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Home / News / Phones
Nokia 3220 debuts light messagingBy Larry Garfield, Tuesday 1 June 2004
Nokia's latest phone offers yet another new method of communicating across a room; flashing lights blinking in sequence.

Nokia's newest mobile phone introduces yet another communications mechanism; flashing lights that form the pattern of words.

The Nokia 3220 includes new Xpress-on grips on the side. In addition to providing a better hold on the phone, the Xpress-ons have a series of colored LEDs that flash to indicate calls and messages in sync with the beat of ring-tones. "Light themes" are also configurable along with wallpaper, ringtones, and other usual personalization points.

But that's not all. The 3220 also allows the user to send short messages by waving the phone itself back and forth rapidly. The lights in the Xpress-on grips automatically turn on and off rapidly to create an optical illusion of text, much as some stationary novelty clock do. How Nokia has managed to account for variance in the speed and direction of the user's hand is unclear.

The 3220 is otherwise a fairly typical candybar-style mobile phone, including the usual assortment of voice features and a sampling of games. The phone also includes a micro-gyroscope that allows the user to use the tilt of the phone to control selected motion games. Two such games are included with the phone, SwampRacer and AirExpress. It also includes a VGA camera with picture and video support for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Both GSM 900/1800/1900 (Europe and Asia) and GSM 850/1800/1900 (North America) versions of the phone are expected to ship this summer.

An additional high-resolution image of the Nokia 3220 is available on the following page.
 
 
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