Nokia Asha 303 Review

Nokia recently unveiled the Asha lineup - a great deal of lower-end devices that run Series 40 and obscure the line between feature phone and smartphone. All the devices in the Asha lineup are named as 200, 201, 300 and 303, and they all are designed to encourage the next billion users to access the web. With this Nokia Asha lineup seem directed toward emerging markets. Here we are covering Nokia 303 which is a touch screen handset.

The Nokia Asha 303 is a spectacular phone that is designed with classy materials and metallic finishes. The 303 combines a large 2.6" capacitive touch screen with a high quality QWERTY keypad. It is built by keeping Internet and social network ease in mind.

The Nokia Asha 303 straps up a powerful 1 GHz engine, 3G and WLAN to bring a speedy Internet experience. With the Nokia Asha 303, you can access Social networks, email and IM right from the home screen. Furthermore, the 303 is made of polycarbonate and comes with a Nokia Browser that is powered by the cloud and can compress data by up to 90 percent. This will save users from racking up unnecessary charges, and provides higher speeds and a more affordable access to the Internet.

The Asha 303 for sure is not a smartphone with the biggest omission of multitasking however, it is in control of a lineup that seeks to cover up the complete range of the low end. In addition, the Nokia Asha 303 is more than sufficiently equipped to be an outstanding contender in its class.

The retail package of the Nokia Asha 303 is a basic package that only holds the essentials. Below are the accessories that you will get with the handset:

• One Nokia Asha 303 Handset
• Nokia microUSB Cable
• Charger
• A Single-Piece Headset
• Manual & Warranty Leaflets
• A 2GB MicroSD Card Inserted in the Phone

The Nokia Asha lineup phones are well-known for being easy to use and walk around with because of their weight and dimensions (99g and 116.5mm x 55.7mm x 13.9 mm). This makes Nokia 303 suitable for those who visit many countries as they can easily travel with this as it is not too heavy to carry. At first sight, you will feel that QWERTY keyboard under the display of the 303 was meant to slide out but in actual it is not it is simply fixed in place. Furthermore, the rear has a brushed-metal effect. The screen is a 2.6″ TFT capacitive one with 256K colors that is exceptionally responsive. The colors offered by the Asha 303 are the following: black and grey.

Advantages

• The Nokia Asha 303 measures 116.5 x 55.7 x 13.9 mm - not too big, but not remarkably compact either. It weighs 99g that makes it lightweight and easy to handle.
• The Nokia Asha 303 does not feel and look cheap. Although, the finish is simple but the overall build quality and the whole thing feels solid and well-built. It is resistant to fingerprints as well which is a point in favor too.
• The 303 is lightweight and it comes with a touch of metal on the rear that does not add too much weight on the handset.
• The 2.6" capacitive TFT touchscreen has QVGA resolution and can display up to 256K colors it has decent brightness and sunlight legibility but not perfect.
• The four-row QWERTY keyboard has distinct and sensibly sized keys. The satisfactorily convex buttons are pleasurably tactile and size should not be an issue unless you have really big thumbs. Furthermore, the backlighting is extraordinarily sharp and solid.

Disadvantages

• The 2.6" display of the Nokia 303 is on the small side - for a touch phone - however it does the job well.
• There is no dedicated camera key on the Asha 303 and there's even USB On-the-go.
• There's no LED flash and the camera lens has no protection against scratches and no hot swappable memory card either.

The Nokia Asha 303 runs on the touch-enabled iteration of the Series 40 software that brings only skin-deep changes like the refreshed icons, a la Symbian-Anna along with a small number of usability improvements, like the home screen swipes. The touch-enabled version of the S40 platform provides superb ease of use. The Nokia Asha 303 comes with the 1GHz processor that delivers decent speed. This device works great when it comes to typing an SMS, navigating through menus and other simple activities. However, you cannot multitask with this device.

