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Nokia has opened its second U.S. flagship store, this time in New York City. The three story, 6,900 square foot 5 East 57th St (between Fifth and Madison Avenues, just south of Central Park) location follows the Finnish phone-maker's inaugural American launch on Chicago's 'Magnificent Mile' shopping district, as well as three additional flagship sites located in Helsinki, Hong Kong, and Moscow.

Coinciding with the opening of the NYC store, Nokia rolled out two highly-anticipated smartphones here in the States this weekend, the E70 ($449) and N93 ($699); both Symbian, S60-based devices, of course. The handsets won't be available through traditional carrier channels or online, but only officially through the two American flagship stores. They’re useable with Cingular and T-Mobile.

E70
The E70 looks like a traditional candy-bar phone, but flip it open and you find a full QWERTY thumb-keyboard, with half on either side of the display. Although Nokia drops the UTMS 3G (WCDMA 2100) band available for the European/Asian markets, they've added the 850 band compatible with U.S. cellular networks.


Nokia E70 Closed

Like other Eseries smartphones, the 4.61 x 2.09 x 0.87-inch, 4.48-ounce E70 supports a number of mobile e-mail options, including RIM BlackBerry, Intellisync, and POP/IMAP servers. Additional features include Wi-Fi, miniSD slot, Nokia's new advanced Web browser, a 2 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, Bluetooth, and 64 MB of memory.


Nokia E70 Open

N93
Unlike the E70, the N93 video camera smartphone sold at the flagship stores won't differ from the ones offered in Europe. Meaning it doesn't make any concessions to broader U.S. coverage, sticking only to the 1900 GSM band palatable over here. With it, you too can record works of art just like Gary Oldman, simply have fun, or even improve your golf game.

The highlight of the large tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE(900/1800/1900 MHz), UMTS 3G (2100 MHz) smartphone is its 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens that enables it to take video with 3x zoom at 30 frames per second with stereo audio recording and digital stabilization.

It also has flash and an active camera toolbar to display all available capture features, from exposure value to color tones and white balance. There are dedicated keys for shutter, zoom and flash and also a camera mode key that enables you to switch quickly between image and video capture as well.

While the N93 integrates 50 MB of memory, its miniSD card slot enables users to add up to 2 GB more storage for up to - Nokia asserts - 90 minutes of DVD-quality video or close to 2500 high-quality photos.

Additional specifications include a 2.4-inch QVGA display that supports up to 262,144 colors and a wide 160 degree viewing angle. There's also 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a digital music player, FM radio with visual radio, Universal Plug and Play, and TV-out.

More on NYC Store
The aim of locating the new stores in premier retail districts is to attract people who truly enjoy shopping, Nokia says. Unlike its traditional stores, the retail locations are decidedly upscale, showcasing not just regular cell phones but high-end smartphones as well as the hand-crafted Vertu line, which start at around $4,500 and have been known to go as high as 90 grand.

During the roll out of the Chicago store, Nokia director of global retail & trade marketing Cliff Crosbie said, "The Nokia flagship store concept was developed to offer consumers unparalleled selection and guidance in this complex environment, and to do it in a way that transforms the process of acquiring a new wireless device from a task into a pleasure."

Devices are mounted to the walls and connected to multimedia displays, which interactively walk consumers through the features of each product, and even allow them to send text messages that can then be seen on local store displays or at another Nokia flagship store anywhere in the world.

There are no price stickers, as small centrally controlled displays below each device shows this information. In addition to the displays, there are kiosks throughout the flagship store that demonstrate the capabilities of different smartphones as well.

The NYC store’s first level houses Nokia's entire product lineup, the second level a multimedia Nseries demonstration lounge (with photo printers, stereo speakers, laptops paired with the smartphones), and the third a Vertu line boutique.

"Our highly trained and dedicated staff navigates visitors through the wide variety of Nokia wireless devices, learn about their wants and needs, and deliver to them a product that has been tailored specifically for them," according to Crosbie. "It is this kind of customized service that makes the Nokia Flagship Store more of a boutique than a conventional electronics store - delivering the kind of retail experience expected from the upscale stores found on New York City’s Fifth Avenue."