Nokia have announced the new Nokia 6290, what the company is calling a smartphone. A good looking clamshell, the 6290 is a 3G phone featuring 2 megapixel camera, 2.2" 16 million colour screen, MP3 player and two way video calling. It's smartphone attributes come from the fact that it uses the Symbian S60 OS. However, compared to other genuine smartphones, such as the Sony Ericsson P990, it's not all that smart.

More details of the Nokia 6290 smartphone after the jump.

Nokia 6290

I think Nokia must have changed their definition of smartphone since coining the term 'multimedia computer', which they use when describing their N-Series phones. A Nokia smartphone now simply comprises alarms, world travel applications, and rich email supporting Word, Excel and PDF. Not bad, but not that smart.

That said, the Nokia 6290 does come at a good price - just 325 Euros without contract (or tax!). So, not a smartphone, but a mid-range, good looking, full featured mobile phone (but 'smartphone' is so much easier to say!)

The Nokia 6290 release date is expected to be Quarter 1 2007, so best not ask Santa for it just yet!

Full details from Nokia's press release