Nokia debuts four cheapo phones

C2

The C2 supports two sims at anytime. Nokia haters will always find something to moan about. 40% market share doesn't lie, so take that and shove it up your collective Apple and Android arses.

The C1 is nice. Will get one as a backup phone for festivals and shit, whilst you all continue moaning about stuff on the internet.

@AC 1 and 2

Boo bloody hoo! What exactly do you expect, an iPhone?

It costs €30!

"sharing a phone within a family and still use their own SIM”

Seems like a pretty good reason to have them running separately. You don't want the teenager to use your SIM. You want them using the one they pay for.

Also, since when did Nokia become a 'budget brand'? Sure, they're not Apple, but neither are they one of those tiny companies that produce nothing but Argos-fodder.

No, I'm not a Nokia fanboy. I haven't bought a Nokia since the 3310.

@ AC post#1

Dual sim Nokia for 45 fecking euros before subsidies and you still complain, sweet bejesus - i'm surprised you haven't complained that it doesn't have a 12mp camera as well.

Simply awe-some!

Sweet Jezebel, I'll gladly throw a C1 into the glove box of each car plus another one in the first aid kits in the boat and the kitchen. Hells bells, for a few quid more than an emergency radio and a flashlight, they're tossing in a mobile! Add prepaid SIMs and press play!

Why 2 SIMs?

This is all a bit cutting-edge for the likes of me. I can see why it'd be handy to be able to stow a second SIM in your handset and switch between them at will, but what's this about having both active at once? How's that work then? Doesn't the UI get very complicated if you're forever choosing which provider to use for anything you do on it? and what happens if both numbers get a call at the same time?

Would genuinely welcome some enlightenment about this.

You're all right!

(I was the "AC post#1" poster).

I'm going to upvote everyone who criticized my post. :-)

Yes, on further reading the C2 will support "proper" dual-SIM functionality and looks pretty decent. I might even buy one. Still not sure of the point of the C1 though.

Yes, I'd love to see high end phones with dual-SIM. I'd also like to see the link between service and handset broken by regulation as it seems networks are too scared to "go alone" with non-subsidised handsets in case the competition can win in "marketing". The whole operator branding and locking issue is anti-competitive and should be outlawed ASAP.... but that's a different issue.

..oh and another thing....

I'd also like to appologise for sounding so rabidly anti-Nokia. I was posting from a Mac and had forgotten to disable the reality distortion field.

Possibly useful devices

..if you're planning to take pictures of a protest or anything else inconvenient in central London, along with one of your older cameras. The Met have a nasty habit of taking phones away from photographers for no good reason, whether or not they also give them a kicking and/or arrest them. Sometimes you get them back weeks later- and sometimes they even still work.

I know some people who buy second hand phones from Cash Converts style stolen phone shops for these events, but this seems better, as there's less for the Met to abuse to try and screw you over.

I know that's not exactly the target market, but I for one am tempted.

My perfect phone

Looks like it's the perfect phone for me! My entire feature list that I look for when buying a new mobile is:

- is it a phone

I don't want to play music, take pictures, blue tooth porn to my mates or play games. I just want a phone. And then my deciding criteria are: is it small enough to fit in my pocket and which one has the longest battery life so I don't have to keep fannying around with chargers. Six weeks? That's the phone for me!

Dual SIM for the family and the mistress

One SIM for the wife/family, one for the mistress. I can see not having them enabled at the same time is an advantage in such a case. While most people in Europe want (or admit to wanting) dual SIM for business reasons, in many other countries dual SIM is a standard precisely for this personal reason.

Apparently Nokia's going for a low-end, mid-range, and high-end strategy - covering all their bases. People love their cheap phones that just work and are familiar. A few of their mid-range phones are quite good, and, well, let's see what they come out with for a real smartphone in the coming months. If they fail to impress with their high-end range, they will have even bigger image problems.

The N900 was their first experiment - it is a very compact internet tablet with a mobile functionality as an added extra. With that in mind, it's damn good at what it does. Let's see what their next (presumably MeeGo-based) device will be like, and more importantly, the one that comes after that! I'm looking forward to their high-end offerings, precisely because I want an open easy-to-develop-for platform that doesn't force me to use Java (or resort to hacks or reflashing).

Dual SIM phones

There's lots of market research why someone would want a dual SIM phone ...

... some places the voice calls are cheap on one network, and the text is cheap on another ... some areas you're at the edge of two networks, so you use the SIM that gives you the best reception ...

... some people have a work SIM for 9-5 and then switch to a personal SIM and don't want work calls out of hours (or to accidentally make personal calls on the work bill)

One of the dual SIM phones has an external SIM slot so you can swop second SIM while the first one remains active. That's perfect for things like African villages where one person owns a phone, and other people can come up with their personal SIM and stick it in the 2nd slot to make their phone calls.

For those that asked, with the two SIMs active phones, often while you are on a call, the other SIM just reports the phone as busy so calls go to voicemail, or can receive a text message.

I'm amazed by the long talk time and the long standby time, in a 30-45 euro phone.

You could charge it up once, go on holiday for two weeks, make 15 minutes of calls everyday and still have charge left! Or use your bicycle charger and cycle across Europe and Asia!

Hold on...

....this looks like the Nokia 2600 classic, possibly the WORST phone ever made.

Audio quality is utter shit, because some dickhead decided to put the mic in the palm of your hand, so unless you talk like the twats on The Apprentice, you will be fore ever repeating yourself, or utter the words....."Hold on, I'll call you on the landline"

The menu's are sluggish and it's generally a nasty, badly designed bag of crap.

Cheap moto's are way better than cheap Nokias.