Nokia Asha 308

Overview

Smart Music Phone

Overview of Nokia Asha 308

The Nokia Asha 308 (Also known as Asha 3080) is a dual SIM 3” touch screen mobile phone that seems to primarily target music lovers owing to its powerful set of in-built speakers as well as a music play back time of up to 54 hours.

Nokia Asha 308 Design & Build Quality

The phone is a standard capacitive multi-point touch screen bar phone. It weighs 104 grams while its size dimensions are 109.9 x 54 x 13 mm. The phone has a 03-inch LCD display screen with a resolution of 400 x 240 pixels. The pixel density is 155 ppi (pixels per inch). It also has some dedicated hardware buttons for send, call, a combined end/call & power button, volume and lock. It operates using the Nokia BL-4U 1110 mAh battery with a maximum talk time of 17 hours and a stand by time of 600 hours. It is a 2G enabled phone (GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and has an internal antennae.

User Interface and Comfort to Use Nokia Asha 308

The phone’s Operating System is on the Series 40 Asha Touch platform that is Java supported. The phone’s Menu is the standard icon grid and is very easy to navigate.

Telephony & Phonebook

The Asha 308 has a phonebook that allows for 1000 entries. Its call log for the dialled, received, and missed calls displays the last 20 calls for each. It also has the hands-free loudspeaker.

Messaging & Emails

This phone supports SMS and MMS. It also supports the OMA Email tool that allows access to all Email services. There is a predictive option for text editing. Some of the features in the Messaging Menu include flash messaging, number screening for messaging, unified MMS/SMS editor, and multimedia messaging.

Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

The phone has the standard Nokia Gallery. It also has an internal memory of 64MB and a mass memory of 128 MB. It supports an external microSD memory of up to 32GB.

Nokia Asha 308 Music Player and FM Radio

This is perhaps the standout feature of the phone. The phone has an inbuilt Music Player and Stereo FM radio. It allows for scheduled FM recording. The audio quality is very good.

Nokia Asha 308 Camera and Image Quality

It has a 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom. Other camera features include exposure compensation, auto and manual white balance settings, still image editor, full and screen viewfinder. However, the camera is quite limited in image quality.

Video Camera and Video Quality

The video camera records at 10 frames per second. The phone also allows for progressive video recording and file sharing on YouTube. Video quality could be better.

Connectivity Options

The connectivity options for this phone include:

• Micro-USB Charging Connector
• Micro-USB Data Connector
• 3.5 mm Nokia AV Connector
• 2.0 mm Charging Connector
• Micro-USB 2.0
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Remote SyncML synchronization

Organizer and Other Utility Tools

The phone has the standard organizer features like:

• Calendar
• To-Do list
• Notes
• The other utility features are:
• Games (Java Supported + downloads)
• Alarm
• Calculator
• Fixed Dialing Numbers
• Digital Clock (Both 24hr and 12 hr formats)
• Dictionary

Web Browser and Applications

The phone’s browser supports GPRS/WAP/XHTML features. The phone’s OS can support the popular Opera Mini browser.

Google Maps and GPS

The phone uses the Nokia Maps app that is available as a free download.

Distinctive Features of Nokia Asha 308

The Nokia Asha 308 is primarily for music lovers. It has great audio quality allows for up to 54 hours of music play.

Value for Money

Retailing at an average price of Rs. 5200 (approx., may vary), the handset is good value for money.

Verdict

If you are a music lover looking for an inexpensive, good-looking touch screen phone, the Asha 308 is highly recommendable. Its internet browsing speeds are however, very frustrating (up to 238Kbps).