I like reviewing beautiful phones, particularly if they come in beautiful colours. I assume that by now you are aware that I like Cyan colour. The Lumia 520 I reviewed earlier could well be a hint. Now this is in the low end, the devices that you would buy for your mothers or fathers. Today we have a look at the Nokia Asha 210.
Announced on the 24th of April, the Asha 210 is not your fancy do-it-all smartphone, it does little, well enough. Let’s first see what it’s got underneath:
Asha 210 phone specifications:
- 2.4 inch 320 x 240 pixels LCD screen, not touch
- Qwerty Keyboard
- Series 40 OS
- Dual-SIM, Dual Standby, Hotswap
- GPRS Data
- Bluetooth 2.1 with Slam, WiFi
- Nokia Xpress Browser
- 2MP camera, 1600 x 1200 pixels, 4x zoom, video recording at 10fps
- 64MB ROM, with 32GB microSD support
- 32MB RAM
- 2.0 mm charger connector
- USB charging (cable not included)
- 1200 mAh battery, 12 hrs talktime, 1104 hrs standby
- Dimensions: 111.5 x 60 x 11.8mm
- 99.5 grams
Available in 5 colours, Cyan, Magenta, Black, White and Yellow, the Asha 210 is already available for sale in many markets, including Kenya. On first look, what I pick is that the device is quite well designed, considering the price point of Kshs 6500 or $74, this is quite something. Several things I have noticed on this phone is that it will serve the low end user quite well. The learning curve of a Nokia is quite fast, the Asha phones and Symbian Phones at least. Windows Phones are a different thing altogether.
Nokia put in a dedicated Facebook button, I bet that would be very attractive for Facebookers, like college kids. The camera button on the front is quite handy, accompanied by the voice guided camera for self shots. This works quite well.
Nokia also put in WiFi on this looker, enabling users save some data while doing things. Not something new in this price point though, as this is available in Android devices at this price point.
Another feature you notice on first look is the SIM slot on the side for hotswap, you know the hotswap Nokias remember settings of upto 5 SIM cards, something that would be good for that person who shares the phone with family.
There are no buttons on the side in this one, beyond the SIM slot on the left, 3.5 mm sound out slot, microUSB and the 2.0mm charger slot, the sides and bottom are uninterrupted.
The rear has the design of the high end Lumias, camera with this oval-ish black patch with the Nokia logo and the speaker on the lower part. MicroSD is hidden below the battery together with SIM 1.
The homescreen has some editable widgets, and you can choose from several options what to show there from Mail, General Indicators, Radio and Media, Shortcut Bar, Social Accounts, WiFi and Calendar. Social apps include Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. I am yet to go into details on functionality of Whatsapp when you have two SIMs, but what is the review for again?
This phone also comes with Nokia Life app among the pre-installed apps. Nokia Life is an app that allows the user to subscribe to life information like health, Agriculture, news and others in formatted texts that look like web messages, with graphics. This is a monthly billable service.