Fresh from Nokia’s event in London today is their newest Asha line of mobile devices, aimed at emerging markets and users who are tech savvy but are financially constrained. While there has been a lot of Nokia devices in the past that does this, this is the first time that Nokia has created products for this particular market that has a number of features that regular smartphone users enjoy now.
The Asha 300 for example, has a keypad and a nice touchscreen. It’ll also features a 1GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera for imaging.
The Asha 200 meanwhile, features a QWERTY keyboard that has Nokia’s easy swap SIM functionality, which basically allows you to swap SIMs without having to turn off their phones. The Asha 200 and 201 (the single SIM version) will also be able to handle 32GB worth of memory cards. Nokia also says that both the 201 and 200 will be able to do 52 hours of music and has the one of the loudest speakers they’ve put on a device to date.
Finally, the Asha 303 has a large capacitive screen with a QWERTY keyboard (anyone seeing a pattern yet?). The device also has a 1GHz “engine”, wireless LAN capability 3G and Nokia Maps right out of the bat. It also seems that users of the Asha 303 will also be able to download apps.
All Asha branded devices will come with a browser that can compress information up to 90%, which in theory should cut down data charges, and will able to access localized content depending on where they are.
The Asha 300 will retail for 85 euros (about Php 5,117) while the 303 will retail for 115 euros (about Php 6,924). The 200 and the 201 will be 60 euros (about Php 3,613).