Nokia Asha 302, Half Smart Half Wise

At the beginning of this year, Nokia added another member to the Asha clan, a phone which, like its fellow predecessors, is also addressed to the category of people who use their phones for calling or messaging and don’t need special features, like a document editor or GPS receiver. Though it’s not a smartphone, the Asha 302 is a wise phone when it comes to communication and will give its best in order to fulfill all your needs.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Penta-band 3G with 14Mbps HSDPA and 5.76Mbps HSUPA
• Asha S40 platform
• Four-row hardware QWERTY keyborad
• 2.4" QVGA 256K-color TFT display
• 1GHz processor
• 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM
• 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera
• VGA video recording at 15fps
• Wi-Fi b/g/n
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Bluetooth v2.1 (with A2DP)
• Standard microUSB port (charging enabled)
• USB On-The-Go support
• microSD card slot (32 GB supported, 2GB included)
• 3.5mm audio jack

 Full specs here.

If we take a look in its blue box, we’re going to see a charger and a single piece headset with a 3.5 mm jack. No microUSB cable and if you’re searching for a microSD card here, you won’t find it, because it’s already inserted in the phone’s memory slot. It’s a 2GB memory card.

Its dimensions are 115.2 x 58.9 x 13.5 mm and it weighs 106 grams. It has rounded edges and it’s very compact and easy to use. It’s well-built, when designing it, they use materials of a good quality and you’ll know that when holding it in your hands. I especially liked the metallic frame and the fact that fingerprints are hardly sticking to the case.

The phone comes with a 2.4 inches TFT display with a 240 x 320 pixels resolution. The colors are bright, the sunlight legibility is very good and the same story goes for the viewing angles. Under the display is the navigation deck: the D-pad is surrounded by the soft buttons, call keys and shortcuts to Messaging and the Phonebook. Above the display is the earpiece. The QWERTY keyboard is easy to use and really helps when texting or emailing.

On the left side is the microSD slot, protected by a plastic lid, and on the right side you’ll only find the lanyard eyelet. No volume rocker ? No.
The top hosts the microUSB port, 2mm charger plug and 3.5mm audio jack. Nothing at the bottom.
On the back, you’ll notice the camera lens and the loudspeaker grille.

The phone comes loaded with a 1 GHz processor, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM and 100 MB storage. It runs Series 40, which doesn’t consume too many resources, so the phone works smoothly when being used.
The call quality is great, the voices were loud and clear for both sides and the reception was also good. You get support for Voice clarity, a feature which improves the sound quality when calling.

When it comes to messaging, this phone is very friendly, you have a Conversation view mode and, as I’ve said before, the qwerty keyboard is your best buddy if you’re the kind of person who usually sends tons of messages.

The Asha 302 is a real connectivity sweetheart, coming with support for Wi-Fi b/g/n, quad-band 2G/GPRS/EDGE, penta-band 3G, which is very fast (14.4 Mbps download and 5.76 Mbps upload) and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR.
For browsing, you have to deal with the oldie Nokia Browser, which is kind of okay. The pages are loaded fast enough.

The device comes with a 3.15 megapixel fixed-focus camera that takes pictures at a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. You have settings for effects (sepia, greyscale, negative), exposure, white balance. The colors are fine and the image quality is quite good.
The video camera shoots in VGA at 15 fps and QVGA at 30 fps and the video quality is also okay.
The music player supports formats like MP3, WMA, WAV and AAC, is very simple and easy to use and you have some equalizer presets which can be customized. The audio quality is excellent. You also have FM Radio with RDS support.

The video player is also decent, having support for WMW, MP4 and DivX/XviD videos.
The phone has some preinstalled useful applications. The built-in Mail app allows you to set up accounts for Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and Ovi Mail. The Social app enables you to log in with Twitter and Facebook. The WhatsApp is also available and if you’re not satisfied with what the phone has to offer, you can access the Ovi Store for more. No document viewer or GPS support, you can stop day-dreaming about them.

