Nokia has always been a leader and still tops the leaderboard when it comes to the feature phone category. I still remember the time when I bought Nokia X2-02, the cheap qwerty feature phone which served me for an year. It feels good to have some of the smartphone-ish features at a budget price, and that is what Nokia aims to provide their customers with. With a lot of changes in the S40 category the operating system is not the same what we had earlier. The trending Nokia Asha series, new name for the feature phone category has been a success in the developing countries where the demand of cheap smartphone-ish feature phones is still exists. This week we got out hands-on the Nokia Asha 310, the dual SIM, full touch feature phone with WhatsApp and WiFi, cool eh? We did a complete review about the product and have the pros and cons listed which can be read below.
Here is a video review of the Nokia Asha 310:
Sales package:
Sales package which gives the first impression about the product to the buyer is one of the important factors to be considered by the manufacturers. Nokia as usual has their standard eco-friendly blue box with the user manual, battery, earphones, charger, USB cable and lastly the handset. The device is packed very well and comes with a Tata Docomo bundled data package.
Build:
Nokia has the edge over other manufacturers considering the build of their smartphones. Nokia has somewhat lived up to the expectations here as well. No doubt the build is plasticky, and what else would anyone expect at this price point? The design feels solid for a small mobile device. The back plastic panel has a texture look even on the black color which depicts attention given to the device. Packed in 109.9 x 54 x 13 mm dimensions with 103.7 grams weight the Nokia Asha 310 sports a 3inches TFT capacitive display having 65K colors with multitouch capability. The left side of the phone has SIM 2 slot and a microSD card slot whereas the right edge has the volume rocker and the lock key. On the top we have the micro USB port for synchronization and the famous thin Nokia charging port along with 3.5mm audio out.
Hardware & Performance:
Nokia Asha 310 is a feature phone running S40 operating system with 64MB RAM and 128MB ROM. It has 20 MB as internal memory which can be expanded with a microSD card up to 32 GB. Nothing special about the hardware as its a feature phone, but the dual sim standy with SIM 2 is hot swappable while the phone is in use with SIM 1 which means that SIM2 and be changed, inserted when the phone is on with a pre-requisite of SIM 1 being included.
Overall the phone performs pretty well when loaded with some of the latest applications like Whatsapp and free games from Nokia Store to download. The J2ME mobile OS takes this applications very easily and makes it perform in an efficient manner.
The camera on this feature phone has nothing special to be talked about. 2MP rear camera without any flash is what Nokia could do best at this price point.
Software:
The Asha 310 runs on S40 mobile operating system which is build over J2ME. In layman terms, runs java applications. The OS has been improved a lot since the last time we used an S40 device not just UI but even the quality of applications and the performance. Though in this smartphone generation, S40 is not capable to handle those smartphone sorts of tasks but still can serve the purpose for those who want to switch to something higher from monochrome handsets.
Conclusion:
Nokia Asha 310 is available for 5500INR from leading online websites and retail stores. Nokia from the beginning has the trust of people when it comes to feature phones. In a country like India where people still prefer Nokia after the disappointment in the WP category is because of their trust and loyalty in the Finnish firm and Nokia always come up with different ways to hold these left over qualities all together.
Nokia Asha, a name for the feature phones lineup alike Lumia for WP, has been very successful in the developing countries. The low budget handsets with common smartphone-ish features make them market ready and extensively in demand. Asha 310 is the first dual SIM feature phone to receive WhatsApp capability which is a new standard to benchmark phone for the market. Along with good developer support and updated policies, Asha series has seen a lot of developers taking interest in the developing for the S40 platform. Therefore we have the Nokia Store stocking up applications at a pretty good rate.
We think Asha 310 or Asha series as a lineup has a different target segment in the masses which are ready to buy these handsets if they continue to grow at this rate. Asha 310 no doubt suffices some of the great features at the price Nokia is offering and is recommended for those who want a solid dual SIM with mobile internet and WiFi at a low budget.
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