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Nokia has announced the U.S. availability of the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition and the Nokia E72 smartphones as of Dec. 8. Both phones can help users to stay in the loop with work e-mails and obligations as they head out of the office to celebrate the holidays. Which, according to a Nokia-commissioned study, is something most of us plan to do.
In the survey of 1,019 American adults, 68 percent said they are “likely” to respond to work-related e-mail while “on vacation, during Thanksgiving, during Christmas, during Hanukkah or during Kwanzaa.”
That number is up, with only 51 percent saying they responded to work e-mails while on vacation in previous years.
Does this point to more workers having easy access to mobile e-mail, or to a desire to be an attentive employee during a year of rising unemployment? Among workers 18 to 24 years old, 20 percent responded that they would “feel guilty or fear their job would be in jeopardy if they did not respond to work e-mails in a timely manner,” Nokia reports.
The majority-86 percent-of this youthful demographic consequently reported that they are likely to respond to work e-mails over the holidays. Among 45- to 54-year-olds, 67 percent said they would, while 61 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds said the same.
“This year, time off doesn’t necessarily mean logging off for most of us over the holidays,” said Craig Coffey, Nokia vice president of marketing, in a statement.
Coffey went on to offer that the Nokia E72, which offers separate home screen profiles for one’s work and personal lives, might help.
The E72 also features support for corporate e-mail via Mail for Exchange or IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, as well as up to 10 personal e-mail accounts. There’s a full QWERTY keyboard over the 2.4-inch QVGA display, and between them are an optical navigation key and dedicated keys for one-touch access to the home page, calendar, contacts and e-mail.
It’s compatible with WCDMA 850/1900/2100 and 900/1900/2100 networks, as well as GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900. There’s also 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, and HSDPA and HSUPA connectivity.
There’s support for instant messaging, a 5-megapixel camera, a music player, support for up to 16GB of additional memory-it comes with 250MB of internal memory and a 4GB microSD card in the box-as well as assisted GPS functionality with a compass. The E72 is priced-free of carrier contracts-at $469.
The Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition can keep you connected to work while also directing you over the river and through the woods. It comes with Ovi Maps for mobile, which Nokia calls the industry’s only mobile device solution to offer real-time turn-by-turn directions for both cars and pedestrians.
Users also don’t need to worry about a mobile data connection, as the ability to search addresses and calculate routes happens on the device-not over the air. The 5800’s 3.2-inch touch screen makes it easy to view maps-there’s an available car kit for mounting it to the dash-and offers tactile feedback when typing. Stylus input is also an option.
There’s 3G, HSDPA and WLAN connectivity; a 3.2-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens; expandable memory up to 16GB; widescreen-quality video playback; and stereo speakers with surround sound. It’s priced-also without a carrier commitment-at $299.
Through Dec. 31, Nokia is offering a $50 Visa gift card to customers who purchase the 5800 Navigation Edition and activate an account with Nokia’s Ovi Store. Ovi offers downloadable content such as applications, music and games.