Nokia is preparing to launch its new smartphone X7 in the Indian market. The device will feature the latest version of Symbian operating system, called Anna.

“We are planning to launch X7 in this quarter in India,” a Nokia spokesperson told ‘The Mobile Indian’ without divulging the exact date of launch.

Nokia has positioned the X7 as an entertainment smartphone, and has given it a four inch Amoled screen that displays 16 million colours and 640 x 360 Pixel resolution, as well as high quality sound output.

X7 features a brand new look and feel along with an improved interface for fluid gesture movement, which Nokia claims is very responsive.

Symbian Anna has a new Browser as well, which is expected to be three times faster than the existing browser.

X7 will feature a preinstalled 8GB Memory card that can be upgraded to 32GB, and it has 320MB of Internal Memory functioning as its RAM/ROM.

The display is made of Corning’s Gorilla Glass, which protects it from minor scratches and breakage from accidental falls. To add more strength to the phone, Nokia has designed it in a stainless steel shell, which will enhance its longevity too.

The device measures 119.7 x 62.8 x 11.9 mm but is comparatively thin around the edges and weighs 146 grams.

It offers next generation Pentaband 2G/3G network connectivity and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi support along with Bluetooth 3.0 and USB connectivity. The installed 1200mAh battery is expected to give up to 450 hours of standby and 4.5 hours of talk time on 3G networks, and will support the phone for longer on 2G.

The Nokia X7 will cost around 380 Euros, which translates to approximately Rs 25,000.

Vodafone has announced that it will launch an Android phone in Europe for just 80 Pounds (Rs 5,800). The phone, to be called as 858 Smart, will be based on Android Froyo 2.2 operating system with a 2.8 inch resistive touch screen.

Though there is no plan as of now to launch the phone in India, a company spokesperson did not rule out the possibility of the launch at a later date and said to The Mobile Indian “may be couple of months later we might launch it in India.”

The device will be launch in the UK, Germany and Italy first. It will come with regular features of Android such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Facebook and Twitter. It will additionally have Prepay Manager App for topping up prepaid accounts.

The device weighing 100 grams will be manufactured by Huawei and will feature a 2MP zoom camera, 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth. It will use a 528MHz Qualcomm Processor and have 130 MB of memory besides a SD card slot supporting up to 32GB memory.

The handset will initially be available in black or white, followed by other colours. Vodafone said it plans to offer an online customisation feature allowing users to choose their own colour and add an image to the back cover.

The handset is very similar (in specification) to the Huawei Ideos, which is already available in India and is selling at Rs 7,500. This means that for Vodafone it will be a tight squeeze if they decide to bring the device to our shores, especially given the Ideos has slightly better specs with a 3.2 Megapixel camera.

With MTS having announced a high-end bundled device with HTC Pulse being available for Rs 1,500 per month bundle, it might not be wrong to expect a similar deal from Vodafone (but this hope is a bit high).

Going by what they have done in the past, the device might just come to India, but not as a much subsidised version but rather a bundling with little bit of freebies like free data plan and some value added service subscription.

As if the micro SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) was not small enough, Apple has now proposed to make another deduction to the size of the card. With the present Micro SIM being used by most newer Apple devices like the iPhone 4 and the iPad, Apple wants to shorten down things further and proposes it to be the new standard when comes to global telecom industry.

The proposed SIM size, which is smaller than the Micro SIM, might result in the manufacturing of slimmer devices.

The decision on standardisation of SIM cards is pending with the European Telecoms Standards Body (ETSI), which has confirmed Apple’s request.

“This process may take some time, up to a year or more, if there is strong disagreement between industry players. However, when there is broad consensus among the companies participating in the standards committee, the process can be accelerated to a number of months,” Reuters has quoted an ETSI spokesperson as saying.

Present day Micro SIM cards are still compatible with older mobile phone with the help of adapters but the scenario might change if the new standard is adopted. Also, developers might be reluctant to migrate to a whole new standard, which could prove to be very expensive for them.

Will the device manufacturers around the words agree to Apple’s thinking or will Apple again go it alone if they won’t, remains to be seen.

Smartphones based on Intel’s chips will be ready by as soon as next year, the chief executive of the biggest chipmaker has said.

“You’ll see the first Intel-based phones in the market in the first part of next year,” Chief Executive Paul Otellini of the company was quoted as saying by the Reuters.

The first Intel smartphone is likely to be based on the Android platform with the Atom processors as the company believes its raw processing power may tilt the scales in its favour.

Intel believes its 10W system-on-chip may at times perform like the conventional CPU (central processing unit).

However, analysts are questioning the optimism of Intel. It is still not clear just how different Intel’s offering would be from the existing products like chips from Nvidia and Qualcomm out in the market. The product is still under development, and the company may not be very comfortable speaking about how it will actually turn out.

It has been a long time since Intel has been promising smartphone chips, but it hasn’t delivered so far. There were also reports that Intel may start making ARM chips, but according to reports the company doesn’t seem to be in a mood to pay royalties to the ARM just yet.