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New Nokia lineup spans range of budgets, features

In addition to a low-priced phone for Asia and Africa, the lineup includes handsets that target younger customers with social features.

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Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
2 min read
Nokia Lumia 520
The Nokia Lumia 520, in various colors. Nokia

Nokia took the wraps off four cell phones today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that run the gamut of entry-level handsets to high-end Windows 8 devices.

With the entry-level Nokia 105, the Finnish handset maker is thinking small. The durable 105 features an itty-bitty 1.5-inch screen and costs 15 euros, or about $20. Created for markets such as China, Indonesia, India, and Nigeria, the Nokia 105 focuses on calls, long battery life, and only a few little extras.

There's no camera, no volume rocker, and the only buttons on this handset are on the central, rubbery alphanumeric dialpad. Since the screen requires such little power, the 800mAh battery lasts for more than 12.5 hours on talk time, Nokia says, and will power through 35 days on standby without a charge.

Nokia's MWC phones

  • Nokia 105: A closer look
  • Nokia 301 first impressions
  • Nokia Lumia 520 coming to T-Mobile
  • Hands on with the Nokia Lumia 720

Nokia is targeting the younger crowd with the Nokia 301, a candy bar shape cell phone with a central select button and a camera feature that vocally guides you on how to fit your face in the self-portrait frame. The handset sports a 2.4-inch display with 320x240-pixel resolution, and a 3.2-megapixel camera -- it has no flash, but includes panorama and burst mode, which allows up to five shots in a sequence.

Nokia promises that battery life is long-lasting: a single-SIM 301 gives up to 20 hours of talk time, Nokia says, and up to 39 days of standby time. The 301 will go on sale in the second quarter for 65 euros, or about $85, and will come in white, black, cyan, bright yellow, and magenta.

The Nokia Lumia 520 Windows Phone features a pronounced rounded back that helps it fit comfortably into the contours of the palm and offers snappable covers available in mulitple colors. The 520 sports a 4-inch LCD IPS supersensitivity screen, and its 5-megapixel camera can record 720p HD video.

It boasts a 1,430mAh battery, 8GB of storage, and support for 64GB in expandable memory. It will be available in the U.S. through T-Mobile in late spring or early summer.

At the high end of Nokia's new lineup, the Windows Phone 8 Nokia Lumia 720 has a 4.3-inch LCD display with a ClearBlack filter that reduces outdoor glare. Aimed at younger, trendier, social types, the 720 supports wireless charging and has a 6.7-megapixel camera with an f/1.9 aperture intended to capture low-light conditions (like nightlife) and LED flash.

There's also a 1.3-megapixel camera that supports Skype HD and a wide-angle lens for fitting more faces into portraits. The unibody design features a microSD card slot, allowing storage expansion up to 64GB. Intended for markets in Asia and parts of Europe, the 720 will go on sale in the second quarter for 249 euros at full retail price, or about $340.

First Look
Watch this: Nokia's superbasic 105 mobile