Nokia introduced new Asha series of smartphones couple of years ago. They started with QWERT smartphones such as Asha 302, Asha 201 or Asha 303. All these phones did very good business in the market which made Nokia to work more for the Asha series and later last year they introduced Touchscreen devices in Asha series. So far they have launched Asha 305, Asha 311, Asha 309 and Asha 308. Out of these entire Touch series Asha 308 has been the Best Seller phone and we are going to review it today.
Nokia Asha 308 is available at the price of Rs. 5,250/- officially on Nokia Online Store. It features 3-Inch Touchscreen display offering 400 x 240 pixels resolution, Dual Sim Card slots, Expandable upto 32GB using MicroSD Card, 2MP Camera and Symbian Series 40 operating system. The phone is also very good for internet usage and social networking. You will also love it for Multimedia and Gaming purpose. Let’s check all its features in details.
Design:
Weighing just 104 grams the design and packaging of Asha 308 is decent and comfortable to handle as it is just 109.9 mm in length. It fits great in palm; however, with its slightly shiny metallic surface it may be slippery sometimes. Asha 308 is available in two colors including black or gold. The one which we are testing is in Black color. Navigation keys are placed very well, you can access them all with any hands easily. Let’s check them individually.
At front side we have a 3-Inch LCD display, two keys are placed just below the screen which are Call and End key and there is a speaker with Nokia Logo above the screen.
On the right side of the phone we get Screen Lock key as well as Volume Up/Down key.
On the left of the body there is MicroSD card. You get 2GB SD card free with the device in box. Just next to it Nokia has placed SIM 2 slot. Let me tell you that Nokia has incorporated a featured called “Easy Swap” with Asha 308 which means you can remove one SIM and insert another SIM card in this slot without switching off the phone.
On the top of the phone we get Micro USB port accompanied with 3.5 mm Headphone Jack and power jack.
And at the rear there is 2 Megapixel Camera and loud speaker with Nokia Logo again.
When we open the rear cover and remove battery, you can see there is SIM Slot 1 and nothing else for our use. MicroSD slot and SIM 2 is placed in the right side as shown in this image itself.
When we open the rear cover and remove battery, you can see there is SIM Slot 1 and nothing else for our use. MicroSD slot and SIM 2 is placed in the right side as shown in this image itself.
Operating System and Hardware:
Asha 308 is running with Nokia’s own Symbian S40 operating system. To be frank, I was bit surprised to know this because this operating system is too old. Anyways, but still the S40 gives optimum performance on these Asha series smartphones. Unlike all recent smartphones, Nokia has utilized their own hardware in this phone which consists of 800MHz CPU. As per our test, processor seems to be good enough to run Asha 308 comfortably.
As we already said this is a Dual SIM model phone where you can use 2 sim cards at the same time. SIM slot 1 is placed below the battery, while Slot 2 is placed outside on the ride side of the body with ‘Easy Swap’ feature. That means you don’t have to turn off your phone in case you need to remove or change SIM 2. Here you need to Note one thing that you will not be able to use SIM 2 slot unless you have any SIM inserted in the Slot 1. In other words, SIM slot 2 is option, but Slot 1 is recommended to use the network. Another best part here is that you can also rename your Sim Cards. You can name SIM 1 as “Personal” and SIM 2 as “Work” or anything as per your choice.
As per storage, Asha 308 comes with just 20MB of internal space which is obviously very low for doing anything. However, Nokia provides you 2GB MicroSD card for free in the box at the time of purchase. You can expand this memory upto 32GB.
Screen:
Asha 308 comes with 3-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen with WQVGA resolution 400 x 240 pixels. Touch sensitivity is just basic as it is a low budget touchscreen smartphone. Though they have provided so many Games or an enhanced Nokia Browser, I don’t think they are useful on such small screen. We tried opening some websites and noticed that it was too difficult to read them. However you can read the websites after zooming but still that is a problem because you will need to keep on scrolling. The same thing happens while watching videos.
As far as typing and the text input are concerned, I didn’t find any issue with its keyboard. When you try to write any text you will first see the portrait mode of keyboard like the older mobile phones. To turn the same in QWERTY mode, you will need to put the phone in landscape mode. I found typing comfortable in QWERTY mode on this phone.
Performance and applications:
As I have already stated above, Asha 308 is the Best Selling phone under entire Asha series of phones according to Nokia’s official statement. Off course, it is due to its Performance and durability. Its navigations, features, settings, etc; are very easy. You don’t need any expertise to use this Smartphone. Just press unlock key, by sliding the screen to unlock the display and you will get all your installed applications listed on one screen (app drawer) in form of icon, that’s it. For making calls slide it again to 3rd screen or simply press the ‘Call’ key.
