Back in April, Nokia had announced the 2690 along with a slew of other budget phones aimed at the Indian market. At that time, we had stated that the Nokia 2690 houses all the standard features you have come to expect from a budget phone and then some more.

The attractively designed 2690 is available in four colours: hot pink, graphite, blue and white silver. Its 1.8 inch TFT display supports 262K colours at a resolution of 128 X 160 pixels. It is a GPRS and EDGE enabled handset with a capable MP3 player and FM radio. The handset comes with 15MB of inbuilt memory, which can be expanded up to 8GB (microSD).

Besides supporting SMS, MMS, email and social networking, Nokia 2690 also bundles Nokia Life Tools, which is an SMS based VAS (value added service) aimed at rural India.

We had initially expected the handset to retail for around Rs. 2,700. While that would have been an absolutely killer price, Nokia has chosen to offer it for a MRP of Rs. 3,700. At this price point, the 2690 will face stiff competition, but Nokia is probably betting on its reliability and reputation to sway undecided customers in its favour


Nokia 2690 Features:

General :
2G Network :GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900


Size :
Dimensions :107.5 x 45.5 x 13.8 mm, 58.8 cc
Weight :80.7 g

Display :
Type: TFT, 256K colors
Size : 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches
Sound : Alert types Vibration; MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone: Yes
- 3.5mm audio jack

Memory:
Phonebook 2000 entries, Photocall
Call records 20 dialed, 20 received, 20 missed calls
Card slot microSD, up to 8GB, buy memory


Data:

GPRS : Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE : Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G : No
WLAN : No
Bluetooth : Yes v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port : No
USB : Yes, microUSB

Camera:

Primary : VGA, 640x480 pixels
Video : Yes, QCIF @ 15fps
Secondary : No

Features :

Messaging : SMS, MMS, Email
Browser : WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio : Stereo FM radio
Games : Yes
Colors : Graphite, White silver, Hot pink, Blue
GPS : No
Java : Yes, MIDP 2.1
- MP4/H.263 player
- MP3/eAAC+/WAV/WMA player
- Organizer
- Voice memo
- Flash Lite 3.0
- T9

Performance

* Use the MMC expansion slot* to add memory to your phone so you can take your favourite music and photos with you when you're on the move.

Music

* Play your own music on the music player.
* Keep yourself informed and entertained with the built-in FM radio.
* Plug your favourite headphones in to the standard 3.5 mm audio connector.

Photos and video

* Use the built-in VGA camera to take photos and then share them with friends using Bluetooth and MMS.
* Record videos of special moments that you'd like to share and enjoy later.

Internet

* Stay in touch with friends and family through social networking and email.
* GPRS internet access connects you to a world of knowledge so you can follow the news and search for useful information.

Messaging

* Create a new account or access your existing email. Popular email services can be set up in a few easy steps.
* Share photos spontaneously with friends and family through MMS messaging.

Nokia Life Tools

- Keep up with the latest agricultural news - including weather reports for the day ahead with Nokia Life Tools Agriculture services.
- Get important career information and increase your general knowledge with Nokia Life Tools Education services.
- Receive entertainment news and daily horoscopes directly on your phone with Nokia Life Tools Entertainment services.

While other manufactures (hello, Samsung) rushed headlong into the touch-screen phone craze, other manufacturers were more cautious. For example, just look at Nokia. Though the cellular giant pumps out phones by the dozen, it wasn't until the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music that the company explored touch-screen cell phones with gusto (the Nokia 810 doesn't count). Positioned as a rival to the Apple iPhone, the 5800 is packed with a range of multimedia features. And it all comes in a sharp, slim package with an expansive touch screen.


We were lucky enough to check out a preproduction model of the 5800 back in October and found it to be very promising. Well, we've now had a chance to play with the final product. While our opinion of the phone hasn't changed too much, we think it has some shortcomings when compared with its competition. The user interface and input methods aren't the best and could use some refinement to take advantage of the touch screen. Also, until the Nokia Music Store launches in the United States, the 5800 doesn't offer the full functionality or advantages of an XpressMusic phone, giving the iPhone the edge with its seamless iTunes integration. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic isn't a bad phone, but when you factor in the $399 unlocked price, it's a little harder to give the handset's drawbacks a pass.

Design:
The Nokia 5800 shares design characteristics with the iPhone and Samsung touch-screen handsets like the Omnia. The candy bar shape offers clean lines with rounded corners and a black and burgundy color scheme (there's also a thin red stripe). At 4.37 inches tall by 2.04 inches wide by 0.61 inch deep, it is relatively small as touch-screen phones go, though it is a bit thicker than average. Still, at 3.84 ounces it won't weigh you down. The 5800 also offers a sturdy, comfortable feel in the hand.




