Nokia’s Asha range knocks out game changing touchscreen ‘smeature’ phones

The future is now, or later. Nokia’s ultra-budget “Smeature” phones, the Ashas, are coming out with touch-screen goodness. Series 40 just got a shot in the ass.

Three phones to rule

The Asha 305, 306 and 311 are cute little mobile phones, each with the chops to handle the social media apps its user base demand. These are thrifty phones, there’s no need to budget for an iPhone.

The 305 and 306 are the starter Smeature phones and both have a 3-inch touchscreen, a 2MB camera, FM radio plus music player, EDGE for the 306 and 3.5G for the 305, and are priced at US$79 and US$85 respectively. The Asha 306 is a tad more pricey thanks to its dual-sim capabilities.

The 311, at US$115 packs in a 3.2Mp camera, a wireless radio, HSPA speeds and a 1Ghz CPU. At under US$120, this is a damn fine deal.

Impressive features

Despite the slight differences between each model, all Ashas share the Touch Platform which rocks Nokia Browser 2.0. Apparently, Nokia Browser 2.0 compresses web data and loads pages three times as fast. Why not four times, perhaps the budget didn’t allow for such amazing web goodness.

And hey, this is a young persons phone and in this vein, Nokia will include a free pass for 40 downloadable games. Also, look forward to Nokia Maps and the slightly iffy sounding Nokia Life. Read more about the new Asha range and look forward to grabbing these dainty phones during the course of the year.