Nokia Verizon Superman phone to feature new Nokia Linux OS, Snapdragon CPU and more

OK. April Fools’ Day is over already. So have in mind this one was our AF prank. Almost totally our imagination; and if you’ve followed the links, it was easy to spot. But, where there is smoke usually there is some fire. So there are some rumors we think are true included in this post.

CTIA Wireless 2009 is starting with a blast for me. Yesterday, Nokia reps made a presentation of what they managed to come up with in order to lure AT&T iPhone customers to Verizon’s network.

The  presentation was for Verizon developer partners only, thus being closed to the press. But I accidentally got mixed with the crowd and, somehow, nobody noticed my press badge… Taking photos was not allowed, yet I was prepared for that and managed to snap some shots, although their quality ain’t that good.

There were several Verizon-bound Nokia handsets  presented there, most of them being variants of devices we’ve seen before. However, Nokia’s latest and greatest contraption really impressed me. No, actually, it blew me away.

As it turns out, Nokia and Verizon are planning to launch a new high end, full-touch QWERTY slider in November 2009.

The product launch is scheduled to coincide with the latest installment of the Superman trilogy – Superman Prevails – due in theaters at about that time. The new phone, dubbed Verizon Nokia Superman, will be prominently featured in the trilogy and will have a heavily themed promotional campaign (remember that Nokia Batman handset for Verizon, right?).

But it’s not the whole promotion thing, it’s the Nokia Verizon Superman itself that impressed me. This although its design has nothing special (since it’s quite similar to the one of Nokia N97):

nokia-verizon-superman

However, its hardware and software are anything but the N97.

For starters, Nokia Superman is the first fruit of that Nokia/Qualcomm cooperation officially announced in February, so it will run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz CPU.

And it does not run on Symbian S60.

Yep, that was a shocker. Nokia is leaving Symbian S60 OS for its mid tier handsets like the E75, various editions of 5800 XM and the likes. The Finnish giant is almost ready to announce a fresh Linux-based OS for its new line-up of high-end handsets and mobile computers. This is planned for August 2009.

With no Symbian legacy code and compatibility issues to slow it down, Nokia has made a superb job  of rethinking how a mobile OS/UI should work with a modern hardware and a touch interface. In full 3D! Here’s a video demo that I was able to shoot:

Apart from advanced 3D graphics, Nokia Verizon Superman’s other highlights include:

It looks like Nokia is really serious about taking the US market share back from its South Korean rivals. The Finnish vendor probably knows that it is a do or die time for them in the US.  So, in order to attract a major US carrier on its side, this time Nokia has pulled no punches and created the Superman phone: the kind of device that US consumers have never seen before.

Verizon will obviously be the first to get the Superman handset, but a GSM version of it is also scheduled for release, although only in 2010.

I am still getting my head around the things Nokia revealed regarding its plans for late-2009  and early-2010, but I wanted to get the news out first. I created a separate page where I will be adding all the details on the topic: it’s here – make sure you visit it from time to time.

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Posted on 01 Apr 09 - Filed in Nokia, Wireless - Comments - Written by Staska

  • g
    with the verizon branding and superman, lame.
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