A developer presentation held in Mexico was not interesting for us until a picture leaked showing some speculations on Carla and Donna.

As you know Nokia calls the Symbian updates with female names. Recently it dropped the Symbian moniker and the second update was named Nokia Belle. So let’s call them Nokia Carla and Nokia Donna.

As I said they were spotted in a picture. The source translated the text in the slide and it looks as follows:

Carla will have major improvements, NFC, Dolby surround, New improved Widgets, Improved Browser (Version 8). Also Carla is supposed to come in late 2012 or early 2013.

I am sure there will be many other enhancements and changes, because Nokia improves its native operating system from update to update. The same happened with Symbian Anna, which changed people’s attitude towards Symbian platform. Afterwards, Nokia Belle appeared and brought more improvements. Now the manufacturer can be proud of its product and though it has announced Symbian OS will be supported till 2016, I am almost sure its thread of life won’t be cut on that mentioned date.

Nokia Belle has become officially available for a list of smartphones for a week, but there was one handset similar a “white crow” — the Nokia 500. Now Nokia corrects its mistakes and this smartphone can download the Nokia Belle update like others.

So if you want to update your handset, connect it to Nokia Suite via USB and check the availability of Nokia Belle. If it is absent, do not get upset because Nokia has also announced the update is being pushed out in phases, gradually for different carriers and countries.

As for the Nokia 500, it’s one of the most affordable handsets, that’s why it is very popular in the countries where the company managed to launch. Initially the Nokia 500 was powered with Symbian Anna, which was the OS to change user attitude towards Nokia’s native operating system. However, Belle is welcomed by all Nokia users and it gives another look to the handsets — the Nokia 500 is not an exception.

You can also watch the video below and see the main differences between Anna and Belle.

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The Nokia 801 is announced to be Nokia’s last handset running Symbian. After the launch of this smartphone Nokia plans to stop the production of Symbian handsets as they do not pay off the efforts put in. Still this doesn’t mean the last handset will come with loser features, in contrast it will come with a list of outstanding features. But before you get acquainted with them, take a quick look at the leaked image of the Nokia 801.

The novelty will sport the latest version of Symbian OS, that is Nokia Belle. Externally it will not resemble other Symbian handsets, instead it will have a Nokia N9/Nokia Lumia 800 similar appearance with a curved display and unibody construction.

The handset also includes a 12 megapixel camera (similar to that of the Nokia N8 but with better lenses), a 4-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display with a resolution of 360×640, a 1.4GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. The camera of the handset will use dual LED flash, which is obviously a downgrade if compared with Xenon Flash coming with the Nokia N8. Still the possibility of recording 1080p videos will be present with the handset.

Most likely we will hear more and might even get a chance to see the Nokia 801 during MWC 2012 on February 27 in Barcelona.

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The Nokia N9 is a unique device not only due to the buttonless design but also the original MeeGo OS, which is not used for any other smartphone. But the enthusiasts are able to turn even such a device into a high-end Android device porting an early build of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on it.

Alexey Roslyakov of NITDroid team got the chance to port Android to the handset calling his project a “Progress”. There are lots of bugs coming with the OS but still the device functions with a limited number of features just great.

The same team is currently working upon porting Android 4.0 ICS to the old Maemo-based Nokia N900. I bet this project will be no less interesting, considering the latest trial was pretty impressive.

The best thing about the Nokia N9 and the Android 4.0 is that the device doesn’t have any physical buttons, while this OS doesn’t require any. Another good point is the presence of a large 3.9 inch display which allows to have a comfy navigation among the apps and while web browsing.

And finally the enthusiasts mentions that soon he will be able to provide the functionality of both MeeGo and Android on the Nokia N9. The users will just require to reboot their handsets to change the OS.

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The Nokia Belle update is already on its way to a list of smartphones, while the others still don’t have it and might not even get their chance to feel Belle touch. One of such unlucky devices is the Nokia Astound.

Despite the fact that this smartphone is almost identical with the Nokia C7, which will receive the update, the smartphone offered by T-Mobile will not receive the update. This means the Astound users will have to stick with the current Symbian Anna OS.

We are not sure about the reasons of cancelling the update. Most likely both T-Mobile and Nokia. The update is pretty large reaching the amount of 250 Mb, which is rather hard in terms of distribution. The same situation actually was with the Symbian OS, while the rest of the smartphones received it in August of 2011, then the Astound units received it only in November of the same year.

Still if you rememeber there were rumors that the Astound will not receive the Anna update, thus there’s still chance that T-Mobile will figure out a way to get Nokia Belle to its Astound customers.

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We have already heard of the Nokia 803, which might be Nokia’s last Symbian based handset. Previous leaks used to give us a picture of a mid-range handset with a not that large display of only 3.5 inches. Instead, according to a reliable source report to BGR the device will be equipped with a large 4.0 inch AMOLED display. The rest of the specs of the smartphone as HDMI-out, support for microSIM and NFC connectivity are also confirmed.

