Symbian^3 on Cortex A9, Symbian^4 Screenshots, Symbian^5 & ^6 go MultiCore

Boy that’s a lot of Symbian^‘s in one title.

Jay over at MyNokiaBlog sure found a couple jewels lately.

First up, apparently some Symbian^4 screenshots were released yesterday. There seems to be a whole lot of changes (all good!).

• New Smoother Font (Veranda apparently but that depends on the device creator)
• Multiple homescreens (Different wallpaper possible on each Homescreen)

• New App switcher icon on the top right (similar to the one on Maemo 5, means no more press-and-hold-menu-button)

• Both locked-to-position type, and movable type Widgets

• Drop down Menu bar at the top (which will contain more options)

The resolution still seems to be 640×380 though. I’m hoping they bump it up to atleast 800 × 480 pixels (like Maemo 5) ? Also this seems to be primarily touch, so no word on how the Non-Touch Symbian^4 UI might look like (or if it would be any different).

Also here’s hoping for some decent animation too, in Symbian^4 eh ? Lot’s more over at MyNokiaBlog.

Out of all these, the Toolbar, Menu bar and back button (among some other features) arnt going to be in Symbian^3 though.

Then to add to that, the Symbian Roadmap was released today, which lists their future goals and intentions too. As Jay has noted :

• Apparently there’s a Symbian^5 and Symbian^6 already on the charts.
• Symbian^4 might have multicore support sometime in 2010
• Symbian^3 has kernel support for multicore processors which will achieve better performance with better battery life!
• Symbian is designed for low power consumption from the ground up and now leading the wave in low power efficiency.
• Symbian^3 is running on dual Cortex A9 (which is awesome, and similar to what the N900 is running on right now).
• A9 will allow recording of up to 1080p.
• High end 3D graphics accelerator to bring PC-like web browsing
• Symbian^3 devices will be available from (July-ish onwards) 2010
• Dual Core devices will be shipping in 2011
• Symbian^4 devices will be available from 2011 [H1]
• Symbian^5 devices will be available from 2011 [H2]
• Symbian^6 devices will be available from 2012 [H1]

Also, some interesting points from the roadmap:

• There are 33 Symbian^1 devices so far, from Samsung, Fujitsu, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Sharp.
• Over 100,000 man years of development
• Over 300,000,000 Symbian devices shipped

In Symbian^3 :

• Easier to use: Single tap across the UI,
  support for gestures such as pinch and flick
• Faster: ScreenPlay uses hardware
  acceleration to deliver a blazingly fast UI
• Watch HD movies and play games on TV via
  HDMI
• Improved Homescreen: Multiple pages,
  new widget manager, more powerful widgets
• New app: Podcasts
• Radio app: “Buy now” from music stores
• One click connectivity makes connecting
  to the internet a breeze
• Multicore support

While, in Symbian^4 :

• A fresh new look for all applications, based on Qt.
• Direct access to key functionality and beautiful effects and transitions in a streamlined user interface.

There is a whole bunch of exciting stuff, such as Messages being sorted as Conversations in S^4 (which we would have thought would already be in S^3 ?) and such, so do check out the Symbian Roadmap.

Or view it below :

10.02 Symbian Platform Roadmap v1.0

I gotta say, as someone who’s stuck to Symbian since it first started out with the Nokia 7650 (it’s first mass market phone), I cant help but feel overjoyed to see where they’re going to take it.

Ofcourse I’m totally impatient too ! Symbian ^4 (as good as S^3 might be) cant get here fast enough for me.

I also want to take a second out to say “Well Done !” to the crew over at Symbian ! Make us proud, guys !

[Images via : MyNokiaBlog]

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Clinton Jeff

Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories. Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff

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Aman Dutt

First of all, I would like to share that I'm using symbian ever since its inception and as CJ pointed out, I'm no less but over-joyed to see this heading at a glance. Thereafter I read the story patiently and found some real dedication being put forth by Nokia to take Symbian to new heights. As a Nokia fanatic, I couldn't have asked for anything more bcoz this info is apparently enough to increase my heart beat.But as soon as I come back from fantasy world, my fear gets better of me. The reason simply is - I have been a witness to stupendous Nokia plans & equally flaw implementation especially in regard to services. However my concern is little different today. When I read symbian ^3 devices to release this year, than ^4 in first half of 2011, than ^5 in later half and if all this not sufficient ^6 in 2012, I feel bit surpised bcoz I can't understand if these are firmware updates on any given handset or versions of some platform releasing in this haste. If symbian ^6 has to come then why won't customers using symbian ^3, ^4 & ^5 will feel themselves as test guinea pigs ???I don't want to be critical but practically I feel these plans can't be of some stable player in market. Nokia still amaze's me after nine year long relationship. At that time it was their products & now its their weird plans & strategies.I think I need a break now. :(

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