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Nokia has announced a new Smartphone to join its range, the Nokia E63. The E63 is basically a stripped down version of the popular Nokia E71, which will be aimed at the consumer market rather than the business sector.

The main difference between the E71 and E63 is that the E63 does not have GPS or HSDPA built-in, and the E63 only has a 2 megapixel camera compared to the E71, which has a 3.2 megapixel camera. Other differences are that the E63 will incorporate a 3.5mm headphone socket, so there is no need to use an adapter when using your favourite headphones.

The Nokia E63 will feature a full QWERTY keyboard, 2.3 inch display, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and microSD memory card slot. The E63 also has dedicated keys for home, calendar, contacts and email as well as a NaviKey to scroll through the device. A multimedia play is also featured, which supports various audio and video formats and the whole phone is controlled by the Symbian S60 operating system.

The Nokia E63 will be available in two colours, blue and red and will be released in the next few weeks for around the £160 price mark, but expect it to be free with certain contracts.

The Nokia N79 is one of the newest devices to gain the N-series name and is also the smallest. Although it only measures 110 x 49 x 15mm and weights 97 grams, the Nokia N79 is packed full of features.

The Nokia N79 is a quad band, candy bar styled mobile phone that features a 2.4 inch display, 5 megapixel camera with dual flash and HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity for high speed internet browsing.

GPS and A-GPS are also featured on the device, as well as a comprehensive media player, FM radio and FM transmitter. Internal storage is 83MB and a microSD card slot is also present (a 4GB microSD card is included) to store your audio, video and picture files.

The Nokia N79 uses the Symbian S60 operating system, which has proven to be a very popular OS and data and files can easily be transferred to and from the device via Bluetooth 2.0 or the bundled USB cable. The N79 also comes with Xpress-on covers so you can customise the look of the device.

All in all, the Nokia N79 is a practical and small mobile phone, packed with the advanced features of a bigger device. The Nokia N79 is due out in a couple of weeks, no word on contracts or prices yet.

Nokia has released a full spec list for their new device, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The Nokia 5800 will be the company’s first new-generation touchscreen device and has sleek and modern styling like the new N85 and N96 devices.

The 5800 XpressMusic features a large 3.2 inch touchscreen and will be powered by the latest version of the Symbian S60 operating system. The screen can either be used with your finger or with the included stylus and automatically switches between portrait and landscape depending on the orientation of the phone.

This quad-band device also supports 3G with HSPDA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as a 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and LED flash, microSD card slot capable of supporting up to 16GB (an 8GB card is included), TV out and 3.5mm headphone socket.

The most exciting piece of news about the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, is that it will be available as a ‘Comes With Music’ enabled device early in the new year. Comes With Music is Nokia’s new music store that allows subscribers unlimited music downloads to their phone for a year.

If you can’t wait till next year, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is expected to hit the UK before Christmas with a RRP of around £200.

As other phone manufacturers move more towards candy bar style touchscreen devices, it’s nice to see that Nokia are still producing new and stylish clamshell phones to the masses. Nokia’s latest clamshell design, the 3610 Fold isn’t going to win any gadget contests but is still stylish and practical.

The Nokia 3610 Fold is designed for users that want an uncomplicated phone that doesn’t have all the fancy gizmos of high-end devices, and it shows in the 3610 Fold’s specifications. The main display is a 2 inch QVGA screen and the secondary screen is a 1.36 inch display.

Other features include quad-band GSM so it will work wherever you want it to, a 1.3 megapixel camera with auto-focus and a multimedia player. There is 30MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for up to 4GB.

The Nokia 3610 Fold has Bluetooth and USB connectivity for transferring music and pictures and when it hits the UK will be available in four colours, blue, red, rose and green depending on the network.

No news on the release date or price, but expect it to be around £100 for the sim free version.

The new Samsung Innov8 smartphone is one of the most advanced phones that Samsung has ever made and sports a huge 8 megapixel camera. This Symbian based smartphone also features Wi-Fi and GPS, as well as an advanced media player, with a host of other features designed to rival the Nokia N96 and N95.

The Innov8 phone has an 8 megapixel camera with a host of features lifted straight out of Samsung’s digital camera range like, autofocus and dual LED flash, face recognition and image stabiliser with built in image editing software.

The screen is a 2.8 inch QVGA display capable of displaying up to 16 million colours and supports Divx, WMV, H.263 and H.264 video files and MP3, ACC and WMA audio playback. Internal memory is rumoured to be either 8GB or 16GB depending on the version and can be upgraded with the microSD card slot by another 16GB.

Controlling the Innov8 is the Symbian S60 operating system, offering lots of applications and customisation and the phone also has Bluetooth and USB 2.0 connectivity.

The Samsung Innov8 is due for release in August; no price or network information yet, but expect it to have a similar price and contract as the Nokia N96.

Nokia have announced that the eagerly awaited N96 smart phone will be available in the UK from August. This will be Nokia’s flagship phone and boasts a host of features to rival Apple and Sony Ericsson’s new offerings.

The N96 has a 2.8 inch QVGA screen able to display up to 16 million colours, 16GB internal memory with microSD card slot that can take up to another 16GB (with both installed that’s an impressive 32GB!) and features a built in DVB-H TV receiver.

The Nokia N96 has Symbian’s new operating system S60 at the helm and features HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity for web browsing and EGPRS and GPRS for fast data transmission. Also included are Bluetooth capabilities, USB cable for transferring data, a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and a second front mounted camera for video calling.

Available from August; networks and price are to be confirmed.

The Nokia E71 is the latest phone in the Nokia Smartphone range. Nokia claim that the E71 is the thinnest QWERTY Smartphone on the market at only 10mm and is one of the slimmest Nokia phones to date.

The E71 boasts a 2.36 inch high quality QVGA display with 320 x 240 resolution and is HSDPA and WiFi enabled for super fast internet connection.  110MB internal memory is included and a microSD card slot with up to 8GB capacity can be installed to store files, music and video.

The Nokia E71 has a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash, and can play standard music and video formats like mp3, wma, mp4 and real media to name a few. Bluetooth and infrared are standard so you can connect it to other devices and has integrated A-GPS for navigation when travelling.

The operating system is Symbian Os 9.2 and comes with office, email and PIM software, and includes a feature to switch between business and personal accounts with separate email and home screens. The Nokia E71’s battery life is stunning, with over 10 hours of GSM talk-time and WCDMA talk-time of 4 and a half hours.

Due for release on the 7th July for the silver one and the 1st August for the black one, the Nokia E71 is set to have would be Blackberry customers taking another look.

Nokia have announced that they will be buying out software firm Symbian for £209m. The mobile phone giant already owns 48% of the UK based firm and intends to buy out the remaining Symbian shareholders.

Symbian produce the Symbian Operating System, which is the leading Smartphone operating system and is featured on over 110 million Smartphone’s worldwide. Nokia plans to develop this software to rival Google’s Android operating system.

Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Panasonic have all agreed to sell their shares in Symbian, with Samsung expected to accept the offer as well. Symbian has welcomed the takeover stating that it was a fundamental step towards establishing Symbian Foundation, which is due to start operating early 2009.

The Symbian Foundation will bring together the top mobile device firms including: Nokia, AT&T, Sony Ericsson, Texas Instruments and Vodafone to work on a new, royalty free open source software platform for Smartphone’s.

The aim is to bring together several existing Smartphone operating systems, Symbian OS, UIQ, S60 and MOAP.