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Nokia adds 500, 502 and 503 to its Asha lineup, starts at $69
Nokia's biggest announcements in Abu Dhabi today are focusing on Lumia devices first and foremost, but it's not leaving the Asha lineup out in the Finnish cold. After boasting that 26 million Ashas have sold so far, the company's announced that it's adding three successors to the Asha 501, the petite smartphone/featurephone hybrid released in May: the 500, the 502 and the 503. All three sport the same primary colored plastic casing as the 501, but with a new "Ice" layer of transparent polycarbonate. They'll be available in bright red, bright green, yellow, cyan, white and black.
Nokia's Here Maps service comes to the Asha 501, beta release available now for download
The touchscreen Asha 501 Nokia unveiled back in May will now work with Here Maps, the company announced on its blog today. The navigation service is already available on Windows Phone 8, Firefox OS, Android and iOS, and its arrival on the Asha platform will boost that operating system's more modest selection of apps. Available now as a beta release, Here Maps for the Asha 501 offers turn-by-turn navigation and real-time traffic information. It's designed specifically for low-end smartphones without GPS on board, and Nokia's post notes that the current version "is a starting point and we will improve the experience over time." Upcoming changes will likely include improved satellite images, which the company says will soon be updated to a higher quality. Asha 501 users in select countries can nab the Here Maps beta via the source link below.
Nokia unveils the touchscreen Asha 501 with new software platform, we go hands-on (video)
One or more additional members are expected to join Nokia's Lumia line-up next Tuesday, but today the company has chosen New Delhi as the stage to unveil the Asha 501, a new touchscreen handset that further blurs the line between featurephone and smartphone. While the last touchscreen Asha Nokia launched was very much a tweaked version of its predecessors, the 501 has a radically different design akin to the latest QWERTY device stamped with the Asha brand. The aesthetics aren't all that's changed, however, as the 501 is running a re-engineered OS Nokia's dubbed the "Asha software platform" (the fruits of last year's Smarterphone acquisition). We were able to spend a little quality time with the handset, so head past the break for more details and our initial impressions. %Gallery-187844% %Gallery-187845%
The Engadget Interview (captured with Lumia 920): Nokia CEO Stephen Elop on WP8 and beyond
Do you know what's better than one interview with Stephen Elop? Two interviews in one month. We'd barely recovered from yesterday's bout of nostalgia when we were given the opportunity to sit down with Nokia's CEO in his office at the company's HQ. Better yet, we were allowed to record the discussion with a hand-held Lumia 920 prototype. The resulting video is remarkably stable. Full disclosure: the audio was recorded with a shotgun mic mounted on a Sony NEX-C3 camera. We talked about HTC's colorful "signature" Windows Phone 8X and 8S and what that means for the Nokia-Microsoft partnership. Next we asked if Nokia is planning to work with carriers to offer incentives for existing Lumia owners to upgrade to the company's 920 and 820 handsets. Finally, we discussed the evolution of PureView imaging technology from the 808 to the 920 and how Nokia plans to combine these building blocks in the future. Hit the break for our video interview.
Nokia releases Browser 2.0 update for Series 40 handsets with improved speed, multitasking in tow
Nokia announced earlier today the release of Browser 2.0 for its Series 40 devices, which of course includes the colorful Asha lineup. The update promises an overall speedier and easier browsing experience, this in large part due to the application condensing data by up to 90 percent. In addition to these enhancements, there's also a novel Download Manager in the refresh, giving users the ability to choose where they'd like to save content without leaving the app. Also included in the update is a new multitasking-while-browsing feature (finally!), as well as a social-sharing bit that lets you push out page URLs to sites like Twitter, Facebook, Sina Weibo and RenRen. Browser 2.0 will be native on future Series 40s, but for now those whom already own a small chunk of the 1.5 billion can grab the goods from the Nokia Store or wait for the OTA package to hit your device.
Nokia 306 manual hints at keyboard-free Asha handset
The team at Unwired View has bagged a PDF that purports to be the user manual for Nokia's 306, the first full-touch member of the keyboard-loving Asha family. None of the images in the document (we've collated a handful above) show a handset with a hardware keyboard, but it's not clear if it's running S40 either. The images show that the device can support multiple home screens, an Android-style notifications bar and pinch-to-zoom, but this could either be evidence of the S40 re-skin (codenamed "Sonic") or, fancifully, the first appearance of Espoo's Linux-based Meltemi OS for low-end phones. The big question now is, will Nokia confirm its existence (perhaps at its Asian conference in June?), or will the secretary deny all knowledge?
Hands-on with Nokia Asha 202, 203 and 302 at MWC (video)
There's no doubt that the smartphone is a truly empowering device, but for individuals unable to afford such high-end gear, Nokia believes it has the solution with its latest line of Series 40 handsets -- the Asha 202, 203 and 302. Like the previously-released Asha 200, the Asha 202 features dual-SIM functionality and the ability to hot-swap the secondary SIM card. Sadly, its connectivity is limited to 1800MHz / 900MHz GSM. The Asha 203 is similar in every way to the 202, save for its single SIM design, better battery life and quadband GSM support. Both feature rather unresponsive 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreens, 2 megapixel cameras and up to 32GB storage expansion via microSD.Meanwhile, the Asha 302 is a non-touchscreen device that offers a physical keyboard, 1GHz processor, 2.4-inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, quadband GSM and pentaband WCDMA support with 14.4Mbps HSPA connectivity. Even as feature phones, none of the offerings are terribly impressive. Still, Nokia hopes the internet capabilities of each handset will be instrumental to help connect the "next billion consumers" to the world at large. So join us as we delve into an extended video tour of the Asha 202 and 302, where we'll explore the features and functionality of each device.