Advantages

• Active standby mode (or Home screen mode, as Nokia call it here) is presented as standard. It separates the screen into four sections, each of which is efficiently a widget. The top row of the screen is reserved for status indicators (time, signal, etc.).
• There are two swipe gestures available on the home screen. A left or right swipe can be set to launch an app (both native and Java) or change the phone profile.
• The well-known 'Go To' shortcut is available and it is yet an additional method to add shortcuts to the home screen. It is a kind of fast menu we have seen on several S40 handsets however touch screen makes huge difference. It provides quick access to nine shortcuts.
• The phonebook lets you store about 2000 contacts depending on the fields you use. Although, it is not as good as unlimited storage but yet it works well for the majority of the users.
• The Li-Ion 1300 mAh battery included on the Asha 303 provided up to 6 hours of talk time (moderate usage) and 4.5 hours battery life when using the 3G function, different features and apps.
• Call quality was good: there were no distortions or other flaws on either end.
• The Nokia Asha 303 is pre-installed with the Angry Birds Lite version which runs quite smoothly, therefore Angry Birds addicts will more than jump from joy after hearing this.
• The Nokia Asha 303 comes with the standard (and quite capable) S40 messaging. It can handle all the common message types including SMS, MMS, as well as flash and audio messages and there's easy email setup, too.

Disadvantages

• The biggest faux pas of the Nokia 303 characteristically is multitasking.
• The lack of smart dialing is another disadvantage which is not so surprising for an S40 device. There's no voice dialing either.

The Nokia Asha 303 comes with the music player that is quite basic and practically does not own anything extraordinary except the touch support. On the whole, the music player looks good and possesses a solid set of features that include album art, and a fair number of supported formats. Furthermore, the handset includes Vibration, Polyphonic 64, WAV, MP3 ring tones, 3.5mm jack and loudspeaker.

Advantages

• The music player of the Nokia 303 can filter songs by artist, album and genre. AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, AMR-NB and A2DP profile are supported.
• There are several basic equalizer presets, hidden deeper in the Music player menus.
• The FM radio interface of the Asha 303 matches the music player interface and covers all basic functions.
• RDS is supported in the Asha 303 and RDS info and frequency appear on the home screen. You can easily search and save all the available stations in your area.

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.

Among all the standard Nokia Asha features, the 303 model sports a 3.2-megapixel camera with the resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels that may not be predominantly high while comparing it with the other smartphones, but it still helps it attain reasonably good quality when it comes to photos and videos. The Nokia Asha 303 offers quad-band GSM and UMTS support. There is also HSPA support, download speed potentially reaching 10.2 Mbps, and up speed as good as 2 Mbps.

Advantages

• The new Nokia 303 Asha has a 3.2 megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels) with fixed focus, which can play VGA video at 15 fps speed.
• The results show the image was very nice and clean, even taking pictures at night.
• The camera interface has been updated and it looks like Symbian.
• The video quality is decent, with good colors and sufficient amount of detail. The videos will do for MMS, but that's all.
• The Nokia Asha 303 offers excellent connectivity it offers quad-band GSM and UMTS support. There is also HSPA support, download speed potentially reaching 10.2 Mbps, and up speed as good as 2 Mbps.
• Bluetooth is version 2.1 and A2DP is, of course, enabled. The Nokia Asha 303 uses a microUSB port for both data connections and charging.
• USB On-the-go is the great deal that you enjoy with the Asha 303 the Nokia Asha 303 can access USB flash drives and even other phones (card readers don't work).
• The Wi-Fi connectivity is one of the key features of the Nokia Asha 303 that makes it one of the cheaper Wi-Fi enabled phones on the market.
• The Nokia Asha 303 also comes comprehensive with a memory card slot. Together with a card reader it can frequently give you the fastest data transfer rates.
• A standard 3.5mm audio jack allows you to use your own headphones, but doesn't have TV-out functionality.

Disadvantages

• Video recording of Nokia 303 is not something to be excited about. It does VGA at 15 fps, quite basic for a 1GHz phone.

The Nokia 303 Asha is not a predominantly hard one to recommend. if truth be told, if you need a full-featured messenger with no complications of a smartphone, then the Asha 303 ought to be among the first things on your list to check out. The Nokia Asha 303 is the first S40 smartphone that combines touch screen and a complete QWERTY keyboard. Furthermore, it is also the first capacitive screen for the platform too.

For sure, the QVGA resolution (and the usually poor display quality) is something to tip off against however in terms of ergonomics and build, the Asha 303 is a handset that won't let you down. On top of that there are heaps of new skills, some of which you would not usually expect in an entry level phone.

In a nutshell, the Asha 303 is tremendously close to smartphones. Alternatively, it's a great opportunity for lots of potential upgraders who are not prepared yet to cross that line for one reason or another.