By Chris Nicholls
BARCELONA, SPAIN: Nokia has unveiled its new flagship at the Mobile World Conference (formerly 3GSM) in Barcelona, along with a number of other high-end phones.
The N96 replaces the N95 8GB at the top of the Nokia line-up, with 16GB of internal memory and integrated DVB-H digital TV tuner. The phone retains the 2.8 inch QVGA screen size and resolution of its N95 cousin, as well as its five megapixel Carl Zeiss lens camera, but the dual slide feature now reveals customisable keys that change from game keys to music keys, depending on the user’s preference.
The company also added another N-Series phone with the N78, the 2.4-inch screened replacement for the N73. It features the same 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens camera as the N73 but has touch-control buttons on the side of the keypad and GPS.
Nokia also introduced two sub-N-Series models, the N6210 Navigator and the 6220 Classic. The Navigator is an update of the 6110 with Maps 2.0, a pedestrian navigation feature and accelerometer to ensure greater accuracy. The 6220 Classic, despite the lack of N-Series badging, has a five megapixel Carl Zeiss lens camera and xenon flash, similar to the N82.
Chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo also said Nokia would not use Windows Mobile in its phones “at the moment”, despite Sony Ericsson revealing their first Windows Mobile phone, the Experia X1, at the show. However, Kallasvuo said Nokia’s own S60 touchscreen interface would debut in the second half of the year.