Nokia has finished its annual Nokia World event and along with the Finnish handset manufacturer announcing its new Windows Phone 7.5 range in the form of the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, they have also stayed true to their roots and announced a new Symbian-powered range of budget smartphones
The newly named Nokia Asha range is made up of the Asha 200, Asha 201, Asha 300, and Asha 303, all of which are Symbian Series 40 handsets and have a range of specifications to cater for all budgets.
The word Asha itself is derived from the Hindi word signifying hope and Nokia have said that the aim of the handsets is to bring phones to the emerging markets around the world and stated: “We can bring the internet to people for the first time,” said the company. The aim is to target “the next billion”.
So the handsets themselves.
Starting from the top there is the Nokia Asha 303 which has a QWERTY keyboard and a 2.6-inch capacitive touchscreen. The handset runs off a 1Ghz processor and will come bundled with Nokia Maps and 3G / Wi-Fi connectivity all for just €115.
Next up is the Asha 303’s little brother, the Asha 300, which sports a 1Ghz processor and 3G connectivity. It is a touchscreen device but sports a keypad not unlike the Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type handset. It also features a five megapixel camera, a music player, Bluetooth, preloaded Angry Birds game and support for up to 32GB memory cards.
The Asha 200 and 201 are virtually the same handset except the 200 includes an Easy Swap option that lets you throw in multiple SIM cards and switch between SIMs without turning the phone off. Both can offer up to 32GB of storage for media playback. Nokia announced they would be bringing the hugely popular cross-platform messaging app WhatsApp to the Nokia Asha 200, giving users the chance to chat to friends with BlackBerry, iPhone and Android phones for free using the web. The Nokia 201 claims to have the loudest speaker of any mobile phone, ever. Perfect for blasting out the tunes on the bus to annoy everyone on board.
Both the handsets feature a QWERTY keyboard, 52 hour battery life and will sell for around €60. The 201 is a single SIM variant of the 200, and both are available in Lime green and Purple colours.
All four of the Asha handsets are made of polycarbonate and come with the inbuilt Nokia Browser, which is powered by the cloud and compresses data by up to 90%, saving users from racking up excessive data charges.
The Asha 200, 300 and 301 will all be available by the end of the year and the 201 will be ready for your purchase by March 2012.
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