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A little over a year ago, Nokia introduced its first new Communicators in some time, the 9300 and 9500. While the series—among the first smartphones ever launched—are known for their many cool features, diminutive size is not one of them.

With the 9300, however, the Finnish phone giant took a step in the right direction. The 9300 (see The Smallest Communicator Yet) measured 5.2 x 2.0 x 0.83 inches and weighed 5.9 ounces, a little large for a typical smartphone but extremely light for a Nokia Communicator. By contrast, the 9500 (see A Bigger Better Communicator) weighed in at a hefty 7.83 ounces and sported dimensions of 5.8 x 2.24 x 0.9 inches.

Although the 9300 supported high-speed EDGE cellular networking, its 'compact' size meant some sacrifices. Most notably no Wi-Fi and a fairly cramped keyboard.

Today, Nokia rolled out a follow-up to the 9300, the 9300i, that addresses some of the shortcomings of the previous model.

Here's the story:

First off, the tri-band GSM 9300i sports the same dimensions as the 9300. Yet, it better matches the considerably larger 9500 feature for feature. There's 802.11g Wi-Fi (54 Mbps), E-GPRS (EDGE), and five party conference calling via an integrated speakerphone.

"Nokia continues to offer more choices for individuals looking for fully featured smartphones built specifically for business use," says Niklas Savander, senior vice president of Nokia's business device unit for the Enterprise Solutions business group.

The unit sports 80MB of RAM with the capability of expanstion to 2GB with an optional MMC card. Its 65,536-color screen supports a resolution of 640 x 200 pixels and its QWERTY thumb-keyboard is available in several localized languages.

Since the unit is aimed at the enterprise and business user, the 9300i supports multiple e-mail clients (with attachments), including BlackBerry Connect, IBM WebSphere, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Seven Always-On Mail and Visto Mobile. No doubt Nokia will add compatibility with e-mail and data synchronization solutions from recently purchased Intellisync (see link below).

Savander adds, "Our business customers want continuity as well as a constant stream of improvements in our products. The Nokia 9300i delivers just that as it combines WLAN and other features with a suite of powerful applications and email solutions."

The Nokia 9300i smartphone also integrates infrared and Bluetooth capabilities, giving users two different ways to wirelessly synchronize their devices to a desktop PC or laptop, as well as exchange data with other mobile devices. Different tri-band versions of the Nokia 9300i will be optimized for mobile networks in Europe and Asia. They'll be capable of operating in compatible GSM networks in the Americas.

The 9300i should ship in the first quarter of 2006 for 700 Euros ($820) in Europe. We'll report on American availability when that information comes to light. It has already been approved for sale in this country by the FCC. The earlier model, the 9300, currently sells for about $300 in the U.S with a service agreement.