly & smoothly

- 2GB internal storage + microSD card slot

- 512MB RAM / 1024 MB ROM

- 5 megapixel full-focus camera

- Wi-Fi, NFC, USB, FM radio, a 3.5 mm audio jack

- up to six customizable homescreens and dynamic live widgets

- Up to six choices of back covers

- Scratch proof resistance display, optimized for use in sunlight.

- €200 (around N45,000)

The Nokia 603 is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

I was excited to get to review the Nokia 500. The 500 is a budget smartphone running Symbian Anna and ticking a 1GHz processor on the inside. At 150 Euros, you are looking at a sub-N35,000 smartphone here.

The Nokia 500 features a 3.2 inch capacitive TFT touchscreen at 640x 360 pixels resolution, a 5 megapixel full-focus camera, 2GB mass memory, Nokia Maps, among others, and lets you change the back covers.

I took the following shots with the Nokia E7 (which I found to be not so good at taking close-up shots). This is one of the things I do not like about my Nokia E7. The E7 does every other thing well except close-up shots. I love taking good pictures.

Do enjoy the unboxing photographs. I will return with the full review when ready.

I have been a champion of resource-efficiency on smartphones since forever. This has made it sound like I am a die-hard Symbian fan. Just yesterday, an acquaintance from India asked me, “You like Symbian more than Android. May I ask you why?”

I answered, “Symbian is more customisable and manages data, power and other resources better than Android“.

I have no allegiance to Symbian, and certainly no contract or interests binding me to sing its praise. But you can’t pry me away from resource efficient systems!

Now, the recently announced iPhone 4S has been reported as running on a CPU clocked 800MHz, yet beats all the array of 1.x GHz Android smartphones and tablets in the market. Look, we ALL knew that Android was a resource hog from the Get-go, but this feat by the 4S is nothing short of amazing!

Take a look at this chart:

You can also see from the chart that the exaggerated claim by Apple that the 4S has up to 7x performance gain was just that – an exaggeration AKA hype. At best, no-one will experience anything more than twice the speed bump, if at all.

Still, the recorded performance feat is amazing; isn’t it? The 4S trouncing all those Android beasts in terms of performance.

You know what this means; don’t you? I am falling in love with iOS. Whatever optimisation was done to the code, it is freaking good! Now, if only Apple would fix the data hogging too, I would proclaim iOS the king of mobile resource efficiency.

I am also hoping that this means that iOS 5 brings greater resource efficiency to existing devices when they receive the update.

Perhaps they will get that sorted out before Symbian finally stops breathing.

More juicy details

Let’s step into the world of science fiction and thrillers a bit. How would you like to have your phone’s security system use your face as the access code to your phone?

Sounds interesting? Yes; Facelock is an app for Symbian3 devices that lets you do just that. You take a scan of your face and set a password too (just in case).

Net time you want to unlock your phone from sleep state, Facelock pops up, asks to match your face with the initial scan you did, and if it matches, access is granted. If it doesn’t match, hey, you can still gain access with the password you entered.

You guys with C7s and N8s and E7s and E6s need to have some fun with this right away and post your experiences in the comments section below!

PS: For Symbian3 smartphones only! Download Facelock from Nokia Store.

Steve Litchfield has been in the mobile field since the days of the dinosaurs and is still as relevant in today’s mobile space. He certainly knows his stuff.

He has put together a quick list of some of the top Symbian apps in the Ovi (Nokia) Store. Here is his argument, and I concur:

One of the problems with the Nokia Ovi Store is that the sheer number of novelties, rubbish apps, Java games, personalisation items and so on that get approved means that finding the good stuff isn’t easy. What’s needed is a storefront that’s a hundred times smaller. But has the 1% of content that’s really good. This is what I’ve attempted here, hopefully you find it a good time-saver.

Who has the time to be hunting down app after app among hundreds of thousands? The problem is even worse on the Android Market and Apple App Store, both of which are far larger than the Nokia Store.

