Today Nokia officially unveiled the Nokia 3720 classic - a rugged handset, designed to survive in enviroments where others won't. Coming with IP-54 certification and entry-level feature set, the Nokia 3720 classic will be a direct rival to the Samsung B2100 Xplorer.
        Nokia 3720 classic is the next member of the almost forgotten line of “rugged” devices by the Finnish manufacturer dating back to Nokia 5140. Its IP-54 certification indicates complete dust and splash resistance, while Nokia also claim greatly increased shock resistance.















The body of the handset is made of stainless steel elements, sealed materials and rough textured surface. The back cover is protected against water and dust by a metal screw lock. A couple of days ago we were able to catch a glimpse of several Nokia 3720 classic torture tests that the little fella passed with flying colors.

In addition to the extra tough body, the Nokia 3720 classic sports a 2.2-inch QVGA TFT display, capable of showing up to 16 million colors. There is also a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash, which can also be used as a flashlight onboard. Bluetooth 2.1 support, FM radio, 2.5 mm audio jack, microUSB and microSD card slot (1GB included in the box) complete the feature-list of the S40 device.

Unluckily the 3720 classic doesn’t feature 3G support, leaving the tri-band GPRS/EDGE as its only network data transfer option.







The Nokia 3720 classic is expected to hit the shelves before the end of the summer with an estimated price tag of 125 euro before taxes or subsides. It will be available in Gray and Yellow color versions.
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Today Nokia have finally announced the Nokia Surge full-QWERTY equipped side-slider. Packing an extraordinary design the new handset runs on the S60 and packs advanced messaging features and a distinct youthful appeal. We have to admit that the handset looks a lot better on the official photos than it used to on those leaked shots.

Nokia Surge packs a 2.4" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution. Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual-band UMTS with HSDPA 3.6Mbps support provide the network data transfers, while Bluetooth, USB and a 2.5 mm audio jack cover the local connectivity.







It's worth noting that the Nokia Surge sports the huge 1500 mAh battery that managed to impress us on Nokia E71. The list of interesting features of the device is completed by 128 MB of internal memory, expandable by up to 8GB through the microSD card slot, as well as FM radio, A-GPS and a 2 megapixel camera.

The AT&T-exclusive Nokia Surge also comes complete with a host of carrier-related services, including AT&T Navigator, Yellowpages.com, Where, AT&T Music, Mobi TV, Video Share, JuiceCaster and AT&T Mobile Banking.

Nokia Surge will be available through AT&T stores and at its online shop before the end of the month. It will set you back 79.99 USD with a two-year service agreement and after a mail-in rebate.

Nokia have just announced their Q2 financial report. The numbers are showing sings of recovering from the shock of the recession - their operating profit went up by almost 51% and their estimated market share increased a percent to 38%. The total number of phones they shipped was just over 103.2 million, a healthy improvement over the 93.2 million the previous quarter.

Reading through the report shows that things are improving since the begging of the year but they are still not as good as they used to be. Net sales for the quarter rose 7% from last quarter's 9.28 billion, but are 24.6% lower than those for the same period last year. Operating profit has also shrunk by 71% from the same quarter the previous year, but compared to Q1's 90% it's not as abysmal.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic continues to steam ahead with 3.7 million units sold for the quarter (adding up to 6.8 million total sales since last November) - more than a million handsets monthly. N-series and E-series phones also sold a million units morethan in Q1.

Geographically, sales for the quarter went up by about a third in the Middle East and Africa, as well as Latin America compared to Q1. The other regions saw a more moderate increase of between 4 and 7 percent, the only exception being North America, where Nokia sales were down by 5.9% .

The Average Selling Price went down to 62 euro from the 65 euro from the previous quarter, which Nokia explain with increased production of lower-end phones. In an attempt to counteract this, they've began shipping their flagship smartphone the Nokia N97, their flagship imaging phone - the N86 8MP, and finally, their flagship email-oriented phone - the E75. In other words - Nokia is gearing up retake some turf at the high end, too.

