Nokia Asha 201 Qwerty phone
Cost-conscious caller
Review When Nokia announced its three new Asha budget phones in October they didn’t attract much attention alongside the WinPho 7 handsets that were punted by the company at the same time.
Keeping it simple: Nokia's Asha 201
That’s a shame, because the Ashas look like being very good mobile phones, perfect for people who just want a phone to talk on and with battery life longer than the space between sunrise and sunset.
The first of the Asha troika to arrive in Blighty is the messenger phone 201 (there will also be a dual-SIM version called the 200). It’s worth stating clearly at the outset that the 201 is a cheap phone. Vodafone who supplied my review handset are punting it for £45 on Pay-As-You-Go.
A dual sim version is also on the way
Once out of the box there’s nothing about the 201 to scare the horses apart from some of its colour choices. Up front is a crisp and colourful 2.4in QVGA display and a four-row Qwerty keyboard, the two separated by a navigation deck built around the usual navpad.
At 14mm thick it’s a chunky beast but it feels comfortable in the hand and despite being made entirely plastic is very solid and well screwed together. The navigation keys all have a nice positive action to them and the D-pad is extremely well calibrated. You won’t find much better no matter how much you spend.
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COMMENTS
Re: re; Confused @James Hughes1
Video recording will not even be close to a priority for anyone in the market for a £40-£50 phone. Texting, phoning and battery life are the priorities, which this phone appears to succeed at with aplomb.
It's like faulting a Vauxhall Astra because it doesn't handle like a Ferrari.
re; Confused @James Hughes1
Yes, apparently the camera and video recording isn't very good, but that's offset by some minor features:
"The 2Mp auto-focus camera is a very basic affair and will only record video at 175 x 144 @ 15fps but to counter that the call quality, rear speaker and signal reception are all excellent."
I guess it's good that it's functionality as a phone even got mentioned, but why can't call quality and signal strength be discussed near the top of, your know all PHONE reviews ?
No USB charge... Grrr!
It used to be that us Nokia users could charge their phone in any almost any location- odds were that there would be a (old size ) Nokia charger (or 6) to hand... Not that we would need a charge more than twice a week.
I haven't had a Nokia for some years now, and have got quite used to recharging my gadgets from either Mini- or Micro-USB cables. Having a car stereo with a USB socket is handy for this, or a nearby PC, games console, LCD picture frame or TV.
Confused
Hardly any bad things to say in the review, and it still only got 80%???
Wuh?
Seems Nokia is back to basics.
'Basics' meaning providing a quality phone for a good price. Nokia 3310 anyone? The missus still got one and is working fine.
