Nokia Asha 210 Review

The Nokia Asha 210 is a new addition in the Asha Series and it is distinctly targeting to those who use IM and text messages extensively because it offers a powerful physical portrait QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi and WhatsApp that is integrated deep in the contact book. Moreover, the Nokia Slam feature of Nokia Asha 210 allows you to share images and videos via Bluetooth without having to pair first. Now let us see where the candy colors of the Asha 210 seem targeted at.

While unboxing the Nokia Asha 210, you will get everything inside the retail box that you need to get started with this phone. This includes the traditional Nokia A/C Wall Charger, In-ear stereo headphones and Warranty and information leaflets.

Now let us talk about the design of new Asha 210. The phone is a rather boxy 0.46” (11.8 mm) portrait QWERTY handset that feels quite comfortable in the hand. The most important thing about its keypad is that its keys are pretty much clickable and therefore, quite easy as well as fast to master. This is an enchanting feature particularly for the heavy texters and IM junkies. The keypad is easy to use and the space bar doubles as an on/off Wi-Fi switch upon long press. The same thing applies on the symbol key for Bluetooth.

Navigation is also made extremely easy and user friendly. Along with the usual call, end and two context keys, navigation can be done with the help of a large home button in the middle that comes with an elliptical track pad for navigation in the menus. Furthermore, the two dedicated quick launch keys are added as well to fulfill social needs like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp or browser and for camera access. The key pad of the Asha 210 offers keys with good tactile feedback and is easy to feel and press.

Now let us discuss its dual SIM functionality. The Asha 210 comes with a hot-swap slot present on the left side of the handset that can take regular SIM cards, while the default SIM card slot is present under the battery. Both of these SIM card slots are of regular sizes. Moreover, the hot-swap slot is covered with a flap of matching color in order to maintain the beauty of the phone’s candy chassis. A microSD card slot is also there for the purpose of expanding storage capacity of the phone which is stuffed with a 2 GB card out of the box.

On the whole, the Nokia Asha 210 is quite thick and squarish handset but we can say that the design is kind of attractive and the plastic is of a pretty pleasurable to hold. The build quality of the Nokia Asha 210 to a certain extent feels strong, without any squeaks or gaping fissures, even on the back where the easy to snoop open back cover is snapped into place.

The Nokia Asha 210 comes with a basic 2.4” screen with 320x240 pixels. 169 ppi density of the Asha 210 is what that makes the new Series 40 user interface appears more pixilated to some extent even at that small diagonal. With a relatively bright and sufficiently pleasing display Nokia Asha 210 also offers decent vertical viewing angles while the horizontal ones are not as good. Furthermore, colors are also a bit unresponsive. However, on the whole it is a good display for a phone at this price range.

The user interface of the new Series 40 non-touch Asha phones is not much different from the ones that we have seen in the Asha 302. You can access your most used application by using the shortcut row at the bottom which is present for your quick access. Moreover, the icons are very Symbian like, and you will not find them any different. And, widgets are there for those who want to launch Music and Radio apps rapidly.

In addition to this, there is one more additional widget that shows the signal strength of both the SIM cards you are using in your Nokia Asha 210 Dual SIM phone. The widget also allows you to call the SIM Manager app that lets you control which one to use for calls, texts, data and so on by default.

Most feasible is the hot-swappable SIM card slot that lets you insert second SIM card without turning off the device. The phone can immediately connect to the second line.

Nokia Asha 210 is a social and messaging powerhouse that attracts the most teens. The homescreen contains shortcuts to WhatsApp and Facebook so that you can easily access them. You can quickly attach a photo from the gallery by using WhatsApp and then shoot it to your group on the fly.

The complete process although is a bit burdensome with the context menu and track pad keys, and of course not to mention the typing speed if you have larger hands, therefore, the programmable messaging key appears to be there particularly for marketing purposes. This also applies to YouTube app as well since it opens the browser and takes you to the mobile version of the website.

The processor of the Nokia Asha 210 is a basic ARM11 processor of undisclosed frequency. Comes to memory storage, the Asha 210 offers 32 MB of RAM even so the Series 40 user interface is not graphically intensive. Consequently, when you go in and out of any app or even when you simply stroll through menus, it will take quite a bit for modern standards. However, you can enjoy a 2 GB of microSD card for saving your personal photographs, videos and files. Users can also add a microSD card of up to 32 GB of storage.

The phone comes with a 2 mega pixel camera present on the back of the handset. Though, the phone lacks a flash and moreover, since it is a 2 MP camera, it can shoot only very low resolution videos i.e. 176 x 144 (QCIF). Such videos are good for nothing.

The camera interface is simple and easy to use and has been designed keeping target audience in mind. Furthermore, the camera is efficient enough to quickly focus and take snaps but when it comes to saving photos, it takes a bit of time.

Some effects are also incorporated with the camera that you can add to your photos to make them look interesting. The quality of the photos taken with the Asha 210 is fine and expected with this type of camera. Though, there is plenty of noise but details are relatively enough for a camera of 2 mega pixel.

Your basic needs related to Multimedia are provided with the image gallery, music and video player despite the fact that they aren't graphically rich by a considerable margin. Images are arranged in a basic grid of thumbnails in the gallery. They work just as you’d expect it to, letting you share to social networks or over Bluetooth or email, etc.

A very basic video playback or native resolution MP4 or MWV files only is available but the files need to be in less than 320 x 240 pixels resolution. On the other hand, considering its price tag, we think that the screen is decent enough that watching videos is a nice experience. Video player is very easy to use. Photos can be edited as there is an editing option. Moreover, equalizer presets in the music player and video playback goes up to VGA resolution.

Music player is far better with the support for MP3, WAV, WMA and AAC. It comes with all the basic feature that you would expect in a music player, furthermore, the loudspeaker is pretty much louder. And, in some selected countries Asha phones also come with 3 months of free Nokia Music as well.

Voice quality is great and we did not have any qualms both in the earpiece and also via the microphone of the Asha 210. Voices are loud and clearly audible while the other end could hear us very well in terms of strength, though with a rather distorted voice quality output.

Coming to its battery, the Asha 210 comes with a 1200 mAh battery which is as good for 12 hours of talk time and 40 hours of music playback.

The phone, although appears to be a great choice for the young audience and IM junkies but it has some disadvantages as well that you should keep in mind when deciding to buy this mobile phone though these are not too significant to change your decision. The phone sometimes becomes too slow and you will have to wait for a bit of time before desired action is taken and the keyboard feels cramped for larger hands.

The Nokia Asha 210 is a great budget smartphone with a stylish design, easy to use and quick user interface, a full QWERTY keyboard and a solid build quality at an affordable price along with the added advantage of Wi-Fi, larger battery, better camera and microUSB connectivity.

Going over the main points, the Asha 210 with its excellent call quality, better talk time, decent display, satisfactory picture taking and cool exterior is an ideal choice for the young users and social media fans. Though, it is somewhat slow and the dedicated messaging features and the whole Series 40 apps quality come in kind of gimmicky, but this is what you can expect from a cell phone of this price range.

Keeping in mind that there is really no decent smartphone at this price range, Nokia Asha 210 can be a good tradeoff as it offers good talk time, better call quality, messaging, better camera, Wi-Fi, longer battery life and of course access to social media like Facebook or Twitter.

If you are not crazy about the touch screens rather if you are nostalgic for the portrait QWERTY handsets, then the Nokia Asha 210 is a reasonably classy and ultra affordable representative.