Nokia Asha 202

Overview

Nokia Asha 202: the dual SIM phone

Overview of Nokia Asha 202

Nokia is known for designing phones which are user-friendly, low-on-budget, and durable. Though it’s lagging behind in the smartphone competition, with the likes of Samsung and Apple sprinting ahead, Nokia has succeeded in building up its own reliable reputation. The Asha series is another attempt by the Finnish multinational giant to deliver smartphone-like-features at an affordable price-tag. Nokia Asha 202 is yet another candy-bar shaped Dual-SIM smartphone from Nokia, which combines the benefits of a touch-pad and a regular keypad. It is very similar to its predecessor i.e. the Asha 200. The Asha 202 is a dual SIM phone. These SIM cards can be easily swapped without turning off the phone, using the Easy Swap technology.

The SIM manager enables users to store settings for as many as 5 SIM cards and assign different functions to different SIMs. However, this phone is said to have limited connectivity at GSM 900/1800 MHz. Many features are similar to those found in the Asha 203 like a touchscreen that is not very responsive, personalized home screen, easy internet browsing, a 2 MP camera equipped with LED flash and a gift of 40 EA games that can be downloaded within 60 days. The internet experience is eased by fast loading of web pages and navigation with a mere touch. If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive phone which also gives you speed and ease of use then the Asha 202 is the answer. You can choose from 2 different colors i.e. black or white, whichever suits you.

Build Quality of Nokia Asha 202

Nokia Asha 202 is a bar shaped smartphone, measuring 49.8 x 114.8 x 13.9 mm, and weighing around 90 g. As it is slim, sleek and extremely light-weight, it fits into pockets easily, and you can carry it comfortably, wherever you go.

Touch-screen and Display

Nokia Asha 202 comes with a 2.4-inch resistive, single-touch screen technology, which provides rather subdued performance. The touch-screen is not one of the best you would across in phones, but the interface is wonderfully optimized to work with that. Most phones these days come with capacitive multi-touch displays, which provide better responsive feedback, but to make it economical Nokia had to use the TFT technology. The resistive technology works on pressure and hence any pointing device like stylus, nail or finger can be used to operate the phone.

However, citing the fact that the embedded touchscreen won’t fare well, especially when typing, Nokia has ported the regular keypad with the phone. You don’t have to use the touchscreen to type; it’s just for standard Menu operations. The 2.4 inch QVGA, 320 x 240 resolution display is bright, colourful, and handles graphics pretty well. The images displayed are vivid and clear and the text displayed during browsing- crisper and readable. However, the screen is prone to some occasional scratches. Get an alternate matte-finish screen-guard installed, as soon as you buy the phone.

Nokia Asha 202 Network

Nokia Asha 202 comes with Dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) compatibility which would serve as a boon to those who wish to keep their public and private life separate. You can have two different numbers on one single handset. You can choose from which to make calls/message but you would be receiving calls/messages from both the SIM numbers. This could be an ideal phone for people who do not wish to carry two cell-phones, but wish to stay connected with both worlds.

Hardware

The hardware is not something you should worry about as the phone won’t require the extra processing power. However, just to get the facts straight, Nokia Asha 202 comes bundled with 10 MB of internal memory, 32 MB of ROM, and 16 MB RAM. Due to hardware and software constraints, you cannot multi-task with Asha 202 nor can you run high-end applications or webpages. However, you can always stay connected to email, chat and other popular social networks.

Nokia Asha 202 Storage

For you storage needs, it supports microSD cards up to 32 GB. That should be more than enough to store thousands of songs and click number of photos.

Keyboard

The alphanumeric keypad is perfectly optimized for faster typing. The keys are soft and big, providing the much needed comfort for fast and accurate typing. The navigation on Asha 202 is also quicker, thanks to the dedicated hardware keys on the phone.

Interface

Nokia Asha 202 runs the Series 40 Asha operating System. It comes pre-loaded with Nokia mail and Nokia Chat. The Series 40 OS supports Java as well as Flash based applications. You can choose to stay connected by downloading apps like Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, Nimbuzz and Whatsapp. The phone also comes with OTA update feature, which allows you to update your phone wirelessly.

Nokia Asha 202 Camera

The Camera is another feel-good factor of the phone. The 2 megapixel camera captures decent photos at an impressive 1600 x 1200 pixel resolution. The auto-focus camera supports 4x digital zoom and comes with enhanced features like- landscape orientation, auto and manual white balance, Still image editor, Full screen viewfinder and self-timer. The images are stored in the JPEG format and can be captured in various colour tone modes like- Sepia, Greyscale, Normal and Negative. Nokia Asha 202 also supports video recording at 15 fps on 176 x 144 resolution. As per the lighting and scenery, you can also adjust the video white balance modes - Fluorescent, Incandescent, Automatic and Daylight.

Multimedia

Asha 202 is your own entertainment hub. It supports playback of all major audio formats like MP3, WAV, MP4, AMR, AAC, 3GP, WMA and MIDI. As far as video is concerned, 3GP, MP4, WMV, AVC, H.263, and H.264 are the popular video formats supported by the Asha video player. It comes with Stereo FM radio, which apart from fetching radio signals also allows you to record the aired radio songs.

Nokia Asha 202 Connectivity

Nokia Asha 202 supports GSM 900 – GSM 1800 bands. It comes powered by GPRS and EGPRS technology, which fetch upload speeds in the range of 4- 21.4 Kbit/s and download speeds between 9 – 236.8 Kbit/s. These speeds are enough to allow seamless connectivity for browsing, emails, and staying online.

Battery

Nokia Asha 202 comes powered by a sophisticated 1020 mAh Li-ion battery. The battery promises 5 hours of talk time and 400 hours of standby time. It also promises an impressive 25 hours of music playback time. For people who commute a lot and need a long-lasting battery, this phone can be an ideal catch.

Verdict

Nokia Asha 202 does lag at times and dealing with the resistive touch-screen can be discomforting at times. Series 40 OS does not support a lot of applications and is slower than contemporary mobile OS in the market. However, if you’re a naive user, who does not multi-task and believes in using phone- just as a phone, Asha 202 is for you. It’s also for those who want to combine the benefits of touch and type on a single device. Nokia Asha 202 is ideal for commuters, house-wives, and elderly people. In fact, it’s ideal for anyone who wants a basic feature of smartphone at a fairly affordable price.