What Steve has done is make it easy to find those core apps that the average Symbian user is likely to find needful. First-time Symbian users will certainly find it useful.

Visit The Curated Symbian Application Store

WapReview reports that Opera Mini and Mobile Update Adds Symbian Belle Support and Better Anna Keyboard Integration.

Before now, Symbian Belle users could not run both Opera mobile and Mini. But this update fixes that.

My Nokia N8 is running a leaked version of Belle, and I was able to download and run these updates on it without any issues.

If you have a Symbian Anna or Belle smartphone, you can download the updated Opera browsers at m.opera.com using your phone or opera.com/mobile/download/versions/ from a PC.

Thanks to EyeBeeKay for the tip-off.

I had a chat with a friend this morning. She is not a geek by any stretch and uses a BlackBerry 9300 Curve 3G. Yep; the phone pictured to the right.

It is a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard. She loves and enjoys the keyboard. She told me that she was getting bored already and would love to get a new smartphone. She was looking at Android. And Samsung. I thought it was a good move.

Then she dropped the spoiler: she didn’t want a touchscreen smartphone. She finds touchscreen devices difficult to use, she said. They require too much attention and concentration to use, she said. Simply put, she wants a non-touchscreen smartphone.

An Extinct Specie
It may not have dawned on you yet, but I do not know of any smartphone that was released this year 2011 that does not sport a touchscreen. Not one.

The last non-touchscreen device on any smartphone platform was launched last year, 2010.

You read that right. My facts may be a bit off, but if I am right, that would be the Blackberry 9780 in November 2010.

The E6 launched with a QWERTY keyboard this year has a touchscreen display. I mentioned that to her. She declined. If it had touchscreen, she didn’t want to hear of it, so I didn’t bother with any of the new BlackBerry or Android QWERTY devices.

The New Age
But the reality is, she will have to adjust if she wants to use a smartphone. I had to adjust, though my preference lies with non-touch QWERTY too. Many others have had to adjust.

Let’s call it the evolution of the smartphone and the adaptation of humanity. Adapt or go extinct.

My first pure touchscreen device was the Samsung S8003 Jet back in January 2010. It was a non-smartphone marketed as “smarter than a smartphone”. The touchscreen experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Today, I use another pure touchscreen device as my primary smartphone, the Nokia N8. It is not terrible, but I miss my QWERTY keyboard.

One thing is for sure, whether it is with or without a hardware QWERTY keyboard, we are in the age of the touchscreen.

How many of you here remember Symbian UIQ, Symbian S60, and Symbian S80? These were the three branches of the Symbian OS some years back. While all Symbian at the core, they were different in capabilities and user interface. Oh, and Symbian S60 alone had some further fragments – S60 3rd Edition (feature pack 1, feature pack 2, feature pack 3) and S60 5th Edition. Crazy; right?

Symbian was severely criticised a few years back for this sort of fragmentation.

Amazingly, that level of fragmentation is what we now find with Android OS. As at last count, we have Android 1.6, Android 2.1, Android 2.2, Android 2.3 (and its variants). Now to make matters worse, we have Baidu’s Yi (customised from Android) and Amazon’s custom Android OS, producing two outright branches or forks away from plain Android.

I was one of those who said that this sort of fragmentation was going to happen on Android, though I took heavy flak for it.

How will the developer community respond to this? Will consumers find this fragmentation confusing? What happens when apps that run on standard Android do not run on Yi or Amazon’s custom job? Already, there are apps that run on Android 2.2 devices but not their 2.1 counterparts.

What do you think Have your say!

From BGR:

Apple’s iOS App Store is the world’s most popular on-device mobile app portal by leaps and bounds, but that doesn’t necessarily make it the best opportunity for developers according to Berlin, Germany-based market research firm research2guidance. Apple has a wide lead over competitors in terms of overall downloads and the number of applications in its App Store, but individual apps seemingly have a greater chance of success in rival offerings from Nokia, Microsoft and RIM.

Hello, some of us have said this ad nauseum. Individual apps simply get lost in all those other app stores that are choked full. Now the numbers validate that position.