At the moment we are expecting to get the device in May, when the manufacturer will offer a smartphone with a rather powerful camera. We are not sure whether it will be a 12 or more megapixel camera, but still it is expected to use high-end sensors and lenses.

The Nokia 803 is considered to be the last Symbian handset, as the sales of the Symbian devices caused financial problems for the manufacturer. Nokia might shift towards the production of the Windows Phone handsets for some time, as here the records of the sales are awesome. Just remember the sold out status of the Nokia Lumia 800 in Ireland a week after the sales, even though the handset was introduced there only this month — around 4 months after its original launch in the UK.

Symbian users expected to have Belle update still last year. But Nokia said the update would be pushed out in 2012. Once Christmas passed and everything returned to its ordinary course, Symbian users resumed talks on when the company would upgrade their handsets. The response wasn’t late and the manufacturer said it drops Symbian moniker, so Nokia Belle will be launched in February. Now that the promised date has come, people look forward to getting it. Not in vain, as Nokia always keeps its promises (I won’t get tired of repeating this) — Nokia Belle is available for download.

The list of smartphones that can install this update is not changed, thus all high-end and mid-range smartphones can download Nokia Belle update. The only exception is the Nokia 500, which will be included in the list only in a few weeks. To start the update connect your smartphone to PC via USB cable. Step-by-step download the tutorial, and if it is hard, watch the video, which will tell you everything you need. Needless to say you must have the latest version of Nokia Suite (3.3 or higher) installed. The update doesn’t come OTA; it’s a major update and to avoid possible troubles it’s more secure to upgrade your phone this way.

Nokia Belle offers more simplified menus and 6 homescreens, where you can store all necessary live widgets to view what’s really important to you. A notification bar is added as well. Other improvements include ability to record HD videos at 30fps and a visually improved browser enabling high-quality browsing and Web video viewing.

Belle will make your handset work more effectively on-the-go with a wider selection of powerful Microsoft Apps. You can meet other improvements in our post on Anna and Belle main differences.

Though the latest rumors say Nokia will stop working on Symbian OS and further updates, I think that’s a total taradiddle, because Nokia has promised to support Symbian until 2016, and besides Carla and Donna we’ll have other similarly named updates as well.

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I am a loyal Nokia fan, but I do not believe in every photo I see and every rumor I hear. At the moment I want to introduce to you the next Belle-powered device, which according to some sources is real. Of course, you have heard about the Nokia 801.

The picture coming from SmartphoneGeeks shows a handset we are already familiar with, it just runs another OS, Belle. You don’t need a microscope to confirm the handset in the image has the same design as the Nokia N9 and the Lumia 800. The homescreen is typical of Belle’s. Well, everything seems realistic, but the Nokia 801 we saw earlier had an absolutely different appearance. I am not talking about the China leak, which was most likely a fake one. I personally do not think the device in the picture below is the Nokia 801 running Nokia Belle.

On the other hand, Nokia has already tried to launch two handsets with the same look and different platforms, the Nokia N9 running MeeGo and the Lumia 800 with Windows Phone. So why not do the same for the third time bringing Belle OS to successful smartphones? I know my words seem odd, but imagine for a second that this is true.

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Don’t you agree it would be cool, for Nokia would be the only manufacturer, which launched the same device with three different operating systems?

The main expectation from Symbian-based devices was to have 150 million sales. Nevertheless, the expectations were not fulfilled as the manufacturer’s Symbian smartphones didn’t get appropriate attention from the customers. This was one of the biggest fails of the company, that’s why the manufacturer shifted its production towards the Windows Phone handsets.

According to the British The Register Nokia will no longer continue the production of Symbian handsets except for one model.

Which will be that model? Well, it will be the successor of the Nokia N8. Similar to the Nokia N9, which is based on MeeGo OS, this  model will get lots of updates and enhancements after its launch and after the suspension of the platform’s production. Still the rest of the devices will get Nokia Belle update this year, which will be the final update for all of those models.

The main difference between the Nokia N8 successor and the rest of Nokia devices is the powerful camera. Perhaps it’ll come with a 12 megapixel camera, though the 13 megapixel one is not excluded either. I believe we’ll have more detailed info at MWC 2012 in Barcelona.

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Finally Skype app is available for Nokia Belle handsets. It comes with special interface changes. The process was pretty long and took whole 2-3 months.

It’s good to know most of the Symbian^3 devices will get an update allowing to have Skype access. As we do remember the earlier version of Belle launched on the Nokia N8 didn’t allow to use Skype, so the final version will finally solve the situation.

At the moment we have the following Skype functions working on Belle devices: chatting via Skype, free Skype-to-Skype calls and Skype-Out calls designed for regular phones. Still one of the most charming features of Skype, the video call is practically not available. Consequently, even if Belle is available on a handset coming originally with a front-facing camera, still you will not get a chance to use it for a video call.

A basic solution to it is the use of third-party apps like Fring to make video calls. Fring offers cheaper rates for the calls, but it there is one problem — it’s always hard to find friends on Fring as Skype is much more common among users.

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