Nokia unveiled at MWC 2012 a new version for Nokia Drive navigation system, which comes with a number of improvements and increases distance battle with Google Navigation. But which one is the best?

A year ago, if you needed a navigation system occasionally for a trip abroad you didn’t have too many solutions available. Things have changed last summer when Google launched Google Navigation system integrated into Google Maps available for Smartphones with Android operating system.

Nokia came with their navigation system, Nokia Drive, based on Nokia Maps, and it is currently available for smartphones using Windows OS. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Finnish manufacturer Nokia introduced a new version of Drive, which includes some nice features not available in Google Navigation.

Although not direct competitors (Nokia Drive is running on Windows Phone and  Google Navigation on Android), is interesting to see which of the two navigation systems is better.

Thus, Nokia Drive gives you more information in the dashboard, including speed limits (where available) and time of arrival to your destination. So far, the only options were to display the time you will arrive at the destination (without the current time to be mentioned somewhere) and the distance that you have to go.

If you travel on long distance occasionally, Nokia and Google Navigation Drive are two interesting solutions, especially because both can be used offline if you download maps in advance.

Asha Nokia 202 is a dual SIM phone, not very expensive, equipped with numeric keypad and a 2.4 inch screen with touch function.

Asha 202 positions two SIM card slots in an easily accessible place and allows replacement without restarting the phone. The device can store up to five user profiles for different SIM cards, each with its associated address book and custom settings.

The 240×320 pixel resolution screen has resistive touch interface and can play back images using a palette of 256K colors. On the back is a 2 MP camera with external speaker.

Asha Nokia 202 is based on Symbian Series 40 and comes supplied with a selection of free games produced by Electronic Arts, which lists titles like Tetris, Need for Speed​​, The Run and Bejeweled.

Music lovers can use this phone with a headset attached using the 3.5 mm jack connector. Required storage space hosting music collection is provided by attaching a microSD card (up to 32GB supported) and data transfer is enabled by Bluetooth 2.1 and microUSB connectivity. Additionally, we provide a stereo FM radio mode, for when we hosted MP3 collection bored memory.

• Access networks: GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Operating system: Symbian Series 40
• Display: touchscreen, resistive, 2.4 inch, 320 x 240 pixels, 256K colors
• Camera: 2 MP with video recording resolution 176 x 144 pixels and 15 fps
• Internal Storage: 10 MB
• Memory card slot: microSD (up to 32 GB)
• Connectivity options: Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Other features: FM radio stereo micro USB 2.0, headphone jack 3.5-mm type, numeric keypad, two SIM card slots
• Support audio: AAC, AAC +, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, HE-AAC v2, MIDI Tones (poly 64), Mobile XMF, MP3, MP4, NRT, True tones, WAV, WMA
• Support playback: H.263, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, WMV
• Image formats: BMP, GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, PNG, WBMP
• Battery: BL-5C 1020 mAh
• Talk time: up to 5 hours
• Autonomy in Standby: up to 400 hours
• Ambient audio: up to 25 hours
• Dimensions: 114.8 x 49.8 x 13.9 mm
• Weight: 90 g

Asha Nokia 202 will arrive in stores right this spring, employed at a price not exceeding 60 EUR.

Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it will demonstrate at the Mobile World Congress a technology called HSPA + Multiflow, designed to improve the stability of connections the mobile internet, allowing phones reached the edge of the range of a cell phone network to connect simultaneously to a second communication point nearby.

New technology comes with some bold promises, such as doubling transfer speeds and reduce latency by 50% compared to current HSPA + networks.

According to the company, technology, HSPA + Multiflow not take additional frequency space and can be implemented by mobile phone companies with a simple software update. Unfortunately the same can be said about mobile phones and 3G modems owned by users, those needing a new chipset to support Multiflow benefit.

After the demonstration in partnership with Qualcomm, Nokia hopes to get the standardization of HSPA + Multiflow technology by mid this year and the first commercial products reach the market by the end of 2013.

Symbian operating system, called now Symbian Belle, will receive an update under the name of Nokia Carla. Most Belle phones of the second generation will benefit from updating of the operating system before abandonment.

Symbian Belle comes just a few months after Symbian Anna, offering several advantages, which include increased speed to navigation, NFC, simple customizable home screens and last but not least, real-time widget five drivers – favorite contacts , email, music, clock or calendar.

Nokia Carla will arrive in the second half of the year, and the Finnish company wants that the operating system to be compatible with the best Nokia phones that are currently running Belle OS. Nokia 603, Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 could be sold directly to the Nokia Carla operating system while the update is expected late autumn and aimed Nokia N8, C7, E7, X7, E6 and C6-01.

The operation can be performed via the Nokia Suite (version 3.3 or successive), connecting the device to a desktop computer with USB cable and software following the instructions indicated. The successor of Nokia N8 will be presented at MWC, but it seems that it won’t be the last phone from Nokia running Symbian. Even if bets heavily on Windows Phone, Nokia will launch at least two Nokia Smartphones running Carla.

Regarding the device for professional use, Belle allow a better organization of their activities when the user is moving, thanks to a wide variety of powerful applications from Microsoft, such as Lync and OneNote.

It is the first Nokia phone has the latest version of its mobile operating system – Symbian Belle.  Nokia C7 is identical, except that brings a more powerful hardware. Meanwhile Nokia C7 received Symbian Belle and would be interesting to compare them. Nokia 701 is a smart metal, well finished, excellent hand falling.

At the official launch was promoted with big words – the brightest display in the world.