Anyone who had their hopes set on the death of Symbian following Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft is going to be sorely disappointed with the Finnish handset makers announcement of not only two new Symbian smartphones, but an updated version of Symbian as well.
Overnight Nokia announced the E6 and X7 Symbian-based smartphones, with the former targeted to business users and the latter a consumer phone. As per usual with Nokia smartphones, the hardware is well designed, gorgeous to look at and almost definitely comfortable to use. But also as per usual with Nokia smartphones, they both run Symbian, although these particular models will run the updated “Anna” version of the mobile OS.
Among the features that make this latest version of Symbian noteworthy are new icons, improved touchscreen text input, a new browser and a refreshed Ovi Maps application. None of which truly deals with the biggest problem with Symbian as a smartphone OS.
Then of course there’s the question of why anybody would buy a Symbian Nokia smartphone that will be obsolete within 12 months when the company shifts to Windows Phone 7. Obviously the company still has its roadmap and has to release products before the Windows Phone model hit the market, but it’s still an issue worth looking at.
Both phones are set to land in Australia Q3 this year, with more precise details to come closer to release date.
[Nokia]