During today’s Nokia World 2011 event, the Finns unveiled not only two interesting Windows Phone Mango devices, but also feature phones that pack the high end functions of smartphones, or at least part of them. I’m talking about the brand new Asha series that includes the models Nokia Asha 300, Nokia Asha 303, Nokia Asha 200 and Nokia Asha 201.
These will be budget handsets meant for developing countries and Mexico and India were given as examples for target markets. Nokia Asha 303 (pictured above) comes with a capacitive touchscreen with a 2.6 inch diagonal, a QWERTY keyboard and preinstalled Angry Birds. Social networking features are also present, as well as a 1GHz processor, 3G, WiFi, email and instant messaging, all from the homescreen.
Nokia Asha 303 uses a brand new Nokia browser, that uses cloud solution in order to compress data by 90%. The handset will be priced at 115 euro without taxes and it will start shipping from Q4 this year. Next up there’s the Nokia Asha 30o, pictured below. This handset comes the QWERTY keyboard with a touchscreen display, but it’s a more narrow handset and its features include a 1GHz processor, 3G Connectivity and fast web browsing, once again thanks to data compression by 90%.
The device grants access to Nokia Store, comes with Angry Birds preinstalled and its features include a 5 megapixel camera, an audio player, FM radio,, Bluetooth and a microSD card slot. Q4 is when this model will be shipping with a price of 85 euro without taxes. Now we descend into the lower end segment, where we find the Asha 200, a dual SIM phone pictured below and the Asha 201, its single core version.
The Asha 200 comes with the Easy Swap feature, that allows the user to switch from one SIM to the other without having to restart the device. The handset comes with a comfortable QWERTY keyboard and its design reminds me greatly of the Nokia C3. There’s also social network support on board, email, IM, Orkut, Flickr and other services like these. A microSD card slot with support for up to 32GB is included and this model is meant for youngsters in developing countries.
It’s priced at 60 euro, just like the Asha 201, that’s shown below and will come in Q1 2012. The Asha 201 comes with a very loud speaker, FM stereo radio, the above mentioned Nokia browser and a battery that provides 52 hours of audio playback. Will any of these models get the interest of a smartphone fan?
