Nokia launches gang of 4 'iPhone killers'

Nokia today rolled out quartet of souped-up multimedia phones in a clear bid to position them in a face-off with Apple's iPod and iPhone ranges.

All 4 phones - or 'multimedia devices' - are optimised for music and games with extra memory and dedicated media control buttons - while two of them will offer out-of-the-box for Nokia's Ovi range on online services which was announced at the same time.

Nokia N95 8GB

Nokia's flagship multimedia phone - the Nokia N95 - gets a pre iPhone makeover which upgrades the built-in flash memory from 160MB to a whopping 8GB.

The Nokia N95 8GB - as it's imaginatively called - also gets its battery boosted from 950mAH to 1200mAH. This increases the claimed battery life from 160 minutes talk time to 210 minutes.

More importantly, music playback time reaches the crucial double figures with a claimed 10 hours of juice (up from 7 hours).

The final improvement tweak is that the screen size has been upped to 2.8" from 2.6" previously.

On the downside, the new Nokia N95 8GB will be a little heavier than the N95 (128g v 120g) and it loses the ability to use plug-in micro SD cards.

Nokia N81 and Nokia N81 8GB

As you've probably guessed these two new phones share the same form factor - a sleek black slider - but are differentiated by the fact that N81 supports microSD cards while the N81 8GB supports iPod-style flash memory.

Otherwise the specs are similar to the N91 8GB Music Edition, namely:

• Series 60 version 3 operating system (OS)
• WiFi compatible and HSDPA (3.5G)
• 2.4" 240x320 pixel display with 16.7 million colours
• Up to 11.5 hours music playback; talk time up to 5 hours; standby time up to 12.5 days
• 2 megapixel camera
• Dimensions: 102 x 50 x 17.9mm
• Weight: 140g
• N-Gage compatible
• 3.5mm headphone socket

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

This is the slimline "iPod Nano-killer" of the quartet with a tiny 71 gramme casing and space for up to 3000 songs with the optional 4GB microSD card.

• Series 40 3rd edition operating system (OS)
• Tri-Band GSM and GPRS
• 2 megapixel camera
• 2" 240x320 display with 16.7 million colours
• Dimensions: 103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9mm
• Up to 22 hours music playback; talk time up to 6 hours; standby time up to 13 days
• Weight: 70.2g
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Plays DRM-protected songs from Nokia Music Store

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

A bigger, heavier, 3G slider version of the above and graced with 'edgy design' apparently. This also ups the spec with a 3.2 megapixel camera, proper H264 video codec with VGA resolution and improved battery life.

In fact the camera - which also boasts a double-LED flash - makes this one look like a real winner to us (if you can live without the N-Gage and over-the-air download functionality). We can't wait to get this fella in our mitts to try it out in anger.

• Series 40 3rd edition operating system
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• H.264 video capture at 640 x 480
• 2.2" 240x320 display with 16.7 million colours
• Dimensions: 98.5 x 48.5 x 17.0mm
• Weight: 111g
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Plays DRM-protected songs from Nokia Music Store