Three new phones from Nokia will tempt those of us who like a good click when we type — the Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5 all have proper Qwerty keyboards.
Nokia may be flailing like a octopus stuck in a woolly jumper with
touchscreen smart phones such as the N97, but it’s quietly making solid, useful phones
with physical keyboards, like the Nokia E63, so we’re encouraged it’s sticking to what it does best.
The E5 (pictured left) refreshes the E63 with a 5-megapixel camera and free sat-nav, thanks to GPS and Nokia’s Ovi Maps application. It also has business-friendly features such as Microsoft Exchange, as well as support for most popular freebee email services, such as Gmail and Hotmail.
The C3 (pictured right) is a budget phone that offers a landscape 63mm (2.4-inch) screen and a BlackBerry-style Qwerty keyboard. Like the BlackBerry Curve 8520, the C3 drops 3G connectivity to keep the cost down, but does include Wi-Fi. It also has a 2-megapixel camera and support for a microSD card up to 8GB, and it will come in colours including white, grey and pink.
The C6 (pictured centre) is the only touchscreen phone in the bunch, and going on Nokia’s track record with dodgy resistive touchscreens, we’d circle this phone with caution. Nevertheless, we’re open-minded about the poor man’s N97, which busts out a sliding Qwerty keyboard and an 81mm (3.2-inch) touchscreen. It has similar live homescreen widgets to the N97, HSDPA for speedy surfing over 3G, and a 5-megapixel camera with an LED photo light.
Expect to see the C6 and C3 early this summer, with the E5 following in the autumn.