By: iPadfanzz Editor on April 24, 2013
Nokia has unveiled dual-SIM Asha 210, complete with full Qwerty keyboard and dedicated WhatsApp button sat on the front. The handset has been aimed at emerging markets with an idea to provide feature phones loaded with lots of features. The 210 will not head to the US, but it will come to Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia for about $72 (Rs 3,800 approximately) in the second quarter.
Nokia is called 210 as "the most social Asha yet," as the phone includes three social networking and messaging apps. Depending on where you are, the device will sport a shortcut key for either Facebook, Weibo, or WhatsApp. The handset runs Symbian S40, which Nokia has tweaked to focus on social media.
Design
Although it is not top-end Windows phone, it does borrow the look and feel of Nokia's Lumia lineup. It has a polycarbonate construction and looks like a thin brick. The handset is comfortable to hold in hands and has a sleek, minimalistic looks.
The Asha 210 measures 4.39-inches tall, 2.36 inches wide, and 0.46-inches thick. At 3.43 ounces, it's lightweight too. After launching the Asha 305, 306, 311 and the 310 more recently, the 210 has gone for complete overall. The top of the phone has space for a 3.5mm AV jack and Micro-USB port for charging, while on the left edge it has the optional second SIM slot.
The 210 comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, with a 320x240-pixel resolution. That means the menu icons and text will look crisp and clear. Just below the display you’ll find two selection keys, two buttons to make and end a call, a center navigation key, a shortcut camera button on the right, and a hotkey on the left that will launch a certain social networking service. Nokia's left button will open Whatsapp, an app for free messaging to iOS, Android and Windows Phone handsets. Nokia describes the Asha 210′s WhatsApp hardware key as a “world first.” The handset also comes a dedicated Facebook key instead of a WhatsApp button.
The Asha 210 is available in Single-SIM and Dual-SIM variants, but they won’t be offered together in the same market but will rather be region specific, presumably corresponding to where the respective services are most popular.
Hardware
The Nokia Asha 210 features exactly what you'd expect from a low-end Blackberry rival. The phone sports comes with 64MB of flash memory which can be expanded to up to 32GB using a microSD card and a 1,200mAH battery which Nokia claims can last up to 46 days on the Single-SIM variant and up to 24 days on the Dual-SIM.
There's also a 2MP rear-facing camera with Nokia's software features including self-portrait mode and fast editing, WiFi connectivity and a 1,200mAh battery, which Nokia claims will offer 12 hours of talk time.
The USP of 201 will probably be its four-row QWERTY keyboard which will light up when in use and is textured for easy typing. The space bar of the phone also doubles as a Wi-Fi launch button when long pressed.
Features
What makes the 210 so different from other phone in the same category is a dedicated WhatsApp key and the benefits of the partnership between Nokia and WhatsApp which were being forwarded to users. The phone also comes with a ‘Social phonebook integration’ feature that allows users to launch WhatsApp directly from contact cards in the Phonebook. According to WhatsApp CEO the partnership couldn’t have come at a better time as the company now claims it has more active monthly users than Twitter.
For Europe and Latin America, the 210 will come with Facebook button. Region-wise, the 210 in China will have Weibo, a mobile messaging and micro-blogging service, and India, the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia (more specifically, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia), will get WhatsApp, another mobile messaging application.
The 210 runs on a user-friendly Series 40 Asha interface and comes with Nokia's cloud-based Xpress Internet browser. The 2-megapixel camera offers the ability of 4X digital zoom.
Nokia has earlier launched a Facebook-button-packing phone, the full Qwerty Asha 205, in November last year.
Both the Single-SIM and the Dual-SIM variants of Nokia Asha 210 will be sold in Yellow, Black, White, Cyan and Magenta color options and the phone should start shipping by the second quarter of 2013.
Asha – a good Android alternative?
The major benefit of the Asha line is its being feature-packed amid reasonable prices. The entire Asha range – including 210 – has been pitched in the price-conscious emerging markets. And Nokia is selling lots of their Asha phones, as evident with the lasts Q4 (9.3 million) numbers which saw 40 per cent growth in Asha smartphones shipments over Q3 (6.5m).
Strong sales numbers of its Asha range also mean that lots of users in near future will upgrade to Lumia range. As of end-2012, sales of both Asha and Lumia lines have reached a combined 15.6 million units globally. Although Nokia is still lagging far in the smartphone race, probably strong sales of Asha phones could help the Finnish company in terms of numbers.
