Some say it doesn’t matter what Nokia does in the high end, that their expertise is in low end devices. Two devices that have just been announced, the C2-05 and X2-05, are proving that sentiment true. Let’s start with the C2-05, it packs a microscopic 2 inch screen that has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. On the back of the device there’s a VGA camera. Inside there’s Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, an FM radio, and support for dual band GSM. They’ll be a 900/1800 MHz variant (Europe/Asia) and an 850/1900 variant (USA/Australia). Such a phone used to cost well over 100 Euros just a few short years ago, but the C2-05 will go for just 50 Euros when it ships later this year. Next up is the X2-05 (pictured above). It’s got roughly the same specifications as the C2-05, the only thing that makes it different though is that it has a larger 2.2 inch screen and a speaker that can output “106 phon” worth of sound, whatever the hell a phon is. It’s just 46 Euros.
What makes both these devices really special though is that they’ll come with dedicated applications for Facebook, Twitter, and most importantly they’ll feature Nokia’s new browser that uses server side compression technology. Similar to how Opera Mini works, whereby a website you request on your mobile device is rendered on a server farm, shrunken down, and then beamed back to your phone, Nokia’s browser will do the exact same thing. This will allow the Finnish handset maker to collect an incredible amount of data about everyone’s surfing habits, and who knows, maybe they’ll pull a Google and become a company who makes a majority of their revenue thanks to advertising.
Now I know now many of you care about these type of devices, but let this sink in: for the cost of an unsubsidized iPhone 4S (600 EUR), you can give connectivity to 12 people with these two devices.