77 million Symbian mobile phones were sold in 2007. That figure should be vastly increased over the next few months, as two phones will be taking it to new heights: the Nokia 5800 Xpress, and the mind-blowing Nokia N96.
Nokia and Symbian - long-time bedfellows.
In truth, Nokia have a long history of using Symbian in their mobile phones, going all the way back, in fact, to their first camera phone, the 7650 (a huge beastie of a thing it was, too!). Some of the most powerful Nokia mobile phones ever made have run on Symbian, quite often using the patented Series 60 interface. In fact, it's fair to say that Series 60 is the most important version of Symbian, since it's the one that powers Nokia's top of the range mobile phones: the prestigious, world-renowned Nseries. To this day, Nseries mobile phones have a reputation for being world-beaters, including probably the most well-known of them all, the N95.
Well, now, the Nokia N95 has evolved into a new form: the sleek, smart Nokia N96.
Nokia N96 - the ultimate Nseries phone .
The Nokia N96 really is the next evolution of the N95, since you get the same high-end feature-set (but with loads more bits added on), but in a sleek new body. In fact, the body of the Nokia N96 is reminiscent of another one of the earlier Nseries mobile phones: the N81. The similarities are striking, so much so that you could put down the Nokia N96 and N81 next to each other, and not tell which one's which. Not that that's a bad thing, since the N81 looked nice, and so does the Nokia N96. Certainly one of the prettier mobile phones on the market, and the Nokia N96 backs all that up with raw power. A 5 megapixel camera... GPS... HSDPA... 16GB of memory... and the big feature, multimedia. You see, the Nokia N96 is the king of mobile phones when it comes to media, especially video. It even includes BBC iPlayer (can't say that about many mobile phones!), and a little kickstand-type thing, to keep the Nokia N96 upright while you're watching videos!
Nokia 5800 Xpress - the future of Symbian?
Meanwhile, another offshoot of Symbian has appeared on mobile phones. Well... on one mobile phone so far, the Nokia 5800 Xpress. It's important for 1 reason: it's made for touchscreen mobile phones, which is exactly what the Nokia 5800 is. Ok, granted, the Nokia 5800 Xpress might not be their first touchscreen phone, but it IS their best, with 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA, GPS and that all important touchscreen, with the brand new Symbian interface, not seen on any previous mobile phones. It's fair to say Symbian is alive and well, and evolving still. With the Nokia N96 this Christmas, and the Nokia 5800 Xpress all set to wow us in the first months of next year, Symbian mobile phones are definitely on the up and up!
by Matt Sharp.
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