Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition, 7373 and 7390

5th September 2006

Of these three new handsets from Nokia, two are straightforward upgrades of exisiting handsets with only one completely new device.

Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition

Discontinued

The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Editio is a fairly minor but useful upgrade of the existing Nokia 8800, replacing the 0.5 megapixel camera in the 8800 with a much more useful 2.0 megapixel device and increasing the internal memory from 64Mb tp 128Mb. There's also an FM radio and an MP3 player.

It's slightly thicker than the older 8800, with a subtly redesigned keypad and case. The battery life has also improved slightly, a weakness on the old phone. It still features the metallic case and scratch-resistant display that the 8800 has, plus the high-density 208x208 pixel display. A phone of this size and weight would benefit from 3G support, and frankly the display is rather small for a premium handset such as this, and the lack of expandable memory is a drawback too.

Available now in light and dark metallic colours at an unsubsidised price of €1000.

Nokia 7373

Discontinued

An upgrade to the attractive Nokia 7370, the Nokia 7373 forms part of the Nokia L'Amour collection. It's almost identical to the 7370, except the 7373 comes with a 2 megapixel digital camera which nicely complements the 7373's 240x320 pixel display and microSD expandable memory. Internal memory has also been increased to 128Mb, and the Nokia 7373 retains the MP3 player and all the other functionality of the previous device.

Available in Bronze Black, Powder Pink and Black Chrome colours at approximately €350 before subsidy and tax. The release date is not known at present.

Nokia 7390

Discontinued

A new addition to the L'Amour range, the Nokia 7390 is probably also Nokia's first sensible 3G clamshell phone. It's a pretty conventional but well specified device, with a 3 megapixel digital camera, 240x320 pixel display, external media controls, microSD expandable memory, Bluetooth, video calling, stereo FM radio, MP3 player and everything else you'd expect to find in a 3G device.. except, being a L'Amour series device, it's also very attractively designed.

There's a Bronze Black version of the Nokia 7390 (for the boys) and a Powder Pink one (for the girls). Of course, you're free to choose whatever colour scheme tickles your fancy.

It's a lot less brick-like than other Nokia 3G phones, at 115 grams and 90x47x19mm in size. Talktime is a reasonable 3 hours with up to 9 days standby time. Available sometime in the second half of 2006 for a price of €450 before tax and network subsidy.