The phone’s 1320 mAh battery is supposed to endure over 800 hours of 3G standby, almost 6 hours of talk time and up to 50 hours of music playback. Wow. Impressive, huh ? Well, I don’t know about that, but for me, it lasted 3 or 4 days of intensive usage. I made some long calls, listened to music while jogging in the morning, sent a lot of messages and emails and played Sudoku.

My final words are that this phone is certainly a “best-buy”, if you come to think about the price you have to pay for what it has to offer. This phone, although it’s pretty cheap, comes with some good quality features, like its camera, media-player, browser and not to mention the great connectivity support and pretty, but solid design. If you value your money and want a good phone for basic needs, Nokia Asha 302 is one of the best choices you can make.

For a mobile phone deal on Asha 302, visit us here.

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Nokia E72, King of the Eseries

Nokia E series has always been dedicated to business people who use email services heavily. E72 is the successor of E71 and Nokia didn't have to try and experiment, the recipe for success was already there. E72 retains the same features that have made the success of the E71, but also brings improvements to convince us to buy it. E72 not only looks better, it is more efficient also.
Nokia E72 is not just for business. If you use the Internet frequently and you want a phone good at everything, with a large capacity battery and a full QWERTY keyboard, you can ask for Nokia E72 anytime, anywhere.

Key features:

• Quad-band GSM support
• 3G with HSDPA 10.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
• Landscape 2.36" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution
• Comfortable full QWERTY keypad
• Optical track pad on the D-pad
• Symbian 9.3 OS, S60 UI with FP2
• 600 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB of SDRAM
• 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology, DLNA support
• Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS support, digital compass
• Accelerometer for turn-to-mute
• 250 MB of internal memory, micro SD expansion, ships with a 4GB card
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP support and microbus v2.0
• FM radio with RDS
• Remote Wipe
• Great battery life
• Office document editor (including MS Office 2007)
• User-friendly Mode Switch for swapping two home screen setups
• Smart dialing
• Full Flash support
• Great audio output quality
• Lifetime Nokia Messaging subscription

 Full specs here.

Nokia E72 comes in a package which has all the essential accessories for a business tool. We got a hands-free headset with a 3.5 mm audio jack and wireless control keys, a charger, micro USB data cable, a leather bag, a leather hand strap and the user manual. We also found in the box   a 4 GB micro SD card and a piece of cloth to clean the phone.

In size, the phone is within the normal range for its class, is indistinguishable higher than E71, that is a gram heavier and wider with a mm. Thus, E72 has a length of 114 mm, a width of 58 mm and the same thickness of 10 mm. The weight is 128 grams.  The metal battery cover plays a role here. Nokia E72 is still among the slimmest QWERTY handsets on the market and comes in three colors: Zodium Black, Metal Grey and Topaz Brown.
The front houses a 2.36 inches screen and a QWERTY keyboard along with the main control keys, the speaker, a secondary camera for video calls and the ambient light sensor.
On the left are the micro USB port and the micro SD memory card slot. Both have protective covers to prevent dust penetration.
At the top of the phone we find an audio jack of 3.5 mm and the start / stop button. The start / stop can be used both to change the profiles and lock the phone.
In the back, the E72 has a stainless steel lid with some small ditches, which are designed to prevent fingerprints. It is a useful innovation; many phones have problems with fingerprints on their stainless steel casing. Here is the 5 megapixel camera, a LED flash, self-portrait mirror and the speaker. Camera lens is not protected against scratches.  Under the stainless steel back cover we find the 1500 mAh BP-4L Li-Ion battery which is the same unit in the Nokia E71. For the E72 it is quoted at 576 hours of stand-by time and 12 and a half hour of talk time, pretty impressive to say the least.
All materials are top notch; the phone is very well built.
Nokia E72 uses the Symbian S60 3rd Edition. This is version 9.3, which is newer than the one on the E71. The user interface is common for Symbian. Menus are well structured and intuitive. The processor is strong, running at 600 MHz.  Memory is also sufficient at 128 MB of RAM. Interface and applications are running smoothly.

The standby screen shows you a lot of information. You can see the time, date, battery charge level, signal level. You can also see if you have messages or missed calls. You can add shortcuts to applications or websites.

