Launched: the Nokia 603

Nokia has just announced their latest smartphone, the Nokia 603. The handset, which runs on the new Android look-alike Symbian Belle operating system, sports a 3.5" IPS display and a 1GHz single core CPU. The handset is expected to cost €200, and comes in twelve colour combinations (two front options, and six back cover options).

Internally, you'll find all of the standard wireless and wired connectivity options, including GPS (no word if this is assisted GPS or not), Wi-Fi N, USB and Near Field Communication (NFC). The smartphone can also have its internal storage expanded by MicroSD, from 2 GB to 34 GB. On the camera front, there's a five megapixel rear snapper but no front facer, meaning no video calls. The video camera's capable of 720p video, but this doesn't make up for the lack of flash.


In terms of apps, the Nokia 603 includes a few interesting ones preinstalled: Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, YouTube and Shazam. 
The excellent Nokia Maps app is also installed, as you'd expect.


This is a fairly attractive phone, with some nice colour options and decent specifications, but the real question is whether Symbian Belle will prove to be a success; even with a few excellent Belle handsets it's hard to believe that they wouldn't do better with Android installed instead. Another issue is the fairly low resolution screen - 360 x 640 pixels isn't competitive anymore, particularly with flagship Android phones soon to come with a resolution of 1280 x 720.


The affordable if not incredible Nokia 603 is expected to be released sometime later this year, at approximately £175 in the UK.


This article was written by William Judd, who writes for MobileFun.co.uk, the UK's largest online retailer of iPhone cases.