Features

Each contact in the 5800's phone book holds 10 different of phone numbers, three video-calling numbers, three e-mail addresses, three URLs, a birthday and anniversary, a department and job title, an assistant name and phone number, spouse and child names, and notes. You can save an additional 250 contacts on the SIM card. You can add callers to groups, but only groups can be paired with a ringtones and photos; that's rather odd for such a high-end phone, but the phone offers plenty of tones and you can use your own melodies, as well.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music :Specifications:

General :
2G Network
3G Network :GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
:HSDPA 900 / 2100
:HSDPA 850 / 1900 - American version

Size :

Dimensions : 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm, 83 cc
Weight : 109 g

Features
OS : Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5
CPU : ARM 11 434 MHz processor
Messaging:SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser : WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio : Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games : Yes + Java downloadable
Colors : Black, Red, Blue
GPS : Yes, with A-GPS support; Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch
Java : Yes, MIDP 2.1
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/WAV/еAAC+/WMA player
- Photo editor
- Organizer
- Voice command/dial
- Flash Lite 3.0
- TV-out
- T9

Performance

We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Nokia 5800 Xpress Music world phone in San Francisco using AT&T service. Call quality was strong on the whole. We enjoyed clear conversations with little static or interference. Voices sounded natural, and the volume was loud. Our only complaint was that at the highest volume levels, the audio had an echoed effect.

Recently we saw Nokia unveiling its first ever dual SIM handsets. Now, the Finnish maker is in the news for its business centric QWERTY handset- The E73 Mode. The handset is actually a look alike of Nokia E72 bearing a similar feature too. E73 Mode runs on Symbian s60 v3.2 and supports 3G and WiFi to enhance its connectivity options. Its 5MP camera with LED flash makes the handset all the more appealing.



As stated earlier, the Symbian S60 v3.2 based phone suites the people who are more into business. It has a support for a wide range of email services, Microsoft Exchange servers and IBM Lotus Notes Traveller. Its VPN support and voice calling over WiFi (UMA), remote wipe functionality and hardware accelerated encryption speaks of its sky-scraping features. Moreover, it has support for business based Salesforce and Bloomberg sites, Ovi files, ZIP manager, Notepad, PDF manager and Office tools gives advanced E-series functionality.


Regarding its multimedia options, it has a music player, which supports nearly all media formats and provides an awesome music quality at the same time.


Nokia E73 Mode allows you to have a flawless internet experience with the support of WiFI, 3G, EDGE and GPRS. Additionally, to add to connectivity options, it has a support for bluetooth, has microUSB 2.0 and 3.5 mm audio jack as well.

The handset comes with accelerometer sensor and Ovi Maps, which together with GPS can be very handy tool. Its Ovi store services can prove useful in finding out latest games and applications. If we speak of its memory, then it supports 250MB of internal memory and has a 16GB external memory support.

Finally, regarding its pricing and availability, you will have to wait a bit till there is an official statement. However, expect the price to be somewhere around Rs. 14000.

Nokia E72 is one of those handsets everybody is talking about long before their release. There may be nothing much to talk about - after all everyone knows what to expect of the Eseries and they have never let us down. But still, savoring the next batch of Eseries steel is always a pleasure.

The Finns keep feeding business ammo to the market and there's nothing out of the usual at first sight. We already tasted the new Eseries generation and the E52 and E55 were the usual good healthy meals. The E72 though needs to be nothing short of delicious.

There's no need to tell you the Nokia E72 walks and talks business. The big one though has greater responsibility to carry. We guess the E72 will not fear being judged against the best messengers in its class. But it will certainly look back to a haunting shadow within its own family. The Nokia E72 can certainly go where the E71 would not venture. But it's not only the equipment (of which the E72 has aplenty) that makes a winner.

• Quad-band GSM support
• 3G with HSDPA 10.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
• Landscape 2.36" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution
• Comfortable full QWERTY keypad
• Optical trackpad on the D-pad
• Symbian 9.3 OS, S60 UI with FP2
• 600 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB of SDRAM
• 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology, DLNA support
• Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS support, digital compass
• Accelerometer for turn-to-mute
• 250 MB of internal memory, microSD expansion, ships with a 4GB card
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP support and microUSB v2.0
• FM radio with RDS
• Remote Wipe
• Great battery life
• Office document editor (including MS Office 2007)
• User-friendly Mode Switch for swapping two homescreen setups
• Smart dialing
• Full Flash support
• Great audio output quality
• Lifetime Nokia Messaging subscription

• Optical trackpad is not as handy as we'd like
• Limited camera features, no geotagging, video recording maxes out at VGA@15fps
• No DivX or XviD support (can be enabled, possibly requiring a purchase)
• No TV-out functionality
• No dedicated camera key (trackpad compensates for that)
• Poor loudspeaker performance