E72's TFT screen is not very big, is the same used by the E71 and E63. It measures 2.36 inches and offers a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The screen performance is still great, with excellent contrast and vivid image. Sunlight legibility is among the best of its class.
Nokia E72 offers top notch sound quality during calls. Signal reception is strong so you'll do well in areas with poor coverage.
Messaging functions are very important for someone who buys an E72. The phone knows how to work with SMS, MMS and email.  The QWERTY keyboard helps to write text quickly. The email client is well thought.
The internal memory of the phone is 250 MB.  The 4 GB micro SD card was very useful for storing photos, music and movies.
The music player is well developed, with a feature rich interface.  It supports most file formats and playlists. You can sort songs by artist, album, genre, composer; it has eight lanes and five equalizer modes.
Audio quality is good; the phone can successfully replace an MP3 player.

 The video player is the same, I am talking here about Real Player of course, it supports 3GP and MP4 files, but the E72 lacks DivX and XviD support out of the box. Luckily, finding applications for the S60 3.2 that support those codecs is a fairly easy task. Since the screen is positioned horizontally, the player only works in landscape mode. The screen is big enough for short clips.
The camera has 5 megapixels, autofocus and LED flash.  Photos are taken at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. The interface offers numerous settings.  The image quality is excellent, among the best 5MP snappers we've seen. Contrast, color, brightness and the level of detail are very good.
 The video recording is at VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels), but only 15 fps.
Nokia E72 is an ideal phone for those who want to stay always connected to the Internet, it just has it all: from Bluetooth v2.0 and USB v2.0 to Wi-Fi and 3G. Furthermore, the 3G comes with HSPA support for the fastest network data transfers - up to 10.2Mbps downlink and 2Mbps uplink.
Web browser is very good, as we are already accustomed to Symbian phones; it supports Flash and loads pages faster.
To connect your phone to your computer, you can use a micro USB cable, and/or Bluetooth.
 In the business department, you have QuickOffice preinstalled so you can read all Microsoft Office documents and PDF files too. You have the ability not only to view documents but also to edit them.
For GPS navigation, the phone is using Ovi Maps.
Nokia E72 is an ideal phone for anyone who uses email, internet and messaging heavily. It handles just about every means of communication available today - from voice calls, through video calls, VoIP to texting, email and IM. Business as usual in the Eseries.

You can have one here for FREE on a monthly contract deal.

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Nokia E5, Texting Fiend

Nokia continues its series of business phones with another model, called simply E5. It was announced in April 2010  and became available in august.

Email  is increasingly becoming an essential means of communication for the lot of us . The E5 has skill to match the E72 down to the last spec.
The phone is compact and uses the Symbian S60 3rd Edition. We must see if this is a worthy successor of E72.

Nokia E5 comes in a medium sized box, inside which there are only strictly necessary accessories ie the micro USB  data cable, a battery charger a  handsfree headset with an audio jack of 3.5 mm  and the manual. I was pleasantly surprised by the 2GB memory card delivered, absolutely necessary for this phone who doesn’t have enough internal memory.

Key features

• QWERTY messenger bar
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• Tri-band 3G with 10.2Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA
• Symbian S60 UI, 3rd edition FP2
• 600MHz processor, 256MB RAM; 250MB user-accessible storage
• 2.36" 256K-color QVGA display
• 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera, LED flash
• VGA video recording at 15fps
• Wi-Fi b/g; DLNA and UPnP support
• GPS receiver; Ovi Maps 3.0 with free life-time voice guided navigation
• Stereo FM radio with RDS, Internet radio
• Bluetooth (with A2DP)
• Standard microUSB port (charging)
• microSD card slot (32GB supported, 2GB included)
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Good email and social networking support
• Office document editor; PDF viewer; ZIP file support
• Good audio quality
• Reasonable price
• Microsoft Office Messenger support
• Quick Business and Personal homescreen toggle

 Full specs here.


