Nokia announces Asha Touch & Type series devices at Nokia World

Nokia World 2011 was rampant with new devices this year as well, and although the biggest news to come from the Finnish company was the launch of the Lumia WP7 smartphones, there were a few other big announcements as well. Aside from the Lumia range, Nokia also announced an all new range of devices called Asha, meaning ‘Hope’ and kidding aside, Nokia could use that sentiment at the moment. Three new handsets in this series were unveiled, take a closer look –

First up is the Asha 303 Touch and Type (QWERTY) handset with a chic metallic finish, running on a 1GHz processor. Social networks, email and IM are at the centre of this handset’s experience and are made easily accessible from the homescreen. The Nokia Asha 303 is powered by the cloud-based Nokia Browser, which, by compressing the web by up to 90 percent, should provide higher speeds and a more affordable access to the Internet. Nokia has also preinstalled Angry Birds Lite, Facebook Chat, WhatsApp messaging and the latest release of Nokia Maps for Series 40 (for selected markets).

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Other specs include -

• a 2.6-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 320 x 240 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP + EDR, USB-on-the-go
• 3.2MP fixed focus camera
• Stereo FM radio
• MicroSD card support for up to 32GB

The estimated retail price for the Nokia Asha 303 will be approximately 115 EUR, which works out to about Rs. 8,000, excluding taxes and subsidies. It is expected to start shipping before the year is out.

The second handset in the Asha series is the Asha 300, that looks like a cross between the Nokia C3-01 and the X3-02 Touch and Type handsets. The 300 features a standard alphanumeric mobile keypad but like the 303, this one too sports a 1GHz processor, the new Nokia browser and comes with Angry Birds Lite preloaded.

Here’s a closer look at the specs that the Asha 300 comes loaded with -

• a 2.4-inch resistive touchscreen with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP + EDR, USB-on-the-go
• 5MP fixed focus camera
• Stereo FM radio
• MicroSD card support for up to 32GB

The Nokia Asha 300 will be approximately 85 EUR which is approximately Rs. 5,900, excluding taxes and subsidies. It too is expected to start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Next up are the very Nokia C3 like Asha 201 and Asha 200 QWERTY keypad equipped devices. They bear almost identical specs however the Asha 200 is a Dual-SIM (hot swappable) device whereas the 201 is not. Both are designed to allow users to connect to social networks and access email much like their predecessor, the C3. The Nokia Asha 201 also supports push email as well as the popular WhatsApp messaging app.

Very C3 like but with funky colors

Here are their specs -

• a 2.4-inch resistive touchscreen with a 320 x 240 pixel resolution
• EDGE/GPRS
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP + EDR, USB
• 2MP fixed focus camera
• Stereo FM radio
• MicroSD card support for up to 32GB

The estimated retail price for both handsets will be approximately 60 EUR (Rs, 4,100) excluding taxes and subsidies. The Asha 200 Dual SIM Touch and Type device is expected to start shipping this year however the Single SIM edition i.e. the Asha 201 should be out sometime at the beginning of 2012.