Nokia 301

Available now
25th February 2013

These days it seems that almost every phone on the market is a touchscreen smartphone, but there's still a market for traditional "candy bar" phones, and the Nokia 301 is here to add a bit more choice.

It's a fairly inexpensive device at €65 before tax and subsidy, and is closely related to the more attractive but more basic Nokia 206. The main hardware features are a 2.4" 240 x 320 pixel display, 3.5G support, Bluetooth, a microSD slot, a music player, FM radio and a 3.2 megapixel camera, all in a package weighing 102 grams and measuring a pocket-friendly 114 x 50 x 12.5mm. The standard sales package does include a stereo wired headset, but no memory card.

There is a single-SIM and a dual-SIM version of the Nokia 301, with 20 hours of talktime on both versions and 39 days standby with the single-SIM and 34 with the dual-SIM variant. The dual-SIM is limited to 900 / 2100 MHz UMTS, but there are both 900 / 2100 and 850 / 1900 versions of the single-SIM 301.

The Series 40 operating system has been enhanced with the Nokia Xpress Internet browser, plus support for Microsoft Exchange and various social networking applications such as Facebook and WhatsApp. In addition, the camera has some clever tricks like panoramic stitching. Add the 3.5G support to this, and you have a device that is well suited to the occasional mobile internet user who is looking for something that is easy-to-use.

Nokia have used the same black-and-vivid colour schemes that they use on the high-end Lumia smartphones. We're not very keen on it on this type of device, but that's probably just a matter of personal taste. Nokia say that the 301 should start rolling out from Q2 2013 onwards to more than 120 countries worldwide.