Nokia launches X7 and E6 Symbian smartphones

FINNISH PHONE MAKER Nokia has launched its X7 and E6 handsets, the latest in its range of Symbian smartphones.

The X7 has a 4-inch display, an 8MP camera, and is aimed at the entertainment market with two games, Galaxy on Fire HD and Asphalt 5 HD coming preloaded.

The E6 is a business smartphone that has a full Qwerty keypad and a host of Microsoft business software such as Exchange, Communicator Mobile and Sharepoint.

Both devices come with the latest version of Symbian, Nokia's aging smartphone operating system that will be phased out in favour of Windows Phone 7 after a major deal was struck with Microsoft.

The latest version of Symbian, codenamed Anna, features an improved user experience, faster Internet browsing, improved Ovi Maps, better text input, hardware accelerated encryption and meeting request support. It will be available on new shipments of Nokia's N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 phones over the coming months.

Nokia also announced that its Ovi Store has hit the five million downloads per day milestone, with a total offering of over 40,000 apps. The company said roughly 1,000 apps are added every week, with an eight-fold increase in apps over the last year alone. µ