Nokia have announced the new Nokiab 6151 3G phone. Aimed at the lower end of the market, the 6151 is Nokia's cheapest 3G phone yet.

Being a low-end phone, the 6151 obviously skimps on features: 1.3 megapixel camera, 30MB of memory, MP3 player and FM radio, and streaming audio and video is about all you get. Which rather leads to an interesting question: with weedy multimedia features and a small screen presumably making the 3G experience poor at best, is there any point in an entry-level 3G phone?

Granted people rarely use the flashy features 3G is capable of anyway, but at least with an all-singing all-dancing handset you could use 3G to its maximum abilities if you wanted to. But with the 6151 you can't - you just have a 3G phone masquerading as a bog-basic GSM phone!

More details of the Nokia 6151 after the jump.

Nokia 6151 3G mobile phone

From the press release:

The classically designed Nokia 6151 phone offers 3G performance in a sleek and compact package, while the Nokia 6080 phone presents an elegantly designed and attractively priced camera phone with an easy-to-use feature set. The Nokia 6151 release date is expected to be in the third quarter of 2006 and is expected to retail for approximately EUR240 before applicable taxes or subsidies.

The Nokia 6151 introduces the benefits of 3G to consumers - such as streaming multimedia audio and video content, or downloading of their favourite music or video - at traditional GSM prices. The classically designed, compact handset offers a comprehensive range of features, combining Nokia's easy to use Series 40 user interface with modern day essentials like a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth connectivity and music player with micro SD memory card support. With the Nokia 6151, access to 3G services and applications is made easy and intuitive.

Features of the Nokia 6151 include

• 1.3 megapixel camera with dedicated camera key, 4x zoom, landscape mode and video recorder
• 30MB user memory, which can be expanded with optional microSD memory card
• Music player, stereo FM radio and Visual Radio
• Bluetooth wireless technology
• Push to talk

Weighing 98 grams, the Nokia 6151 has a talk time of up to 4.5 hours on GSM networks (up to 3.5 hours of talk time via WCDMA) and a standby time of up to 10 days. The new 3G handset will be available in a fresh colour selection including black, pearl white, orange, light blue and lime green colour variants. The Nokia 6151 operates in WCDMA 2100 and GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900 networks, and will be available in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.