Nokia Asha 200 Pep Talk Part 1, Dual SIM Mass Market QWERTY ~ SCRATCH e-PAD!

I've always wanted to own a monobloc QWERTY device ever since I laid eyes on it decades ago. I was lusting to buy the Nokia E61 after a friend of mine showed me one, I want to buy the Nokia E71 when it was announced, the E72 after I trialled one and the E6 being my dream form factor “Touch and Type” Symbian^3 device, but it all remained a desire for a very obvious reason, I can’t afford to buy one. I might be working in two hospitals beyond a normal 8 hour working limit, but I'm still not earning enough for my family and myself, not until the Nokia Asha 200 was announced bearing a mass market price tag. Right there and then my unreachable desire comes closer to fruition, that finally, after a decade, I can finally own a monobloc QWERTY device.

The Nokia Asha 200 looks fairly attractive, I was quite surprise when I saw it up-close because it looked premium with all the shiny silver buttons and the well color contrasted QWERTY keys. If you’re not familiar with the phone, you will really think it’s expensive, a huge plus factor for the phone.

Holding it feels similarly surprising because even with its low price, Nokia manage to squeeze in a sturdy phone structure, a customary wide dimension which gives a befitting QWERTY keypad space and a glossy plastic cover which feels good to hold, but prone to scratches and breakage.

And speaking about the QWERTY keypad, aside from being well spaced as aforementioned, it’s also well-lit and made of plastic matte that is soft to press. It has a good tactile feedback which I find striking and the dynamic E-Series keyboard mechanism that is very easy to familiarize and get used to.

The phone has the conventional 2.4 inches screen similar to that of the high end devices and a 256K color resolution which is pleasant enough. On its price point, these screen specs were best you can get.

Nothing much can be found around the phone’s hardware, on the upper side are the charger port, the 3.5mm audio jack, the USB connection port and the lanyard inlet. On the left side are the SIM 2 (Hot Swappable) and the memory card slot that handles up to 32GB. No buttons or connectors can be found on the left and bottom parts.

At the back are the 2MP camera and loudspeaker while beyond the back cover is the Li-Ion 1430mAh battery with SIM 1 slot underneath it. The battery was said to last up to 552 h of standby time, up to 7 h of talk time and up to 52 h of music, well, on personal note, with the phone being use as my primary, the phone gives me a solid 3 days without charging, that’s crazy long from someone who uses a mobilephone not only for simple SMS and call but everything, from music, camera, games to surfing the net.

Wrap-up

Well, unlike the rest of the phone that I’ve tried and used, the Nokia Asha 200’s hardware captured the true essence of affordability without much of a compromise. With its price tag, users get to enjoy premium look, fair built quality and modern features and specs which are unparalleled yet in the mobilephone space. The phone is an absolute steal!

With this alone, I can already recommend the phone to users who want more for their hard earn money. The phone deserves the recognition for being a device that answers to every poor man’s QWERTY desire, but aside from the hardware, there is also what we call the software that works the phone to serve its purpose and will tackle about that in the next blog post. For the meantime, enjoy this few images of the Dual SIM mass market QWERTY.