Nokia X7 appears with AT&T branding

Nokia’s X7 with a 4-inch screen and 8 megapixel camera is to be released on AT&T in the United States, according to tech website Pocketnow.com, which says the device has the wireless operator’s brand name upon it.

The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer usually sells its devices unlocked, at an unsubsidized rate, so AT&T’s Nokia X7 is a first. The device will probably be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2011 next month in Barcelona, where Nokia plans to launch at least three new devices. Nokia X7 is expected to be available at AT&T in the United States starting April, but we don’t know how much it will cost. Related: Upcoming Nokia phones in 2011

Techtree.com earlier reported on a rumor about how Nokia’s X7 was tested for gaming and speaker output. It supposedly runs Symbian 3 operating system and has a 4-inch 360 x 640 pixel touchscreen, its size being about the same as that of Nokia N8. The display will use Gorilla Glass, and according to techtree.com, it will probably have ClearBlack technology. Also see: Other Nokia Symbian 3 phones

Photo: Nokia X7

Nokia X7 is also said to have an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash at the back and a 2-mega pixelcamera on the front for video calls. The new Nokia phone has a camera key at the bottom right. It has a standard 3.5 mm audio jack and a microUSB port. Nokia’s X7 is reported to have a 720MHz processor and 512MB graphics card. The best smartphones now use chips clocked at 1GHz or more. BlackBerry’s upcoming Storm 3, for instance, uses a 1.2GHz chipset.

Nokia X7 will have either 256 or 450 MB of RAM, and will support 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, A-GPS, micro USB drives and microSD cards of up to 32GB. There is no word on whether the X7 will use AT&T’s LTE network.

Amidst the buzz about Apple’s iPhone 4 on Verizon, RIM’s BlackBerry Dakota and Storm 3 smartphones, and Samsung’s Infuse 4G (also on AT&T) and Galaxy S Mini and similar promising smartphones, Nokia has been playing a low profile. Although Nokia is still the market leader in smartphones as well as other mobile phones, it is facing competition from two ends – from strong, high-quality producers such as Apple, Motorola and RIM on one hand, and new manufacturers who are capturing new markets faster on the other.