Today sees a landmark step in Nokia’s development with the introduction of their first and second Dual-SIM phones in the form of the Nokia C1 and C2. Nokia are in no way the first to make a dual-SIM phone, as Samsung have previously tried it with one handset in the UK (not sure if they have any other elsewhere) and I’m sure you have seen the hundreds of China phones which try to copy the styling of many other phones including Nokia, Apple, etc. which also support dual-SIM.

The phones in the Nokia C-Series are generally designed to be basic handsets which just work without all the extras which a lot of people still don’t want or use, and these handsets are no exception. They still look good and quite similar to Nokia’s recent 1xxx, 2xxx and 3xxx series handsets.

There is a difference in the way each of the handsets work though:

  • Nokia C1: This is a double sim phone more then dual-SIM, as you can only use one of the 2 SIM’s at any one time, but at least you don’t have to remove the battery and switch off every time you need to switch! – One nice feature of this is a bright LED torch which is useful as this is aimed more at third world countries where the power goes off quite often. The phone is a decent size at only 15mm thin and weights 73g (with battery), full colour screen. It should be available in Q3 in blue, red, light grey and green.
    Other features include:
    Standby battery of up to six weeks (longest ever on a Nokia phone)
    500 phonebook entries
    250 text messages
    FM radio
    Standard 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Nokia C2: This is a true dual-SIM handset which allows both inserted SIM cards to work simultaneously and as an added bonus, the second SIM can be hot-swapped which means you can change it without switching the phone off – try doing that in any other dual-SIM phone! It is also expected to be on sale in Q4 this year and you will be able to get one in grey, black, magenta, dark blue or white.
    Other features include:
    Support for micro-SD cards up to 32GB
    FM Radio
    Up to 1,000 entries in the phone book
    Standby time of up to 16.5 days
    VGA camera
    Bluetooth
    GPRS
    Compatible Software:
    Ovi Life Tools
    Ovi Mail
    Nokia Messaging

Hopefully we see this feature in future smartphones from Nokia quite soon but either way it is a step in the right direction.

Here is a gallery of pictures for your viewing pleasure, enjoy:

Note: the first 4 are the C1 and the last 3 are the C2