Nokia comes out swinging at MWC

Finally, the week we’ve been waiting for — Mobile World Congress has commenced in Barcelona, and the announcements are flying fast and furious as companies compete for buzzworthy headlines.

Nokia has done a fine job of keeping its name front and center by releasing a bevy of handsets: the GPS-heavy 6710 Navigator and 6720 classic, the E75 QWERTY slider, the half-QWERTY slim E55, the N97 touch, and most notably the 8 megapixel N86.

Nokia has beefed up its GPS solutions for the Navigator handsets by including full regional maps, real-time drive and walk navigation, a dedicated navigator key, and a larger display for easy outdoor viewing. Also, Nokia Maps has been integrated with the newly announced Ovi store, allowing users to sync their trips on their PC and mobile handset. Nokia Maps has received an overhaul of features, as well; high-res aerial images, 3-D landmarks, terrain maps, weather services, and safety warnings have all been added. Both handsets provide a 5-megapixel camera, GPS, and a Web browser.

The E75 and E55 are models that Nokia has optimized for e-mail efficiency. Both phones ship with a new e-mail UI as well as Nokia Messaging. The new UI gives users folder and HTML e-mail support, expandable views, and sorting capability. Both handsets also come with Nokia Maps, GPS, N-Gage, support for 16GB microSD, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and on and on and on. The E75 also gets Ovi Files and built-in VPN, while the E55 holds the title of slimmest Nokia messaging device.

The heavy hitters in this collection are the N97 and the N86. The N97 is the first N-Series touch phone for Nokia, but it also features a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera with flash, a 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, and 32GB (expandable), and it will ship with Skype. While there have been some rumblings about availability of apps (those already available for the Symbian platform will have to be reworked for this handset) and the functionality of the UI, the N97 is certainly coming out swinging hard.

Last up to bat is the N86, an 8-megapixel handset, the first with variable aperture (which helps take clear photos in low or bright light) and that features a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash. This photographer’s dream also comes with 8GB of internal memory (16GB microSD upgrade) and an OLED scratch resistant screen, and it ships with Nokia Maps, Ovi integration, and a built-in compass so that images can be instantly tagged and uploaded onto the Web. It’s only the second day of MWC, and Nokia has already given us handsets to look forward to. I personally can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings.