Nokia Asha 301 – The Budget Blaster

Nokia’s budget offering Nokia Asha 301 is up for grabs on e-commerce stores.

While the Finnish phone-maker has always had a stronghold in the Indian market. Samsung’s smartphone advent dislodged them from their seat. But Nokia soon bounced back and their Asha series of phones have managed to capture flagging interests again.

Nokia Asha 301, the budget, traditional smartphone with the traditional keyboard is a feature packed budget device. The phone is a basic feature phone which comes with some brilliant specifications making it a power packed device.

Nokia Asha 301 is a dual-SIM feature phone based on Nokia’s Asha Series 40 platform. There seems to be some confusion as while Nokia’s official site does not list the phone as a dual-SIM device, e-commerce sites are pegging the phone as a dual-SIM phone.

The phone, which comes with a keypad has a ‘tiny’ 2.4-inch display. However, the display is a basic LCD Transmissive display.
The most important feature of the phone is the camera. Generally phone-makers tend to gloss over the camera features in basic, budget phones. Though the rear-end camera is just  3.2 MP cam, Nokia has provided features like step-by-step voice instructions guide you through taking the perfect self-portrait! Move over Instagram! The phone also comes with a 100-degree Panorama function, a blessing for amateur photographers keen to capture complete, wide shots. Nokia Asha 301 also supports something what Nokia calls ‘sequential shooting’, which essentially takes upto 5 pictures in one shot.

The phone which is available in a plethora colours like black, white, cyan, yellow or fuchsia comes with 1200 mAh battery. Nokia promises 6 hours 3G talktime and 936 hours 3G standby time with Nokia Asha 301. The phone supports USB 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0 on the connectivity front. There is no WiFi support or NFC as the phone is a budget feature device.
Nokia Asha 301 is an interesting phone with amazing camera features. Nokia seems to be focusing on the camera for their range of devices be it the Lumia series or the Asha phones.

While the phone is available for Rs 5140 online, the actual price listed is Rs 6169. At just over Rs 5000, we think the phone is definitely a good buy, especially with the camera features coupled with the old-world charm!