Nokia adds three devices to its Asha family: The 202, 203, and 302
Nokia kicked its Mobile World Congress press conference by introducing the new Asha series. Though the Symbian devises are hardly smartphones, they're hardly dumb.
During Nokia's Mobile World Congress press conference Sunday night, the phone company announced three new additions to its low-end family of phones: the Asha 202, 203, and 302.
The Asha 202 and 203 will come prepackaged with 40 EA games that you can download within 60 days from your first game download. Some titles include Bejeweled and Tetris. With their alphanumeric keypads and 2.4-inch touch-screen displays, both models have nearly identical designs.
They also carry an $81 price tag, run Symbian Series 40, and are fully integrated with popular social media services like Facebook and Twitter. For those who are seeking more color options, both handsets come in several different versions, such as red, black, and white. Unfortunately, however, they'll also run on a 2G network.
What separates the 202 from the 203 is that the former can support two SIM cards. This means you can load two SIM cards that can be from different carriers in different countries, and make calls or send texts from either line. This is nothing novel, of course, but it is unusual for a big-name manufacturer like Nokia to have a handset that features this.
Because the Asha 202 is an unlocked phone, it won't be popular with any U.S. carrier, but for people who travel internationally a lot, this phone would be a good fit.
The Asha 302 is targeted for "urban" users and will be the first Series 40 phone to feature Mail for Exchange. Writing e-mails will be even easier with its retro-looking QWERTY keyboard. It has a cloud-accelerated browser, connects easily with Facebook and chatting services, has a 1GHz processor, and supports 3.5G data speeds. The model comes in several unorthodox but fresh colors like blue and a yellowish-gold, and will be priced at $121.