Nokia has unveiled dual-SIM Asha 210, complete with full Qwerty keyboard and dedicated WhatsApp button sat on the front. The handset has been aimed at emerging markets with an idea to provide feature phones loaded with lots of features. The 210 will not head to the US, but it will come to Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia for about $72 (Rs 3,800 approximately) in the second quarter.
Nokia is called 210 as "the most social Asha yet," as the phone includes three social networking and messaging apps. Depending on where you are, the device will sport a shortcut key for either Facebook, Weibo, or WhatsApp. The handset runs Symbian S40, which Nokia has tweaked to focus on social media.
Design
Although it is not top-end Windows phone, it does borrow the look and feel of Nokia's Lumia lineup. It has a polycarbonate construction and looks like a thin brick. The handset is comfortable to hold in hands and has a sleek, minimalistic looks.
The Asha 210 measures 4.39-inches tall, 2.36 inches wide, and 0.46-inches thick. At 3.43 ounces, it's lightweight too. After launching the Asha 305, 306, 311 and the 310 more recently, the 210 has gone for complete overall. The top of the phone has space for a 3.5mm AV jack and Micro-USB port for charging, while on the left edge it has the optional second SIM slot.
The 210 comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, with a 320x240-pixel resolution. That means the menu icons and text will look crisp and clear. Just below the display you’ll find two selection keys, two buttons to make and end a call, a center navigation key, a shortcut camera button on the right, and a hotkey on the left that will launch a certain social networking service. Nokia's left button will open Whatsapp, an app for free messaging to iOS, Android and Windows Phone handsets. Nokia describes the Asha 210′s WhatsApp hardware key as a “world first.” The handset also comes a dedicated Facebook key instead of a WhatsApp button.
The Asha 210 is available in Single-SIM and Dual-SIM variants, but they won’t be offered together in the same market but will rather be region specific, presumably corresponding to where the respective services are most popular.
Hardware
The Nokia Asha 210 features exactly what you'd expect from a low-end Blackberry rival. The phone sports comes with 64MB of flash memory which can be expanded to up to 32GB using a microSD card and a 1,200mAH battery which Nokia claims can last up to 46 days on the Single-SIM variant and up to 24 days on the Dual-SIM.
There's also a 2MP rear-facing camera with Nokia's software features including self-portrait mode and fast editing, WiFi connectivity and a 1,200mAh battery, which Nokia claims will offer 12 hours of talk time.
The USP of 201 will probably be its four-row QWERTY keyboard which will light up when in use and is textured for easy typing. The space bar of the phone also doubles as a Wi-Fi launch button when long pressed.
Features
What makes the 210 so different from other phone in the same category is a dedicated WhatsApp key and the benefits of the partnership between Nokia and WhatsApp which were being forwarded to users. The phone also comes with a ‘Social phonebook integration’ feature that allows users to launch WhatsApp directly from contact cards in the Phonebook. According to WhatsApp CEO the partnership couldn’t have come at a better time as the company now claims it has more active monthly users than Twitter.
For Europe and Latin America, the 210 will come with Facebook button. Region-wise, the 210 in China will have Weibo, a mobile messaging and micro-blogging service, and India, the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia (more specifically, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia), will get WhatsApp, another mobile messaging application.
The 210 runs on a user-friendly Series 40 Asha interface and comes with Nokia's cloud-based Xpress Internet browser. The 2-megapixel camera offers the ability of 4X digital zoom.
Nokia has earlier launched a Facebook-button-packing phone, the full Qwerty Asha 205, in November last year.
Both the Single-SIM and the Dual-SIM variants of Nokia Asha 210 will be sold in Yellow, Black, White, Cyan and Magenta color options and the phone should start shipping by the second quarter of 2013.
Asha – a good Android alternative?
The major benefit of the Asha line is its being feature-packed amid reasonable prices. The entire Asha range – including 210 – has been pitched in the price-conscious emerging markets. And Nokia is selling lots of their Asha phones, as evident with the lasts Q4 (9.3 million) numbers which saw 40 per cent growth in Asha smartphones shipments over Q3 (6.5m).
Strong sales numbers of its Asha range also mean that lots of users in near future will upgrade to Lumia range. As of end-2012, sales of both Asha and Lumia lines have reached a combined 15.6 million units globally. Although Nokia is still lagging far in the smartphone race, probably strong sales of Asha phones could help the Finnish company in terms of numbers.
