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It may seem like a gimmicky device, but the X5-01 is as impressive as it is quirky. Sure, the square form factor takes a little while to get used to, and the loud colors obviously target the more hip and happening crowd –as opposed to the more somber, serious tones of other smart phones. But in terms of features and specs, the X5-01 is a great phone to have.

Made for the fun loving crowd that still wants quality handsets, the X5-01 brings together reliable smart phone commodities with new intuitive gesture controls to help make the music listening experience a whole lot better –spin the device around and it will skip to a random track on your playlist. There is both fun and functionality in this device, which makes it one device that you should not fail to check out.

So, speaking of the handset’s features, this new Nokia music phone comes in a variety of colors: azure, purple, yellow green, pink, graphite black are among the confirmed selections, but we would not be surprised if Nokia adds more choices to the list. The slide out QWERTY keyboard makes the thickness worth it as typing on the buttons feels quite natural and almost on the same level of efficiency as a BlackBerry device.

Nokia’s Symbian^3 operating system brings plenty of functions, features and of course, app support from the Ovi store. Sadly, the device lacks GPS support so it cannot make use of the free Ovi maps features (nor will it allow you to log into foursquare –which is a very important feature for this device’s target market).

As a music phone, the X5-01 delivers. The 2.3 inch TFT display provides users with a clear view of current track and the playlist, and the controls are easy to fiddle around with. The audio quality of the loudspeaker is quite clear and the device’s 3.5mm audio jack lets users have their own choice of headsets.

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It seems that the leaks have skipped a phone. Recent images of the Nokia C7 smart phone have made it to the internet –completely skipping the C5.

As you might have heard, Nokia’s early C series devices starting from the C1 all the way to the C3 have already been officially announced. The impressive handsets range from standard candy bar mobile phones to a sleek portrait keyboard bearing handset. Now, a fully dedicated smart phone has been introduced to the C series, the Nokia C7.

At first glance, you might mistake this device for an earlier Motorola Android handset (it looks a lot like the old XT 800). Sadly, the device is packing only the Symbian S60 5th instead of the Symbian^3, so if you are picky about what operating system to have, you might want to pass this up (unless you are a Symbian/Ovi fan that is).

Overall, it is a pretty impressive little handset for its size and tech range. As stated, it looks a lot like the XT 800 which means that you get that same super-flat phone face and the extra shiny screen border. The ends of the devices curve out giving it a very rounded look while the dark gray body gives if a sense of weight.

Nokia has yet to detail the specific features of this handset, but we do expect the device to come complete with support for standard WAP and HTML websites (hopefully the Opera Mini browser which has been making its way as a staple for many Symbian handsets), decent media playback capabilities (support for the usual files, MP3, AAC, WAV, MP4, WMV and maybe even H.264 video).

With most of the other Nokia C series handsets coming out this year, we can probably expect the C7 to start showing up sometime during the third quarter of 2010.

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There is always room for green engineering and no one in the mobile phone industry knows this better than Nokia. They have been heralded as the greenest electronics company in the world and it shows; their processing facilities and products all follow strict rules regarding the use of eco-friendly products and better designs to help conserve energy and fuel.

Now, it seems that the Finnish phone manufacturer has finally managed to create a mobile phone charger that is fully green –thanks to pedal power. Bike enthusiasts will certainly enjoy knowing that Nokia has finally perfected their bike charging device and is starting to ship it to various countries all over the world.

Sadly, the UK is not on the initial list as Nokia is reportedly targeting counties where the use of a bike is considered to be a primary form of transportation. While this will certainly disappoint some folks, one can easily order the device online and have it shipped (for a reasonable cost).

The whole setup is easy to work with. Users will simply have to connect a dynamo to a bicycle’s wheel. This dynamo charges the energy from the wheel’s movement and uses it to create electricity. The result is an impressive charging ability that will provide users with about 23 minutes of talk time just from 10 minutes of biking (at a speed of 6 MPH).

Even if you do not use a bike to travel around, this technology will certainly do wonders even with a stationary bicycle at home –though one would have to do some pretty ingenious modifications to the dynamo as exercise bikes have no wheels to latch on to.

The price is estimated to be somewhere just above a dozen Quid –which makes the whole setup so much more enticing to have. Expect to see this gadget and variations of it to see more practical applications in the later weeks.

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For mobile phone users who need a quick secondary handset for basic calling and texting functions, Nokia has just released a second version of the 5233 handset that comes without the 3G and GPS functions. Of course, for a primary handset, this device will only be useful for people who have little use of a mobile phone, otherwise, it really only serves as a reliable but fancy backup handset.

Virgin Mobile has confirmed that they are offering the Nokia 5230 Nuron touch screen handset for a bargain cost of only 20 Pounds per month. The 18 month contract will give users about 200 minutes for talk time and unlimited text messages. Overall, it’s a pretty nice deal, and even if you do not get it from an operator, this touch screen device still makes for a pretty nice phone to have around.

The biggest advantage of this touch screen handset is that it actually uses the Symbian OS 9.4 (S60) and this means that users will be able to access most of the features that one would expect from a Symbian smart phone –with the exception of GPS maps and 3G access obviously.

Nokia’s 5230 might fool some people into thinking that it is a smart phone that comes with 3G, GPS and all the trimmings; the device’s 3.2 inch touch screen display gives it an appearance of a mid range smart phone –and it does come quite close, though the use of a stylus on a resistive display might turn off some users who are used to capacitive touch screen technology.

The Nuron also comes with a 2 mega pixel camera (with video recording at 30FPS), a basic ARM CPU clocked at 434 MHz, 70 MB of internal memory (but it supports 16GB SD cards), GPRS, Bluetooth and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

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