Finnish cellular handset manufacturer Nokia unveiled four new handsets at the Mobile World Congress telecommunications industry confab in Barcelona, Spain recently. Two of them, both in the company\u2019s E-Series line, immediately caught our attention: the sexy new E55 and E75 smartphones.<\/p>\n
E-Series devices have traditionally been aimed at business users, but, like rival BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, Nokia has begun targeting its business phones at consumers who need frequent access to e-mail and the Web on the go.<\/p>\n
The company claims the new E55 is the world\u2019s most compact messaging device. To conserve space, Nokia has included two letters per key. It might sound like this would make it more difficult to type, but with predictive text it is a breeze.<\/p>\n
The E55, which will cost E265 (SA pricing is not yet available), is one of the most impressive handsets we have seen in a long time. Its battery has up to 28 days\u2019 standby time in GSM mode and up to 19 days with the 3G aerial switched on. Talk time is a very good eight hours on GSM and six hours on 3G.<\/p>\n
The phone supports downloads of up to 10,2Mbit\/s and uploads of up to 2Mbit\/s using the next-generation high-speed packet access technology.<\/p>\n
The 98g device has everything else you\u2019d expect in a high-end smartphone, including GPS, Wi-Fi and 3,2-megapixel camera. It comes with a 2GB micro SD card but accepts sizes up to 16GB.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the E75. It uses older 3G technology \u2014 though it\u2019s still plenty fast, with downloads of up to 3,6Mbit\/s \u2014 and the battery life isn\u2019t quite as good as the E55\u2019s, but it\u2019s likely to grab consumer attention thanks to its super-sexy styling.<\/p>\n
The 139g E75 is a slider phone with a full Qwerty keyboard and, in many ways, it is the natural successor to the popular and highly rated E71. We had only a few minutes to play with it at Mobile World Congress, but the E75 is an impressive device. Similar in design to the upcoming N97, but lacking a touch screen, it could set the new standard in keyboard-based smartphones in 2009.<\/p>\n
The E75 is the first Nokia phone to support HTML-formatted e-mail. Like the E55, it has an integrated GPS and Wi-Fi. It ships with a 4GB SD card.<\/p>\n
The E75 will be available in the next few months; the E55 some time in the second quarter.<\/p>\n