Nokia unveiled new Symbian-based smartphones during the NokiaWorld event this morning in London. Alongside the previously announced N8 flagship device, Nokia is going to launch the rumored C6 and C7 handsets and the new E7 business smartphone. Like the N8, these new products will ship with Symbian^3, the latest generation of the open source Symbian operating system.

The new phones were demonstrated during an opening keynote by Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia executive vice president and general manager of mobile solutions. One of the major themes that Nokia executives emphasized during the NokiaWorld event is the company's desire to offer a broad product lineup that serves different kinds of consumers. As Vanjoki introduced Nokia's new lineup of Symbian smartphones, he explained the target audience for each product.

Vanjoki described the Nokia N8 as a breakthrough multimedia device with a top-notch camera. It has a 12MP sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash, and a mechanical shutter. Although he acknowledges that it still can't rival a dedicated digital camera, he contends that the N8 has a better camera than any other smartphone. To demonstrate its efficacy, he showed a series of impressive photos that were taken on the device. To further illustrate its multimedia qualifications, Vanjoki plugged the phone into the theater's projectors with an HDMI cable and played a high-definition trailer of the upcoming Tron film directly from the device.

After running through the strengths of the N8, Vanjoki moved on to the new devices. The C6 and C7 are designed to be compact smartphones for regular consumers, with an emphasis on social networking and connectivity with Web services. One of the most distinctive features of the these handsets is that they are the first to ship with Nokia's new ClearBlack display (CBD) technology. According to Vanjoki, CBD will remove unwanted reflections on the glass, enabling clearer viewing, more vibrant colors, and substantially better outdoor visibility. The CBD display can handle more dynamic images while lowering power consumption. The premium C7 model has some great-looking industrial design and a very slim form factor. Nokia intends to launch these two devices during the fourth quarter of the year.

The final device that was introduced during the keynote was the E7, a smartphone with a four-inch touchscreen and a slide-out qwerty keyboard. Vanjoki describes it as a spiritual successor of the original Nokia communicator and the best business smartphone that the company has ever produced. The E7 looks a lot like a keyboard-enhanced version of the N8, but there are some key software differences that also differentiate it from its media-centric cousin. For example, the E7 will ship with full support for reading, creating, and editing Microsoft Office documents. Vanjoki says that it's even possible to create PowerPoint presentations on the phone itself. It's unclear if the E7 will be launching this year, like the C6 and C7.

Nokia's new hardware lineup is relatively diverse, with contenders for the multimedia and mobile productivity markets. The hardware is clearly competitive with mainstream smartphone offerings from other vendors, but the big question is whether the improved Symbian^3 can offer a sufficiently compelling user experience to match its rivals. Stay tuned for our follow-up article about Symbian^3 and Nokia's mobile software strategy.