In size, the Nokia E5 is within normal limits. It has a length of 115 mm, a width of 58.9 mm and a thickness of 12.8 mm. Weight is 126 grams. The phone is available in many colors, including white, black, blue and brown to brick. While it is not a small phone, E5 feels comfortable in your pocket.
No matter how good touchscreen input has gotten these last few years, a good old physical QWERTY is still the real deal. Which is why QWERTY messenger bars like the E5 can survive in a world dominated by touch phones.

On the back of the phone we find a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and the speaker grille.

The metal battery cover has an opening mechanism slightly different from what Nokia uses routinely. It comes off by pressing two buttons simultaneously on both sides of the phone. Under the lid is a Li-Ion battery of 1200 mAh, which the manufacturer says should provide an autonomy of 635 hours standby and 12 hours talk time in 2G and 670 hours of standby and 5 hours talk time and a half in 3G. The battery lasted long enough between two recharges during testing, approximately three days of intensive use.

The case is solid and gives an impression of quality, even though Nokia has used only plastic here. The only metal part is the back cover  but E5  still offers the solid quality feel that any business phone should.. The phone sits well in the hand, which means you will not drop it too often, at least let’s hope so.
The Nokia E5 is powered by Symbian 9.3 and runs on the S60 3rd edition user interface with Feature Pack 2.
The screen has a diagonal of 2.36 inches and is mounted in a horizontal position. It offers a maximum resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and 256,000 colors. Nokia has fallen behind with screen resolution  but the good thing is that the phone can be used without problems in bright light.
E5's hardware is very good for a model in this class. It has a 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM, making the operating system and applications go unexpectedly well.

Nokia E5 did very well during calls,  the sound is loud and clear and signal reception is good also.
The music player is compatible with most common music formats ie MP3, AAC, eAAC + and WMA. Music sounds pretty good on the speaker and the bundled headphones are surprisingly good. The application is simple and easy to use. Your songs are organized by artist, album, composer or genre. According to manufacturer specifications, E5 is able to play about 38 hours of music on a single charge of the battery. The player has an equalizer and comes with several modes.

The video player has not been upgraded for years. RealPlayer is the same and it can only open mp4 and 3gp video formats MP4, also the video player does not support DivX or Xvid.

The camera of the Nokia E5 has 5 megapixel fixed focus and LED flash. It can capture images at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. The interface is rich in features, settings, color effects and shooting modes.. Picture quality is not very good, colors are a bit pale, and the level of detail is not one that I would have expected from a 5 megapixel camera from Nokia. The led  flash can be used as a flashlight if you press space.
The video recording is at VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels) at 15 fps. Movies are saved in MP4 format.

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity you get quad-band GSM/EDGE, so  if there’s a GSM network around you can connect to it. Tri-band 3G is also available and offers blazing fast speeds – 10.2Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA.The E5 has Bluetooth covered too – v2.0 with A2DP – and also Wi-Fi b/g

 The web browser is loading pages quickly and displays  them correctly. Flash support is another strong point. It is true that the screen is rather small, which makes navigation awkward someties. Also, the D-pad seems obsolete for browsing web pages in a time when touchscreens rule the world of smartphones.
The E5 comes with a GPS receiver and the Ovi Maps on board. You can browse the maps, look up addresses, plan routes, and enjoy turn-by-turn voice guided navigation.

Final words, Nokia E5 phone is a nice tool for those  who send many messages or emails, use Internet occasionally and need a battery that will keep them running for days and days. Nokia has spiced up the E5 with social networking support to appeal to the younger crowd as well. It’s a budget friendly business tool.

 You can have one on a monthly contract deal here, for FREE.

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Nokia E7, Open for Business

Nokia E7 is one of the first Symbian 3 gadgets (a dying or already dead platform) with a cool slide-out QWERTY keyboard. E7 has a design similar to that of Nokia N8 and is distinguished by the steel casing from one piece. This model is the successor of E71 and E72 phones, and thus a true business phone with pedigree.   The Nokia E7 is basically a larger N8, trading the camera bulk for a larger and better display and a full QWERTY keyboard.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA
• Anodized aluminum unibody
• 4" 16M-color ClearBlack AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
• Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
• 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash
• 720p video recording @ 25fps
• Symbian^3 OS
• 680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• microHDMI port 720p TV-out functionality
• GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
• Digital compass
• 16GB of on-board storage
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
• DivX and XviD video support
• Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM Radio with RDS
• microUSB port with USB On-the-go
• Flash and Java support for the web browser
• Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
• Good quality audio
• Smart and voice dialing
• Office document editor preinstalled
•
Main disadvantages

