Touch & type, why not?

MANILA, Philippines - A full touch-screen phone is a fun thing to hold but, typing on it, for the uninitiated, can be challenging.

While many take to touch-screen phones like fish to water, others don’t like typing on a virtual keypad.

For expert texters who can skillfully speed-type on their phones using one hand and without looking, a virtual keypad can be one mean curve ball.

This is why Nokia’s line of “touch-and-type” phones are selling well as they bridge the best of both worlds by combining touch screen and full keypad in one phone.

A touch screen, which is really the modern way to go, makes navigating through the different items and apps on the phone much faster and beats thumbing a central navigation key. But many people still prefer the old fashioned way using a keypad, even though they might also find tapping on touch-screen phones fascinating.

The solution is a touch-and-type phone which Nokia has been steadily releasing since last year. The ones in local shops now are the Nokia X3-02 and the C3-01, both inexpensive touch-and-type candybar handsets that pack lots of features in a small package, including a five-megapixel camera and wireless LAN for mobile Internet.

Coming up this quarter is the C2-03 model that the company announced last June. This particular touch-and-type mobile phone comes with Nokia’s unique dual-SIM capabilities, which allow the user to personalize up to five SIM cards with a dedicated look and feel. It also offers an Easy Swap option to let users change SIM cards in seconds without having to turn off the phone or remove the battery.

The C2-03 phone ships with new Nokia Maps for Series 40, where local maps and places of interest are pre-installed on the phone. This means users can view maps and plan routes when the phone is on offline mode, thus saving on the costs of downloading maps over the mobile network.

In addition, the C2-03 also promises improved Internet browsing experience through the data compression technology of the Nokia Browser, which keeps the costs of surfing low and speeds up page downloads - benefiting both consumers and operators, according to Nokia.

The Nokia browser loads with a localized start page, giving the user instant access to the most relevant content, and is tabbed to give easy access to favorite or previously viewed information.

The Nokia C2-03 also has a stereo FM radio, media player and memory support that can be expanded to 32 GB enough to hold thousands of photos, videos and music files.

The C2-03 is a slider phone. Slide it and the thing that refuses to be relegated to the past will be revealed. Touching is encouraged, but type away like you used to.