Nokia spreads a brimful of Asha 201 across the FCC
Well, what do we have here? Looks like the Commission's "surgeons" got their rubber-gloved mitts on Espoo's pretty in pink (or is that purple?) Asha 201. Bearing the model number RM-800, the filing for this low-end, Series 40 handset made for emerging markets does a lot of showing, but not much telling. The report's chock full of testing photos and even the device's user manual. But, aside from Bluetooth, there's nary a hint of the radios onboard. No matter, we know this Easy Swap-less portrait QWERTY's headed for an around the world GSM tour in myriad colors. Feel free to rubberneck the exposed internals at the source link below.
What's in a name? Nokia's new Lumia and Asha line explained
What rhymes with Nokia? Why, Lumia, of course. And there, fellow gadget freaks, lies the poetic branding key to Espoo's first, great Windows Phone. Alright, it's not that simple, but the company's marketing team did make a concerted effort to find a moniker ending with a vowel sound. Of course, before this catchy, albeit odd, name could be settled upon, a list of potential winners had to be cross-checked with over 300,000 tech trademarks. After broaching that hurdle, "only a handful" survived and were then parsed by linguistic experts to avoid any embarrassing malapropisms and pronunciation difficulties across 84 dialects. Despite finding "lumi" to be an out-of-date Spanish slang term, resulting surveys found most Spaniards associated the term with "'light' and 'style'," and thus it was saved. We know how this genesis story ends, so we'll spare you the obvious marketplace conclusion. And as for that new Asha range? Well, the thinking there is quite simple. It's the word for hope in Hindi, and as the line is intended for emerging markets, that just seemed apropos. Click through to the source for a more detailed walk through this mobile origin story.
Nokia World 2011 wrap-up
Nokia had something to prove at its annual event, and an eight-month turnaround of its smartphone arm is certainly nothing to be sniffed at. While Nokia's first Windows Phone devices were undoubtably the stars of the two-day expo, there was plenty more to investigate -- Nokia's legion of development labs certainly didn't let us down. Check out a veritable world of coverage neatly arranged below the break for everything Nokia World had to show us, and few more tidbits we found for ourselves. %Gallery-137879%
Nokia Asha brings Angry Birds to the developing world, Mighty Eagle soars (video)
Well we're pretty Angry ourselves, being that Nokia nearly foiled our liveblog plans and made it all but impossible to transmit photos and video thanks to an absolutely miserable attempt at providing internet access. But Nokia World is not without mobile gaming opportunities, and a few minutes with the Birds seemed to do the trick (shifting our moods, at the very least -- there's still no reliable internet). We met up with Mr. Angry Birds himself, Peter Vesterbacka, who took us through a demo of the game on one of Nokia's new Asha Series 40 devices. The game, which has already seen an absolutely massive 400 million downloads, will come preloaded on the Asha 303, giving Vesterbacka and Rovio a chance to bring the game to emerging markets in China, India and Africa, where touchscreen devices are currently priced out of reach. The game seemed to perform just as well as it does on other platforms, so expect the same Angry Birds experience here as well. Jump past the break for a hands-on with Rovio's Mighty Eagle.
Nokia Asha 200, Asha 300 and Asha 303 hands-on (video)
You know, Nokia wasn't only firing its first Windows Phone salvo -- there was also a volley of Series 40 handsets, with the Asha family. First up is the dual-SIM capable Nokia 200. The phone itself bears a strong resemblance to the C3-00, with a non-touchable screen and QWERTY keyboard, priced, pre-tax, at €60 (about $85). Nokia promises admirable battery-life and a rainbow of color choices. Up next is the Nokia 300, pairing a 2.4-inch resistive touchscreen with a numbered keypad, with a long narrow frame very similar to last year's Nokia C3, but now toting a 1GHz processor, five megapixel shooter and a €85 (about $120) bounty. Meanwhile, €115 (about $160) will net you the Nokia 303, which brings together both touchscreen and QWERTY input and rocks a 3.2 megapixel camera. While Nokia's first Windows Phones remain the stars of the show, these sub-$200 prices and pre-2012 arrival will tempt residual Series 40 fans still out there. Skip on past the break for a brimful of Asha.%Gallery-137581% Zach Honig contributed to this post.
Nokia unveils Asha lineup, bringing Series 40 to emerging markets: 200, 201, 300, 303
Nokia has unveiled the Asha lineup, a spate of lower-end devices that run Series 40 and blur the line between featurephone and smartphone. The devices -- named the 200, 201, 300 and 303, are all designed to encourage the "next billion" users to access the web, and seem directed toward emerging markets. The 200 includes an Easy Swap option that lets you throw in multiple SIM cards, and can offer up to 32GB of storage for media playback -- 52 hours of it, in fact. It, along with the 201, have exceptionally loud speakers that work great for parties and those crazy all-nighters, though the latter lacks the multi-SIM support. Both of these phones will be available for €60 ($85); the 200 is going to ship before the end of the year, while the 201 will be ready for your purchase by Q1 2012. The 300 and 303 are the touchscreen handsets of the bunch; the 300 is a candybar with a numeric keypad and offers a 1GHz CPU, 5MP camera and 3G. It'll be priced at €85 ($120) and will be available in Q4 2011. Similarly, the 303 offers the same types of features with a 2.6-inch display and full QWERTY experience, and should be ready before the end of the year for €115 (about $160). All four Asha devices are made of polycarbonate and come with a Nokia Browser, which is powered by the cloud and compresses data by up to 90 percent, saving users from racking up excessive charges. Oh, and did we mention Angry Birds is coming to Series 40? Be sure to check out the vids for each Asha phone -- as well as the press release -- after the break. %Gallery-137548%%Gallery-137529% Sharif Sakr and Dante Cesa contributed to this post.
