Nokia NEO - an experiment for young people

This time we suppose it was the German office of Nokia in persons of several employees failed to keep inside the company a prototype of the future device. Remember, that earlier it was the very way Nokia 6820 was "lost", it was temporarily borrowed from the company. Interested people can easily get not only the info on company's future products, but also prototypes several months before the release and a month before the official announcement. I can't provide any explanation to such generous attitude of Nokia's employees to the third parties.

Why we think it was the German office, which provided the info and the device, many might ask this question. The answer is simple and evident, all the handsets, to be more exact, their photos appear on German sites, work under German networks, judging by those photos, for example. I hardly believe that when Europeans get prototypes, they head for Germany to test those phones.

I have an impression that the company has no security service or arranges such info leakage on purpose. The second version is more likely, after the info leakage company's lawyers ask everybody to remove the "stolen" photos, thus creating a quasi stir around the upcoming model. Pay attention to the fact that the info leakage always involves not key products, which are targeted at a special niche. That might be a new corporate policy privately adopted, isn't it? I don't know, it's difficult to answer this question. One thing is for sure, by such means Nokia's products attract attention. The fact that the leakage has the same source, and the company doesn't react to it, makes us doubt in its casual nature. From politic games let's pass over to the review of the new product.

The site Mobile-Gadgets has provided photos of the model with the code name Neo. This device is positioned as a phone with a music box function and meant for young people. Earlier the company had offered such phones, remember Nokia 5510, Nokia 3300. In this case Neo continues that line. The first and the most significant change is that the handset is built on the updated version of Series 40 platform, the changes involved not only software, but also hardware.

The screen in this model displays up to 65000 colors, it is made using TFT-technology. The resolution is 208x208 pixels, note that the screen is slightly larger compared with the devices of Series 40. Like in the case of Nokia 7280 the manufacturer provided no keyboard, it is replaced with a wheel, with the help of which you can choose digits or letters to write messages. The phone supports all standard applications, however the developers tried to minimize its size.

Other interesting functions include the support of standard MMC cards, they are hidden under the battery, in this aspect the handset is similar to Nokia 6230. Naturally, the handset supports mp3 melodies and stereo sound, it is supplied with standard headphones by Nokia. In addition, there is FM-radio, which is traditional for a youth phone. There is not much internal memory, some 6.4 MB, it can be used to store user's info, photos. The camera has just a VGA resolution, it allows recording 3GP video with the sound. There is an IrDA, for now we don't know, if it will work in the GPRS-modem mode, most likely it won't, the same situation with Nokia 3200.

Interchangeable panels can quickly change the appearance of the handset, this function became standard with Nokia's phones. Taking into account Nokia 6230, the BL-5C battery provides 3-5 days of work depending on the functions involved.

To my mind, it's a niche product, a daring experiment. To some extent the design of the handset resembles that for iPOD, the fact added peculiarity to discussions in the net. Nokia Neo doesn't relate to this popular player. Next year we'll see a music box by Motorola based on Motorola xxx and Apple iPOD. A small device combines functionality of both devices, on the face of it the hybrid turned to be a successful one. Its main advantage is the almost complete integration with iTunes service, a user could buy new melodies and songs in any quantities and easily transfer them via MotoPod (let's call it so) to different devices (DRM are observed).

P.S. The resemblance of the Mobile-Gadgets logo colors with the corporate style of Mobile-Review.com has nothing to do with our site. In this very case a partial imitation of our style takes place. Neither our site nor our employees have connections with this resource and didn't provide photos of Nokia Neo to this site. We make this proviso on purpose, should anyone notice a certain similarity.

Eldar Murtazin (eldar@mobile-review.com)
Translated by Anja Rytchkova (anja.rytchkova@mobile-review.com)

Published - 25 November 2004

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