From TechRadar:

So it seems Apple might have all the big numbers, but in terms of managing to fight through the noise as an independent developer, you might be better off on one of the less-hyped platforms.

The numbers don’t lie. Take a look at the chart and the full press release below:

Click on the thumbnail of the chart to view full-size image

Apps On Nokia’s OVI Store Had 2.5 Times Higher Download Numbers In Q2 2011 Compared To Apps on Apple App Store

The “average app” has a better chance to generate downloads on “non-hyped” platforms.

Despite all the hype around the major platforms Android and iOS, publishers are still overlooking the hidden potentials of the niche players. The Q2 2011 results of our smartphone application monitoring report indicate that those applications published on the less popular platforms, such as WP7 marketplace or Blackberry’s AppWorld, generate significantly more downloads compared to the Apple App Store.

Significantly lower competition, yet a sufficiently large user base that desires apps, are the major reasons for this. Symbian still retains, by far, the highest potential user base. Even though its users are incomparably less active than iOS’s heavy downloaders, it still generates significant download volumes to Symbian publishers. This is largely because whilst Apple boasts of its 400,000 apps, the OVI store contains less than a tenth of that number.

Looking into average numbers, the Android Market stands not far behind the Apple App Store. This quarter, the average Android App attracted just 5% less users than iOS. Competition is harsh.

However, going in for very small niche platforms may not be the best idea either. LG World! and Samsung’s App Store are struggling to generate user attention. Although LG has less than 3,000 apps and as a result it is much easier to be discovered there, its user base is just too low.

Although the Symbian platform is seen by some developers to be clumsy and outdated, as well as Nokia’s transition to WP7 which has fuelled discussions as to when Nokia will give up its platform completely, the current status seems to be promising. Recently, Nokia reported the launch of three new Symbian Smartphones and confirmed that these will not be the last of the products, nor updates, to be delivered on Symbian.

Find other important Q2 2011 market developments in the new volume of the research2guidance Smartphone App Market Monitor. The third volume of the report includes a special interest chapter on mobile retail market.

Let us hope that developers are listening. I do think that some are. Everyday, I keep seeing new apps launched in the Ovi/Nokia store. New firmware, new phones, and new apps.

It just keeps getting better and better. Symbian may have been declared burning months ago, but this is sure one heck of a way to burn.

London, UK – Nokia today announced forthcoming updates to its Symbian Belle operating system that turn the latest range of smartphones into a mobile office for any business. The free updates, called Microsoft® Apps, deliver a suite of Microsoft productivity applications to compatible Nokia smartphones to add to the comprehensive security and manageability features already contained in Symbian Belle. Requiring no additional infrastructure, these apps help add immediate business advantage to the first Symbian Belle devices as well as delivering significant additional value to existing Nokia business customers who upgrade to Symbian Belle.

“Work is an important part of personal lifestyle, aspiration and achievement for many people around the world,” said Purnima Kochikar, VP business mobility, Nokia. “Just as Symbian Belle extends the everyday possibilities for social interaction, we wanted to extend the possibilities to manage personal worklife for individuals and employers. Microsoft Apps is another example of Nokia’s ongoing commitment to continue delivering value and innovation to Symbian users.”

“Microsoft productivity apps for Nokia Symbian will help customers remain connected to Microsoft Office documents and services when they’re on go,” said Pat Fox, senior director of marketing and planning, Microsoft Office.

Available by the end of 4Q 2011 with broad consumer availability at the beginning of 2012, Microsoft Apps will bring collaboration and productivity tools including Microsoft® Lync(TM) 2010 Mobile, Microsoft OneNote(TM), Microsoft PowerPoint® Broadcast and Microsoft Document Connection (which provides Microsoft SharePoint access) to Symbian Belle. An update in the first half of 2012 will introduce Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as native applications for the first time outside the Windows platform.

Microsoft Apps will be delivered via software update over the air or via PC download and will function on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia 700, Nokia 701, Nokia 600 and Nokia Oro.

