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Nokia isn’t releasing a touch-screen smartphone

Well, not yet…. It’s just a music phone people.

The fresh round of leaked photos of the device we’ve all been calling the ‘Tube’ which first made it’s fleeting public appearance in that Batman movie has got everyone (including the usually-calm Financial Times on Tuesday) talking about Nokia’s new ‘smartphone’.  Some of the more breathless coverage is already referring to it in the same league as T-Mobile’s Google-powered G1 and the Xperia X1, in ‘three new iPhone killer’ terms.

5800

But look at it [photo credit: MobileCruch].

Nokia are singing to their own hymn sheet here.  Sure, it will be the first ever S60 Touch device, but it’s on a 5xxx-series music phone and that’s all it will be.  When the music and video party-tricks are done reviewers expecting ‘the next big thing’ are going to left scratching their backsides wondering what to write about next.

It’s not an N-series device – the camera will be so-so and the processor won’t be up to the toughest jobs –  and it certainly won’t have the enhanced PIM features of recent E-series devices… The most recently released E71 and E66 didn’t event make it to the expected FP2 release of S60 3rd edition in the interests of platform stability (probably wise given the ‘missing VoIP stack‘ issues with the N96 / N78).

Why aren’t Nokia going hell-for-leather and slapping this new S60 edition in a N-series ‘king of the smartphones’ unit?  Well, I think they probably will and fairly soon too, but right now either the need to focus on ‘comes with music‘ in the run up to Christmas or the desire to knock a few rough edges off this young interface (or both) means it’s going in a music phone.

It might be good, but flagship smartphone it won’t be.

12 COMMENTS

  1. It is clearly aimed at the mid-range music fans, so anyone expecting high features and S60 shouldn't be really. Even still, a mid-range touch-screen Nokia will keep you happy for a while.

  2. I have to say I completely disagree, on several points:

    1. If it runs S60, it’s a smartphone, regardless of the featureset. To argue otherwise is to say that any other phone running S60 is not a smartphone, which is completely silly. It would be accurate to say it’s not a flagship smartphone, sure.

    2. According to the rumored spec sheet, it has roughly the same features as the Nokia N78. Would you also argue, then, that the N78 is not a smartphone?

    3. While I think we can all agree that Nokia’s first foray into a touchscreen smartphone since the 7710 is likely to be a disaster in terms of user experience, I think it’s rather irresponsible to completely disregard it before it’s even been made official.

  3. i dont think there's anything particularly mundane about it.

    its a mass mass market product

    would you want this or a viewty/6500 etc.

    I'm not sure why the 5310 comes with music is being launched at the same time.
    well obviously its a chip as chips alternative – but still.

  4. the n78 is not a mass mass market phone, neither are any of the Nseries, i think it would be better to release something completely new with a touch interface to the N series early adopters rather than riskng alienating the mass mass market with a new interface

    but what do i know 🙂 ? anyways i will stop kibbitizing and resume waiting patiently for it to come out before commenting further!

  5. i think thats market dependant – the N73 / N95 sold by the bucket load in the UK. as they were bundled in free with contracts. N73 being free on pretty much any contract N95 on higher price.

    but yes – the mass 'normob' market lapped up the 6300/6500.

  6. i think thats market dependant – the N73 / N95 sold by the bucket load in the UK. as they were bundled in free with contracts. N73 being free on pretty much any contract N95 on higher price.

    but yes – the mass 'normob' market lapped up the 6300/6500.

  7. the n78 is not a mass mass market phone, neither are any of the Nseries, i think it would be better to release something completely new with a touch interface to the N series early adopters rather than riskng alienating the mass mass market with a new interface

    but what do i know 🙂 ? anyways i will stop kibbitizing and resume waiting patiently for it to come out before commenting further!

  8. i think thats market dependant – the N73 / N95 sold by the bucket load in the UK. as they were bundled in free with contracts. N73 being free on pretty much any contract N95 on higher price.

    but yes – the mass 'normob' market lapped up the 6300/6500.

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