Home

Nokia phone round-up: upcoming services

28.04.09

Are you as excited about the upcoming Nokia services as I am? As you may recall, my previous article involving my run in with Nokia at the Web 2.0 Expo. That yielded quite a few exciting announcements of services slated for release this year. To recap, these services included Point & Find, Sports Tracker, and Ovi Store. Being told about services is one thing, but I'd rather give you a quick idea of a couple phones that will be able to use these nifty services.

I recently requested a few phones from Nokia that would be capable of using one or more of those services. What I have here are the relative extremes. I received a Nokia N95 8GB phone that includes features such as a 5-megapixel camera, WIFI, built-in GPS, 30FPS video capture, and more. You can tell that this device is a representative of the higher end of the price/feature spectrum. The N95 will be capable of using all of the services I mentioned. Point & Find should be relatively useful and fun. The augmented reality narrative with Tim Kring should be perfect for this phone, but I can only speculate on that. An unlocked N95 that would be capable of using T-Mobile or AT&T service can be found on Tigerdirect.com for $399.99 as of 4/27/09. I know that may seem like a high price. Consider this, if you look at most phones that are purchasable through wireless carriers, they carry a two year contract requirement to get the attractive pricing. The full retail price on most phones would cause a chill to run down your spine. Getting any phone with the N95's features at that price, with no contract, is a pretty great deal. I also pulled a friend from the entry-level section. That phone is the Nokia 6650. This is an offering through AT&T. It is a flip phone that is offered in silver and red. With web browsing, a 2-megapixel camera, MP3 playback, Push-to-talk, and bluetooth connectivity, it's not as fancy as the N95, but neither is its price tag. This phone comes in at a mere $99.99 with a 2-yr contract with AT&T. This is further reduced by a $50.00 Mail-in Rebate being offered online. The final price is $49.99. This warrants a second look at my previous point. The N95 is $399.99 unlocked with no service plan. This phone is being offered for $249.99 at AT&T with no service plan. You can see how the contract price varies greatly. As far as I'm aware, this phone will work with the Ovi Store and Sports Tracker. I haven't received word on whether or not it will utilize the Point & Find feature. I personally think it's a great buy for the budget conscious and it doesn't have a shameful design. I've seen some mid-range phones, see the LG ENV2, that make me think they are calculators with large buttons or a remote for the visually impaired. This 6650 seems to give you a nice balance of features and aesthetic appeal without making moths fly out of your wallet.

Source: Examiner.com