ISTANBUL, Turkey – Here’s the Nokia 603, the latest Symbian Belle smartphone, a colourful and affordable handset, loaded with the latest technology and apps.
With its seamless, smooth design, the Nokia 603 offers leading-edge features at a mid-range price. The Symbian Belle interface is modern and endlessly customisable, offering up to six home screens and an extended range of widgets that can be placed in any combination the user chooses.
The browser is four times faster than on previous Symbian versions, and offers enhanced compatibility with modern web standards. The latest version of Maps allows free, turn-by-turn navigation in both standard and Drive views for in-car use.
Powered by a 1GHz processor, the Nokia 603 is responsive even while multitasking many apps, but this power doesn’t mean you have to worry about your battery all the time. It’s rated to last for seven hours talktime and 460 hours in standby, considerably longer than other phones with this sort of feature set. The phone measures 113.5 x 57.1 x 12.7mm and weighs 106.9g. As you would expect, it’s no slouch when it comes to communications. It offers Pentaband reception (WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900), Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi and the latest HSDPA 3G – offering downloads up to 14.4Mbps.
With a 3.5-inch ClearBlack display under toughened glass to make sure your screen is visible even in bright sunlight, the Nokia 603 is versatile under any circumstances. The screen offers nHD resolution (640 x 360 pixels) and 16 million colours. All the better for playing with the preinstalled apps while you’re out and about. The phone comes preloaded with Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Shazam and YouTube to cater to your entertainment needs. On a more serious level, there’s Microsoft Office Communicator, Quick Office, Adobe PDF reader and Vlingo. On the back, there’s a five-megapixel camera with digital zoom. The latest version of the camera software means you can now shoot 720p video at 30fps. And on-board photo and video editing software means that you can update your social networks with pictures and movies easily while you’re on the move.
The Nokia 603 is also the seventh Nokia phone to offer NFC (near-field communications). This technology allows easy sharing of pictures, videos and contact details; the use of a location-based services and simple, one-tap pairing with compatible accessories. All Nokia’s future Symbian smartphones will come with NFC and it’s a technology that’s maturing swiftly so should definitely be a consideration when you choose your next phone. The phone comes in black and white varieties, but – as you’ll have seen from the pictures – six swappable rear covers will help owners express their individual personalities. The Nokia 603 will ship in Q4 2011 and is expected to cost around €200 before any local taxes or operator subsidies. If you’d like downloadable assets to blog about the Nokia 603, get the launch pack materials here.