Additionally, Nokia is working with Microsoft to provide mobile device management of Symbian Belle devices through Microsoft® System Center Configuration Manager 2012.

Notes to editors:
First update will be available by the end of Q4 2011 with broad consumer availability at the beginning of 2012 introducing a range of Microsoft productivity applications to Symbian Belle devices:
- Microsoft OneNote – rich note taking with images. Syncs with Microsoft SkyDrive®.
- Microsoft Lync 2010 Mobile – cost efficient IM, presence, audio and web meetings on the go.
- Microsoft Document Connection – single view to documents stored on mobile, including email attachments as well as documents on SharePoint 2010 sites.
- Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast – view broadcasts of presentations directly from PC to mobile.

A subsequent update will introduce Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint as native applications for the first time outside the Windows platform and will continue to deliver new features to Microsoft applications, including:
- Microsoft OneNote sync with SharePoint (in addition to SkyDrive)

Editor’s Note: Clearly, these apps add serious value to the Symbian platform and reinforces Nokia’s commitment to supporting Symbian to the end. Microsoft Apps also provide same functionality as will be available on WindowsPhone smartphones, and hopefully make for an easier transition to WindowsPhone for Symbian users.

The announcement at Nokia Conversations includes the following statement: “There will be more updates in 2012 and more devices to come and Nokia has already said, we will provide software support to Symbian until at least 2016. Symbian is hugely important to our future ambitions and this latest announcement is just another example of the role that Symbian will play…”

The Nokia E6 has already enjoyed some introduction to you in my previous post, Meet Nokia E6 running Symbian Anna. As I write this review, I am missing the Nokia E6 already. In my opinion, it is a great device. I have less than 5 days before I return it to WOMWorld/Nokia. Please note that I am writing the “ungeek” version of a phone review. I am not writing from the view of an expert.

Why Do I say it is a great device?

Yes it is, but there are things I don’t like about it too. I am coming from a background of QWERTY keypads. I owned and used a Blackberry 9700 before moving to the Nokia E71 which is my current device before going out on a 2-week date with the sexy Nokia E6.

1. QWERTY and Touch screen
I find the QWERTY keypad sexy. In fact I have described it as the bum of a new born baby — soft and fresh. It begs you to touch it, unlike the Nokia E71 that is very hard to my thumb. I sometimes suffer from blisters using the Nokia E71 due to its toughness and hardness.

I don’t have to hit on the QWERTY keys of the E6 all the time as there is an option to use the touch screen. The option and menu buttons are present onscreen on the E6. Unfortunately, when a call is coming in, I have to click on the physical answer button on the Keypad to answer the call. The option to answer calls using the touchscreen should be there.

2. The Native Browser
The Symbian Anna browser present on the E6 is much more advanced than the one on my Nokia E71. It allows me to view up to three web pages at a time. Not more than three. I can easily switch between the browsers without interrupting what I am currently working on. I can load a youtube video using the mobile version of Youtube.

Pinch to zoom is supported when viewing web pages using the native browser. There is however a limitation. Depending on how the web page you are viewing is adapted or created, you may zoom it to the point where the texts would flow away from your screen and it would not be automatically resized. That to me is a minus. I cannot be scrolling to and from to read a piece. I find myself using Opera Mini most of the time. Opera Mini gives me a better view of most web pages.

3. Internal memory (mass memory)
8GB storage, 256MB RAM and 1GB ROM. I have been downloading videos from Youtube via the PC and uploading it via Ovi Suite on the mass memory of the E6 and yet, I still have a whole 6Gb space left. There is the option to expand the memory with a microSD card of maximum memory of 32Gb. I am not sure I can quickly finish that. But for those who have huge need for storage, be my guest and get as much 32Gb MicroSD as you want. The 32Gb miscoSD was not included in the pack.

4. Calendar and Office documents
You have access to Quickoffice — MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel from the comfort of this tiny device. Part of this post was started in Microsoft Word and attached via mail using the Nokia E6 and then sent to my other email address. It came out as a full email document. This is the first time I would be trying out Office documents on a mobile phone.

