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LAS VEGAS--In the saturated cell phone market, vendors are going to creative lengths to give you reasons to buy a new handset--and here at Comdex, Nokia is showing off its varied entries. The company's new phones target a wide range of users, from backpackers to businesspeople who want the smallest phone available.

Many phone manufacturers have tried to persuade customers to upgrade by offering all-in-one devices with more accouterments than most people could ever use...or want. Nokia is trying to change that attitude by aiming its newest phones at specific groups of users and exploring new capabilities, especially text messaging.

Messaging Made Easier

The Nokia 6800 drew plenty of buzz on the Comdex floor. This model looks like an ordinary--and very sleek--cell phone until you flip it open to reveal a full QWERTY typing keypad.

In its normal, closed configuration, the phone works, looks, and feels like a smallish, standard cell phone. But opened up, the phone flattens out with the left and right sides of a QWERTY keyboard flanking the color display. Though you could type on it as if it were a PC keyboard, you're more likely to use it for thumb typing, much like a Blackberry Rim device. It takes a little bit of practice, but I found the keys to be extremely responsive and solid while quickly tapping out a message.

The Nokia 6800 uses both the popular Short Messaging Service (SMS) and the new Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), which lets you receive text and images. It also retrieves e-mail from POP3 and IMAP4 servers. The product is scheduled to ship in the second quarter of 2003 and is expected to retail for between $300 and $400.

The Go-Anywhere Phone

If you bang your phone around a lot, are into the outdoor life, or just want to give people the idea that you do more on weekends than dye your hair, the Nokia 5100 might be of some interest.

This phone has a rubberized shell that comes in eight colors. It includes a digital thermometer, a sound level meter, a calorie counter, and a built-in flashlight, just in case you get lost in the woods at night.

The Nokia 5100 is expected to sell for between $150 and $250 when it ships in spring 2003.

Shrinking Cell Phones

Meanwhile, for people whose tastes run more toward sophisticated elegance, Nokia is releasing the 6100. This unit weighs just 2.7 ounces and is slightly longer than a business card. The phone has a color display and is expected to retail for between $200 and $300. This phone is plainly targeted at corporate and style-conscious users and will also be available in the spring.

Nokia's 7250--a touch larger than the 6100--has an integrated camera with a 128-by-128-pixel color screen for displaying images. Users can take advantage of the phone's combination of digital photography capabilities and MMS technology to send images captured on the screen to other people with MMS-enabled phones or to ship an image through an e-mail message. Also slated for release in the spring, the 7250 will be priced at under $400, according to Nokia.