You can make several changes in the Settings Menu according to your preference. It allows you to change themes, wallpapers, ringtones, etc. You can also put some application shortcuts on your Home screen for quick access. There is also a Notification bar very similar to Android Mobiles which can be accessed by sliding down the screen. If you have any Miss call, Messages or any kind of notification, it appears a bit on its own. This notification bar also allows you to turn ON/Off your Mobile Data and Bluetooth. You can also change your phone profile directly from the icon provided in Notification bar. Apart from these, Notification bar also provides you one touch access to Music Player, Messages and Contacts.
There are total 3 displays. First is your Homescreen with shortcut icons; second is the App Drawer and the third is Dialer Screen. You just need to swipe the screen vertically for accessing the same.
As far as Applications are concerned, Asha 308 has surprised several users around the world. Nokia has provided many useful apps built-in with this phone such as Calendar, Nokia browser, Ovi Store, Nokia Life, FM Radio, Calculator, Email clients, Nokia Maps, Chat messenger including Nimbuzz, Google Talk etc. It also comes preloaded with Social Networking apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, etc. That’s not all. Asha 308 also comes with several preloaded games of Gameloft and EA sports such as Block Breaker, The SIMS 3, NFS RUN, Golf Tour and many more.
Over all Asha 308 won’t disappoint you for Applications and Games and it also provides optimum performance with all these apps. No Lag, No Freeze.
Camera:
Asha 308 comes with 2 Megapixel rear camera without focus which means you cannot capture in low light environment. Though the quality is not so great (what else we can expect from 2MP) but it captures the image in 1600 x 1200 pixels resolution. There are also some enhancement options provided in the camera such as Lighting, Effects, Grid, Self Timer, Fun Sounds, etc. You also get several editing options after capturing the image such as warp, putting text, effects, frames, rotating image, etc. I didn’t like the video recording at all. It records the video in 176 x 144 pixels which is very low. Overall it is a standard camera from which we cannot expect more.
Connectivity:
This is where it disappointed us. Though they have provided so many internet applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Nimbuzz, Browser, etc; but the only way of connection is 2G data. Asha 308 won’t support Wi-Fi or 3G connection. And in result we get very slow browsing speed and it could be pain if you want to stream video on YouTube or any other websites, or in case you want to download something from web. However Nokia says that they have incorporated some technology which allows 3x faster internet access on this device or it’s Nokia Browser. Other than in terms of connectivity you get Bluetooth and Micro USB port to transfer files between devices.
Multimedia:
We have already talked about its camera above. Now as per media playback, Asha 308 is not so good. You cannot play HD videos; neither has it supported all generally used file formats such as avi, flv, etc. It only plays MP4 fine which is not fun to watch on 3-inch screen. However its Music player is average. Sound is good enough to hear a song comfortably on loud speaker in a room.
Gaming:
Asha 308 comes with few built-In games including NSF Run, The Sims 3, Block Breaker, Solitaire, Worms 2011 Armageddon, Golf Tour and few more. Apart from these, you can also Download 40 Free games from EA server. They have provided an EA Icon in the app drawer. All the built-in games are from Gameloft and EA Sports but all those games are just Trial or Demo for few minutes. You will need to buy their full version once it is expired.
Conclusion:
We all know the brand Nokia which is capable of making High End Smartphones such as Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 powered by Windows Phone 8; the company also knows well that their main market is still with affordable phones in India like this Asha Series. Asha 308 is one of the best budget phones with Touch Screen, Social Network Apps, Email Clients, etc. Also it allows you to use Two SIM Cards and we get all these stuffs at just Rs 5,250. Though there are several phones available in the market running on Android OS at the price, but let me tell you that Nokia is one of the Oldest Manufacturer around the world and is well known for performance and durability for its devices which we cannot expect from any other manufacturers. Also you don’t need to worry about charging the phone again and again. Just charge the battery 100% once in a day and keep browsing, chatting, listening music for the entire day. However, Asha 308 also disappoints us at little extent and the biggest disappointment is the lack of Wi-Fi or 3G support. We have to access all those internet apps and chatting messenger on slow 2G network, which is really annoying. Over all, if you need a durable smartphone in budget price with Touch UI for emailing, chatting and being connected with Social Network, Asha 308 is the best choice.
Pros:
- Dual SIM phone
- Easy Swap, change SIM card without reboot.
- Budget Touchscreen Phone
- Better/Smooth Performance.
Cons:
- No 3G / Wi-Fi
- Small screen
- Poor video streaming
