Nokia’s new $29 Lumia sets new bar for low-cost connectivity
Nokia’s new $29 Lumia sets new bar for low-cost connectivity
At CES today, Nokia unveiled a new ultra-low-cost phone that’s meant to increase basic internet and phone options for buyers on tight budgets in developing markets. The Nokia 215 is a modest device, with a 2.4-inch screen, 0.3 megapixel camera, 320×240 pixel display, and dual SIM capability for countries where its common for customers to have more than one network provider. Other features of the device include Bluetooth connectivity, an AM/FM radio, a built-in flashlight, and a variety of colors (black, white, and green).
Connectivity is limited to 2G networks and presumably WiFi, though we’d wager there’s a relatively low-end WiFi chip as well rather than an 802.11n-capable SoC. There’s no word on core counts, but the phone supposedly supports expandable storage via microSD and a whopping 21 days of standby time and 20 hours of talk time. Despite being a feature phone, the Nokia 215 will provide online connectivity via the Opera Mini browser, with Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, and Bing Search also preinstalled by default.
Pushing the smartphone bar lower
Back in 2010 a company named Maylong shipped the first $129 Android tablets. Walgreens put them on sale for $99, which sparked a fair bit of coverage — these were the first two Android devices you could buy for under $100 and folks were curious to see what they could get. What you got, unsurprisingly, was terrible — but it was clear that in the long run, we’d see devices selling into these price points. Today, Android, Windows, and Kindle Fire-class tablets often retail around the $100 price point, and the overall experience is night and day compared to what you got four years ago.
The Nokia 215 isn’t very impressive compared to a modern day iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy, but it packs features that make sense for its target markets, and matches them with online capabilities that feature phones didn’t even used to offer. Not so long ago, the difference between a feature phone and a smartphone is that one of them makes calls and handles very basic tasks, while the other does pretty much everything else. With browser and social media capabilities, the Nokia 215 may well offer the critical features of a smartphone but at a drastically reduced price.
So far, attempts to push phones down into this price band have been dubious; Ars Technica wrote a scathing review of the $35, Firefox OS-powered Intex Cloud FX calling it “2007’s technology, today.” The Nokia 215 should be a better device than either that phone or the Maylong tablet, given that Nokia is a proven manufacturer, other Lumia phones are well-regarded, and Windows Phone is far more mature than Firefox OS. It’s possible that in the long run, feature phones like the 215 could represent the future of widespread phone use, even in developed markets. Given the cost of US data plans, the idea of moving back to a feature phone with access to a handful of social media functions has distinct advantages.
malikmuddser