Nokia Belle FP1 update rolling out for the 701, 700 and 603

Nokia Belle FP1 update rolling out for the 701, 700 and 603


Nokia Asia announced that the Nokia 701, 700 and 603 have started receiving the Belle Feature Pack 1 update, which Nokia promised in March. Nokia's global account is silent on the matter, so we don't know if the rollout is happening in Asia only or worldwide (maybe Nokia is preoccupied with the launch of the Lumia 610 NFC right now).

[news] Nokia Belle Feature Pack 1 (V 112.10.1404) is Now Available for Nokia 701, 700 and 603. Update via Nokia Suite. ^r
Wed Apr 11 11:23:53 via TweetDeck
nokianesia

Anyway, Feature Pack 1 for Belle is what the Nokia 808 PureView will launch with and includes some cool updates for these older phones. You get an overclock of the processor to 1.3GHz, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Headphone, 20 new widgets, a better browser, changes to the multitasking and to the notification area.

User reports have it the Nokia 603 did indeed update - one lucky user already installed the update and shared the new look of the task manager. For comparison, we're including an old screenshot (pre- FP1).



Pre-FP1 task manager


After the update


If you have one of the three Nokias (the 500 isn’t invited to the Belle FP1 club yet), check for updates - either from the PC Suite or from the phone itself and be on the lookout for software version 112.xx.xxxx. That's Feature Pack 1 and if you do have it, drop a line in the comments with your model and country - other readers will appreciate the info.

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Nokia 808 PureView on pre-order in Italy, costs €600

Nokia 808 PureView on pre-order in Italy, costs €600

The Nokia 808 PureView and its 41MP monstrosity are expected to hit the stores this May. With the release date closing in, Nokia Italy has started their pre-order campaign for the PureView.

The cameraphone costs €600 while €99 of those you must pay now to reserve your unit.



We assume that other Nokia stores will soon launch their pre-orders as well.

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Nokia Belle FP2 appears in test results

Owners of newer Symbian phones got some good news recently when Nokia announced that they'll be getting a Feature Pack 1 update for their smartphones. They might be in for some more good news - results on the HTML5 Test list results for "Nokia Belle FP 2 (S60 5.5)".

The FP1 update is featured on the Nokia 808 PureView, but will make its way to the 603, 700 and 701, with the last two getting a CPU speed bump. It's not clear what we might expect from FP2 (it's not official), but Nokia seems to have done a lot of work on the browser.

The Belle FP1 update gives a big boost to the browser in terms of compatibility - it jumps from 157 (+ 7 bonus points) for vanilla Belle to 212 (+ 9 bonus points) for FP1 and higher still with FP2 - 242 (+ 9 bonus points).

For comparison, Android 2.3 scores 181+1, Android 4.0 does 256+3, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango scores very low at 141+5, while Mobile Safari on iOS 5 is king of the stock browsers with a score of 305+9.

The device running Belle FP2 is listed as Nokia 701, so there's a good chance that the devices that are getting FP1 will get FP2 as well.

Anyway, a post on Nokia Beta Labs caught our attention too - it marks the end of the beta period for Universal Search. It's a handy feature that looks through contacts, emails, maps and so on (similar but better than the old Search app found in older Symbians).

What's interesting about it is now that the beta is over, you'd expect to get the release version of the app - but it's nowhere to be found in the Nokia Store. It's quite a coincidence - the appearance of another Belle feature pack and the disappearance of Universal Search - so that's one feature that might be headed to FP2.

By the way, that HTML5 Test results page is very interesting and mentions a couple of big names - Windows Phone 8 and Tizen 1. That, of course, is flimsy proof of their existence, but still.

Thanks to Jason for the tip!

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