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New Smartphone Will Offer a Touch Screen, Fast Internet Access and Customized Features; Maps Show Landmarks in 3-D

Nokia Corp. unveiled an ambitious new smartphone with a touch-sensitive screen, a slide-out full keyboard, and access to a range of Web-based software applications, part of an emerging class of do-it-all mobile devices.

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Nokia

A prototype of Nokia’s N-97.

The company introduced the phone, dubbed the N-97, at an event in Barcelona Tuesday, but it won’t ship the device until the first half of 2009. It will sell for €550 ($699), though wireless carriers will likely discount the retail price. Nokia declined to discuss whether any U.S. carriers will offer the phone at launch.

Cellphone manufacturers generally make trade-offs for aesthetics, affordability and battery efficiency. But with fierce competition at the high end of the consumer market, there is pressure across the industry to stuff more and more features into a single device. The N-97 has the touch screen popularized by Apple Inc.’s iPhone, a real keyboard that appeals to users of BlackBerrys and Nokia’s own E-Series devices, and fast Wi-Fi Internet access to complement third-generation broadband access.

It will also let users customize their phones — even their home screen — with small applications called widgets. The programs, which will run off the Web rather than having to be installed on the device, could include news feeds, weather updates, games and tie-ins to social-networking applications such as Facebook.

‘Personal Internet’

“What we are giving consumers is the opportunity to have their own personal Internet with them all the time,” said Jonas Geust, vice president of the unit that produces Nokia’s Nseries phones. Mr. Geust said the N-97 will be Nokia’s flagship device for 2009.

Nokia

The new phone will carry building landmarks in 3-D on Nokia Maps.

The N-97 will carry an upgraded version of Nokia Maps, which the company is to release Tuesday. The new version builds on Nokia’s $8 billion acquisition this year of digital-map maker Navteq. It adds more details such as 3-D building landmarks and items that improve pedestrian navigation, like subway entrances and escalators. It also synchs with Nokia’s Ovi Web portal, allowing users to plan trips and routes from their computer and have them automatically transfer to their phone.

Handset makers are relying on high-end smartphones to help them weather an economic downturn that is expected to lead to an industry-wide sales slowdown next year of from 1% to 9%, according to various estimates. Analysts say phones with novel hardware or software features are more likely to lure stingy consumers to upgrade than midtier standard-feature phones.

Nokia — the largest cellphone manufacturer, with a 38% global market share — has been slow to catch on to some trends in the emerging consumer-smartphone category. Its first touch-screen phone, the Tube, ran into delays and was released late this year, after rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. had been marketing such devices for months.

State-of-the-Art Features

The N-97 is the latest in Nokia’s lineup of ultra high-end Nseries phones. It packs some state-of-the-art features, including a five-megapixel camera, DVD-quality video capture with an output jack that connects to a television set, and 32 gigabytes of onboard memory capacity — twice that of the iPhone. It has a built-in music player and users get a year of free access to Nokia’s catalog of four million tracks.

The results of cramming in so many features are evident in the physical design of the device, based on an early prototype. It is about 30% thicker than the iPhone, though about on par with the G1 from HTC Corp. and Google Inc. Its 3.5-inch screen slides out to reveal the keyboard, tilting upward at a 30-degree angle so users can more easily see what they are typing. Like the iPhone, the N-97 will have a piece of hardware called an accelerometer and can sense when the device is being rotated — a useful feature for games.

The Web browser aims to optimize content from the Web without any need for site publishers to make custom mobile pages, the company says. “We believe the Internet is as it is, and we need to support it,” Mr. Guest said.

Like other touch-screen phones that have emerged from Research in Motion Ltd. and Samsung, it won’t do some of the iPhone’s tricks. Users can’t zoom in and out of photos and Web pages by pinching or spreading two fingers. And, at least in the early prototype, users must scroll by touching and dragging a thin scroll bar, rather than simply flicking the screen up or down.

Write to Amol Sharma at amol.sharma@wsj.com

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