Symbian has been a mainstay of the mobile world since the early days of smartphones, but in 2009, it's really coming of age with its new touch variant. Let's take a look at three phones that really show it off.
Nokia N97 - a true mobile multimedia computer
Nokia have a history of making some of the coolest smartphones ever made, with their Nseries, and with the Nokia N97, they've really outdone themselves. Basically, the Nokia N(7 gives you all the benefits of Symbian Touch, but also includes a full QWERTY keyboard, designed to make your life easy when it comes to things like texting, emails, live chats, or even just typing in web addresses. It also has a 5 megapixel camera, great music player, and more importantly, the Nokia N97 32Gb of built-in memory for you to actually store lots of music, movies and photos. The Nokia N97 is closer to being a computer than any phone in the Finnish manufacturer's history.
Samsung Omnia HD - mixing Symbian with the best video in the business
Whilst the Nokia N97 focuses on the messaging and comms side of things, the new Samsung Omnia HD takes a different route, and it's a unique one, so far: the Samsung Omnia HD is the only phone in the world capable of recording genuine, true HD (high definition) video, at a massive 720p resolution (making the Samsung Omnia HD perfect for capturing videos in HD to upload to Youtube). Of course, it will also capture still images at 8 megapixels, and since it also uses Symbian, the Samsung Omnia HD is a genuinely powerful phone. But it's definitely the video this device will be most recognised for.
Sony Ericsson Idou - the ultimate smart camera phone?
Whilst the Samsung Omnia HD is going to be remembered for being the first HD video phone in the world, the Sony Ericsson Idou is going to be remembered for something else, albeit also camera-related. That's because the Sony Ericsson Idou is the first phone announced for the UK to have a 12 megapixel camera, and thus, provided no other 12MP shooters beat it to market, the Sony Ericsson Idou will be the most powerful camera phone on the planet at launch. The fact it also features advanced Cyber-Shot technology will only aid in that goal. Once again, it's powered by Symbian Touch, although in this case, it's a version higher than the Nokia N97, and so, even more powerful. And while it lacks the hardware keyboard and huge memory, in every other way, the Sony Ericsson Idou easily bests ALL of its rivals!