Nokia has announced the latest version of the Symbian operating system - Symbian Belle - along with three smartphones that’ll be launched with the new OS. The Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600 will all include NFC technology that - thanks to Belle - will allow fast connections to compatible accessories. For example, the new Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone by tapping the two devices together.

The Nokia 700 promises to be the most-compact touchscreen ‘candybar’ smartphone in the world, with a sub-100g weight and dimensions of 110mm x 51mm x 10mm. The Nokia 701 will have ‘the world’s brightest mobile display for indoor or outdoor use’ - a 3.5-inch ‘ClearBlack’ screen - and the Nokia 600 promises a volume output of 106 Phons, making it Nokia’s loudest smartphone.

Ilari Nurmi, Vice President at Nokia, said “After bringing exciting new features to the Symbian user experience only two months ago with Symbian Anna, we are now driving the platform even further with our most competitive Symbian user experience ever. Symbian Belle and the three new handsets we are launching today show our commitment to continue delivering Symbian products that allow people to choose what is most important to them in terms of user experience, design, functionality and price.  These will not be last products or updates we will deliver on Symbian.”

Nokia’s Symbian Belle OS update will increase the number of home screens, enable ‘live widgets’ in five different sizes and will offer a pull-down menu and taskbar. It’ll also introduce the single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capability. As well as speeding up Bluetooth pairing this allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones. Some games are also expected to introduce NFC features.

Symbian Belle will also be made available on the Nokia N8, Nokia E6, Nokia E7, Nokia X7, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia Oro. Expect the new phones - and the new version of Symbian - in the autumn.