The PDF document was however too tiny to read as you can see below. (screen shot one) To view it you will have to enlarge it and then the text will flow away from the screen making it difficult to read. Scrolling here and there to see the texts that have flowed out of the screen becomes a real pain. (screen shot again)

Viewing a PDF file - font too small

PDF file - zoomed in. Text not reflowed

5. Resolution and Pixel
By specification, the pixel count on the E6 display is 326 ppi. The display is very sharp. I was with a Nokia E7 this evening. I found out that the E6’s display was a lot sharper.

6. Size and portability
You can easily hold it in your hand; slot it in your pocket or your bag. It is very portable

7. Multimedia — Music, Movies, Photographs
Due to the large mass memory, there is room for you to store full length movies, musical videos and photographs. The 3.55mm AV out gives you quality sound. You can play your popular musicals — audio and video — and enjoy quality sound production.

8. Applications (Suggested applications that can heighten your experience of the Nokia E6)
My main excitement and thrill of the Nokia E6 was the availability of certain apps. The apps I enjoyed using and downloaded are –

- Whatsapp. For instant messaging and connecting with your friends and contacts on Symbian, Anroid, iOS and Blackberry
- Skype. It worked perfectly with the E6. I was able to make voice call with EDGE network with clarity.
- Gravity. As someone who uses Twitter extensively, I find the Social app pre-installed by Nokia to be grossly incompetent. It is clunky, slow and the UI sucks. To fix that, I use Gravity, an app developed by Jan Ole Sur, for Twitter, Foursquare and Google reader.
- fMobi. The Gravity app does not present me with an interesting view of Facebook, so I use fMobi. However, I am not a very good fan of Facebook.
- Other apps I installed are Nimbuzz and Operamini. Joikuspot—internet hotspot—was pre-installed. It is an app I have enjoyed using extensively too.

9. The User Interface
Symbian Anna is sooooo sexy. I handled a Nokia E7 running old Symbian^3 and I felt sad for those who are yet to get the Symbian Anna update.

10. Email and text messaging
The text messaging experience is sweet. You can easily reply text messages as if you are chatting by having all text messages stored as conversation. Unlike the Nokia E71, the text while reading and replying email are bigger.

11. Miscellaneous
The E6 has four home screens. I did not particularly find any need for that. I am fine with one or two. The third party applications are well integrated with the device. The only app I found challenging to use is the fMobi. It is full of features, but the 2.46” screen of the E6 makes it inconvenient to use the app and enjoy it. Apart from that every other thing is cool.

The E6 along with other devices is promised an update of belle in Q4 along with other devices. Let’s hope Nokia pushes it fast. Nokia has a reputation for delays.

What are the things I don’t like about the sexy Nokia E6?

- The Email delivery is not as fast as that of my Nokia E71
- The text can be very tiny and impossible to read when viewing some web pages that are not optimised for mobile. Especially since the screen is just 2.46”
- It gets stained easily by gathering dust
- It cannot shoot close up shots—your best bet would still be Nokia N8.

My final verdict

With that said, I would say if you are a business person or a multimedia user that does lots of messaging and with good eyesight, the Nokia E6 will make a good date.

Since I am doing just one review, feel free to comment and ask me any questions in the comment on anything that I may not have touched in details.

Shortly after pushing out the Symbian Anna update to owners of existing Symbian smartphones, Nokia has unveiled the next OS update, Belle.

We are not new to Belle here, as one of the MobilityNigeria team members, NgDude, recently flashed his N8 to a leaked version and put up screenshots for all to enjoy. However, it is exciting news that Nokia has officially unveiled the update.

Also, three Belle-running devices have been announced – 600, 700, and 701. All three run a 1GHz processor and are due out “from 3rd quarter 2011″. That’s July to September i.e. in the next one month.

Hopefully, that means owners of existing devices like the N8, C7, C6-01, E7, E6 and X7 – who are all due for the update – should expect it on their devices in October or November.

Good work, Nokia!