I'M HEADING OVER TO NOKIA WORLD to see the Nokia 603, a smartphone handset powered by Symbian Belle. The Nokia 603 is part of a swarm of new Nokia Symbian-powered handsets being launched before the company's first Windows Phone device this Christmas.
I think the Nokia 603 will appeal to new smartphone customers who have around €90 to spend on a new phone with a contract. It comes with a 3.5-inch ClearBlack display, a 1GHz processor, GPS, Wi-Fi and a 5-megapixel camera. But the near field communications (NFC) chip inside the handset appeals to me most. Having NFC means the handset can easily synchronise with accessories. With NFC and a cashless app activated, people attending the London 2012 Olympics will be able to complete point-of-sale transactions. By using NFC, you can tap another NFC pone and share contacts, photos, audio snippets and video clips. I carry entire DVD movies on several of my mobile phones so I could easily share the collection with people via NFC, a protocol that seems to be more accommodating to large file sizes.
For fashionistas, the Nokia 603 comes in black and white and can be purchased with a variety of colorful battery covers.
The Nokia 603 comes preloaded with Maps, the latest social networking games and apps, and it runs my favourites Evernote and Audioboo. I can set up the phone with six customisable homescreens and use dynamic live widgets to help prioritise my important content.
Nokia has bundled basic editing software on the phone so you can capture, edit and share photographs quickly, thanks to a faster graphics processor in the handset.
