Resistive Touch
Having experienced Nokia's resistive touch in their N97 I'd keep well clear of another fiasco - no matter how cheap.
Nokia expanded its Asha range of budget S40 smartphones today with the 305, 306 and 311, the first three models in the series to feature touchscreen interfaces. The Nokia Asha 311 features a 1GHz processor with a 3in scratch-resistant capacitive touchscreen. There is also a 3.2Mp camera and various pre-installed apps such as …
Think about this pragmatically.
A bigger screen than most candy bar devices, an OK Touch interface [not brilliant, but OK] , the menu structure, from the Nokia website seems to be the standard Nokia fare, and if it does the usual Nokia stuff like Multi Tasking, email, sup0er quick typing and predictive text, the usual excellent speakerphone facilities as well as Nokia excellent battery life and radio reception, then for under a hundred quid, this does seem like a bargain.
OK the previous version of touch screens /may/ have been less then exceptional, but this is not a £500 device. I have to say, for a work 'phone, I'd look at this quite happily.....
P.
No multi-tasking, I'm afraid, as it's S40, rather than Symbian. And missing out on GPS is a nuisance too, but if you can live with those limitations - and many will be able to - then yes, these potentially offer much of what many users will want, without the traditional smartphone drawbacks.
in buying them up in emerging markets and selling them here. SIM free phones seems to be getting far more popular with people these days sick of getting stuck with 2 year contracts or PAYG with increasingly worse prices. Most do one month contracts these days so why not take advantage of whoever is cheapest every few months?
And as for the 1st AC, I thought it said quite clearly that the phones are capacitive not resistive.
Those Asha are actually quite good.
We have just validated the 302 as our corporate entry model as a replacement for the C2-01. (For those employees not entitled to an iPhone).
What people wants, if they cannot afford or don't want a smartphone, is a cheap and reliable device with a bunch of features.
This foot the bill perfectly and the Brand still has value.
I see more future for Nokia in selling those than their Lumia range. Who wants a Windows Phone anyway?
Looks like people are finding the lack of Ashas in UK similar to my problem.
I wanted a Nokia 701, not a Lumia or the very small 700.
For some insane reason the 701 is only available from mainland Europe. Why? Because it owns all Windows phones made by Nokia and Microsoft know it (even the lumia 900 imho). I am convinced MS have paid Nokia to not make it available in their prime WinPho markets of UK and US. Looks like the same is being done with the Ashas. In the end I imported the 701 from amazon.de for 300 euros. This phone does not disappoint and is everything a good Nokia has always been. Even Belle is up their with Android for usability. Anyone looking for a capable do everything 3.5" handset should check this phone out.