Nokia Asha 200 Review

Nokia Asha Series is back for another review round up and this time we are reviewing Nokia Asha 200. Nokia tried to expand its dual SIM and feature rich affordable phone range with the Asha 200. The phone is primarily custom-made for those mobile users who want convenience, Internet browsing and entertainment – all in one handset. Apart from this the Asha 200 is also equipped with the Nokia Music Unlimited service.

The Nokia Asha 200 is quite a cheap phone in terms of its price though there are plenty of bad ways to be cheap but the Asha 200 apparently gets it the right way. The Nokia Asha 200 is a QWERTY messenger with dual-SIM support. And, it is not just the dual SIM support rather the combination of S40 interface and QWERTY keyboard as well as the dual SIM support and colorful bodywork.

Generally speaking, you will have to carry out without one or two things that of course can be taken for granted in modern-day phones. If truth be told, such omission of features is not difficult to forgive for a phone that costs next to nothing.

The Nokia Asha 200 puts emphasis on the fundamentals while offering true value to your money.

The retail package of the Nokia Asha 200 is a basic package that only holds the essentials. Below are the accessories that you will get with the handset:

• One Nokia Asha 200 Handset
• A Typical Nokia Charger
• A Single-Piece Headset
• A Manual

Nokia Asha 200 has 2.4-inch (320×240 pixels) TFT display with dedicated SIM manager as well as messaging keys and runs on Nokia S40 operating system. Look wise, it is a glossy plastic body with the exception of the matte frame that covers the entire body of the handset. The Nokia Asha 200 comes in range of colors that includes Pink, White, Aqua and Graphite.

Advantages

• The Nokia Asha 200 measures at 115.4x61x14mm, 47.7cc dimensions and it is 105g in weight.
• The display consists of TFT 256K colors and the size of the display is 320x240 Pixels, 2.4 inches 167ppi Pixel density.
• The matte frame running around the complete body accommodates the secondary SIM and memory card slots.
• On the whole, the screen quality is acceptable with good contrast and viewing angles.
• The navigation deck is complete with a D-pad along with the standard soft keys, call buttons and shortcuts to SIM management and messaging. The shortcut buttons and the flat call keys are expediently divided by thin plastic ridges.
• The Asha 200 comes with a standard battery - Li-Ion 1430mAh (BL_5J) Battery offering impressive 552h (that's 23 days) of standby and 7 full hours of talk time and Music play up to 53h.

Disadvantages

• The graphite version of the Asha 200 is reasonably prone to fingerprints however they are not that easily visible.
• The Asha 200 unfortunately doesn't have any kind of brightness control and there is no ambient-light sensor on the Nokia Asha 200 as well.
• The handset does not offer a dedicated volume control thus you will need D-pad to adjust the volume during the calls as well as when playing music.

The Nokia Asha 200 runs on Series 40 with no touch included that supports basics with hardware input only. Since, there is no need for thumbability certain UI elements are reduced. Furthermore, the icons have been worked in order to make them go well with the Symbian Anna's appearance.

Advantages

• The design of the Asha 200 is quite simple however the good build must rate higher in an entry level phone. The phone comes with a comfortable QWERTY keyboard with an acceptable hand feel.
• The Nokia Asha 200 is a dual SIM phone and the hot-swappable SIM is a major point in favor.
• There is an active Standby Mode or you can say Home Screen that separates the screen into four sections. Each section in the Home Screen efficiently is a widget. The top row of the screen is dedicated for the status indicators such as time, signal, etc., which is followed by a Facebook, Twitter and Flickr integrated and two Shortcut bars at the bottom for instant access.
• Rearranging the icons in the menu in whichever order you like is easy in both grid and list view.
• You can store about 2000 contacts depending on the fields you use and can also set the phonebook to display contacts from the phone memory, SIM memory or both.
• The Nokia Asha 200 supports dual SIM standby. This means that both the phone lines can work independently. You just need to insert SIM 2 in the master compartment present under the battery.

Disadvantages

• The biggest disadvantage is the omission of multitasking.
• Smart dialing is not available which is however not surprising for an S40 device.

The music player of the Asha 200 is quite simple but it definitely gets the job done. The music player in the Asha 200 has taken a step back if you compare it with that of Asha 300 to keep the cost down. On the whole, the audio quality is moderately decent.

Advantages

• The music player interface is very simple with no great visuals. The Now Playing screen is as simple as possible.
• There are quite a lot of basic equalizer presets hidden deeper in the Music player menus.
• The FM radio interface of the Asha 200 matches the music player interface and covers all basic functions.
• RDS is supported in the Asha 200 and RDS info and frequency appear on the home screen. You can easily search and save all the available stations in your area.
• On the whole, the Asha 200 is quite loud, thus it really is a pretty good performer.

Disadvantages

• The music player turns off when you hit the red receiver key and takes you to the home screen. However, you can run the player in the background but for that you have to go to Options > Play in background.
• Furthermore, there is no way to pause a song or skip it to the next one if you are not in the Now Playing interface. For this, you must have to get into the music player.

The Nokia Asha 200 comes with a 2 mega pixel fixed-focus camera that produces photos with maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200. The camera interface is updated in order to make it look like that of Symbian. The Nokia Asha 200 is a dual band device (900 / 1800) and offers GPRS and EDGE class 12. But unfortunately, there is no 3G (HSDPA) or Wi-Fi on board.

Advantages

• The Nokia Asha 200 comes with a 2 mega pixel fixed-focus camera that produces photos with maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200.
• The camera interface is modified consequently it is now a lot more similar to Symbian.
• The Nokia Asha 200 is also capable of video capture but the QCIF (176 x 144) quality shouts bottom of the barrel.
• For the connectivity purpose, the phone offers GPRS and EDGE.
• The Nokia Asha 200 uses a microUSB port for both data connections and charging.
• The Nokia Asha 200 also comes inclusive with a memory card slot. In addition to a card reader it can generally provide you the fastest data transfer rates.

Disadvantages

• The image quality of the Asha 200 is not that good with dull colors and some lens issues.
• The video quality of the Asha 200 is awful. The lack of resolution aside detail is almost absent and colors are all wrong.
• The Nokia Asha 200 managed to play DivX videos up to nHD resolution and those above were only audible - without actual video, only sound.
• There's no 3G (HSDPA) or Wi-Fi on board. However, the A2DP and Bluetooth version 2.1 is enabled.
• USB-on-the-go is not available here.

The Nokia Asha 200 is a smart choice for those users who want their mobile phone to be just a phone. It is a dual SIM phone that does not seem to be in conflict with any of its alternatives. Even though the majority of its competition is originating from fellow Nokia devices, the Asha 200 successfully makes its presence felt because it is different as much as necessary to deserve its existence.

If you are necessarily looking for a dual SIM phone then there are only few choices to pick from. The Nokia Asha 200 is a phone that certainly does not impress you however it does mark off the boxes that really count. It simply is a combination of a QWERTY keyboard and dual SIM support for the first time from Nokia. It looks as if the lowest applicant will get the job and get it done right.

The Nokia Asha 200 is an elegant compact GSM mobile phone that supports dual SIM compatibility and runs on a Series 40 OS. You can smoothly swap connection thanks to its shortcut key for SIM card management. Its well spaced QWERTY keypad allows you type messages without much effort. On the whole, the Nokia Asha 200 is a good choice and offer true value for money with all its features.