• Symbian^3 is still behind Android and iOS usability standards
• Ovi store content is inferior to Android market and App Store
• Fixed-focus on an 8 megapixel camera is just wrong
• Camera interface is decidedly outdated
• Battery is not user-replaceable
• No microSD card slot

For full specs, please visit the Nokia official website.

Nokia E7 comes in a roomy box, inside which are all the accessories that you need, there is a micro USB cable, charger, headset, some adapters, a micro HDMI cable and a manual. Unfortunately the phone has no memory card slot hence no SD card for you.
 Nokia E7’s size is within normal limits. It has a length of 123.7 mm, a width of 62.4 mm and 13.6 mm thick. In terms of weight, the phone is not a feather; it weighs 176 grams due to its metal cover. If you plan to carry it in your trousers, it can sometimes feel like a brick.
The face of the Nokia E7 is dominated by the large 4 inch screen. Above the display is the speaker, the two sensors (one of proximity and the ambient light sensor), and a secondary camera for video calls. Under the 4-inch screen is a hardware button that opens the menu.
 At the top of the phone is an audio jack of 3.5 mm and a socket for charging. There is also the on / off button, which has the role to switch between phone profiles. At the top you also find the micro HDMI port, protected by a rubber cap against dust .Last but not least, here is the micro USB port.
The back of the phone houses the camera with LED flash. Nokia has decided to change the advertised 12 megapixel camera from the N8 with a more "modest" 8 megapixels. The 1200 mAh battery cannot be detached from the phone. The manufacturer promises a life span of 480 hours of standby and 9 hours of talk, but on heavy use it lasts for 2 days or so.
The slide out keyboard is designed to save space, this resulting in a relative thin device, buttons are arranged in four rows and are large enough and with enough space between them to be easy to press. The mechanism of action of the keyboard is sturdy and precise. The keys have excellent brightness at night.
 The operating system is a dying breed, Symbian is exceeded in terms of functionality, as we know, by IOS or Android, but there are still many users who prefer a Symbian smartphone from Nokia.
The touch screen is a 4 inch AMOLED offering a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels. It is a Gorilla glass model, resistant to scratches. It provides a very good legibility in bright light, something still rare among smartphones. The contrast is excellent and colors are very realistic. Unfortunately the resolution is pretty low for a screen this size, making pixels visible.

Nokia E7 uses a 680 MHz ARM processor; it has 256 MB of RAM and 1 GB ROM memory. I can say that the phone is pretty fast, although if you launch too many applications it can lag a little.
Camera has 8MP and a dual LED flash. It can capture images with a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels.  The interface is easy to use and quite rich in features. Picture quality is very good for a business phone.

The video player is excellent. Looks like the one on N8 and supports DivX and Xvid codecs, a rarity for Nokia. Moreover, the video player knows how to load subtitles. The maximum resolution that can be played is HD 720p. Movies run only in full screen landscape mode. The video recording is at a maximum resolution of 720p with 25 fps. Videos are saved in MP4 format.
In terms of connectivity, Nokia E7 is an excellent device for browsing the Internet. It offers Wi-Fi b / g / n and HSPA with download speeds up to 10.2 Mbps and upload to 2 Mbps.

The web browser is not as powerful as the one on Android or IOS, even if it supports multi-touch and FlashLite 4.0.

Conclusion: Nokia continued the robust design of the models E71 and E72, E7 featuring a stainless steel body that makes the phone look very good. Nokia E7 is distinguished by the large screen and excellent messaging capabilities; the full QWERTY keyboard is great for writing messages. The phone is suitable not only for business but for any multimedia enthusiast, mainly because of its large screen and the support for DivX and Xvid.

 You can have it for FREE on a monthly contract deal, just visit here.

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