They also mentioned in passing collaboration with Intel for a device based on "Intel architecture", which they say will combine computing performance and high-bandwidth mobile communication resulting in a "PC-like Internet experiences across a new class of services". We just hope there won't be a new term for the device - netbook, MIP, UMPC - it's confusing enough. At any rate, Intel and Nokia both have strong commitments to Linux (Moblin and Maemo) so a Linux tablet is a good guess at what might come out of this partnership.

For more numbers, check out the whole report here.

After the encouraging financial report yesterday Nokia have another reason to smile today. Vodafone UK published their list of handset that make the most sales recently and two of the Finns' devices are occupying the first two spots.

The two two-enabled Nokia handsets are topping the Vodafone UK best selling phones chart for July. The smartphone flagship Nokia N97 comes first, followed closely by the mid-range Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.







The top three is rounded up by one of the sleekest Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones - the W595. And here goes the list for you to check out.

Vodafone UK's best sellers:

1. Nokia N97 32GB
2. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
3. Sony Ericsson W595
4. Sony Ericsson C510
5. Samsung S8000 Jet
6. Samsung S8300 Tocco Ultra Edition
7. Samsung L810 Steel
8. Nokia 6300
9. BlackBerry Storm 9500
10. HTC Magic

Source

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is getting a firmware update, which will introduce some new, quite welcome features - an enhanced homescreen, kinetic scrolling in some menus as well as improved camera performance and response time.

Update: The homescreen will be modified to resemble the one on Nokia 5530 XpressMusic rather than that of the N97 as we reported initially. We are sorry for the misunderstanding - we got our wires a little crossed on this one.

The kinetic scrolling update is only partial at this stage - it will be applicable in the homescreen, the Contacts list and the web browser. The update is surely more than welcome but we cannot help but feel that it will make the UI on the 5800 even more inconsistent.

Imagine this - in some lists in the Nokia 5800, you use kinetic scrolling, in others - dragging, which requires a two taps to activate an item, and in icon-based menus use just one tap. Worse still - sweeping your finger upward in the Contacts bar will make the list scroll down, while in another menu that still uses the old dragging logic - it will scroll up.

Another benefit of the upcoming firmware update would be the improved response time and camera performance. When this update will be available for the 5800 XpressMusic remains to be seen but it'll should be shortly after the launch of its younger sibling - Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. According to the source the latter will come with all the new features straight out of the box.

Source

It was all about four-digit model numbers with Nokia in the beginning. Then N-Gage stepped in, with the Nseries and the Eseries following shortly after. Now two more letters are joining the party - Nokia has registered the Cseries and Xseries trademarks.

Both patents are quite general and cover phones, smartphones, accessories and replacement parts, which doesn't really tell us much about the devices that will inevitably be announced.

Usually Nokia separates its phones in four categories like so:

• Achieve - those are the Eseries
  

• Explore - the Nseries
  

• Live - fashion phones for people with active lifestyles
  

• Connect - easy to use, but not basic, good looking phone; emphasis on ways to connect to others
  

Now, here's what we're thinking: two categories that are don't yet have a series of their own and two new letters. Simple enough, but here's the tougher question - which is which?

C for example could stand for "classic", and classic phones more or less fit the description of the Connect category. There are other words that start with C of course but they are less likely.

"Computer" is another of those words and we do now that Nokia and Intel are cooking something up. Then again, they call the N97 a "mini multimedia computer" and the Maemo tablets seem to be part of the Nseries (e.g. N800). "Camera" also springs to mind but that too is Nseries territory.

That leaves Xseries for the Live category. Now, X could mean XpressMusic - those don't really fit the bill for a fashion phone but "active lifestyles" is pretty accurate.

Prism and Supernova phones are the more trendy type. The few L'Amour phones are a good match too, as are the 8-series phones - the Sirocco, Luna and the Artes. This we think is reasonable guess of what constitutes a "Live" phone and an Xseries phone too, if our wild guess turns out right.

There's always the possibility that the two new series wouldn't actually to fit into the current categories. One of them might just be here, because Nokia is running out of numbers in the Nseries as the three digit Nseries models is reserved for the Maemo tablets.

Source: Puhelinvertailu.com, Digi Today