Nokia Asha 205

Available now
26th November 2012

The Nokia Asha 205 is a low-cost messaging phone, offering a decent QWERTY-keyboard equipped device for just €62 before tax and subsidy. It is closely related to the Asha 201 and Asha 302 messaging phones, except this is a bit more basic but conversely sports a better keyboard.

Available in a dual-SIM or single-SIM version, the Asha 205 has a 2.4" 320 x 240 pixel screen on the front, along with the nice looking keyboard. On the back is an ultra-basic VGA resolution camera. The Nokia Asha 205 supports Bluetooth, has a microSD slot and a 3.5mm audio connector (with a wired headset in the standard sales package).

Inside is a relatively large 1020 mAh battery which can provide up to 11 hours of talktime and 27 days standby time (25 days on the dual-SIM version). This is a 2G only phone with GPRS and EDGE data but no 3G or WiFi, although the built-in Nokia Xpress browser is designed to help with low-speed connections.

There are preloaded applications for Facebook and Twitter (with a dedicated Facebook button on the keyboard) and additional apps can be downloaded, however the Nokia Asha 205 is not a smartphone and its capabilities are always going to be somewhat limited.

Nokia have introduce a sharing application called Slam with the Asha 205. The idea is that you can share images and video clips with nearby Bluetooth handsets without having to mess around with pairing. However, this seems a bit pointless with the low-resolution camera of the Asha 205, with pictures limited to 640 x 480 pixels and a miserable video capture resolution of 176 x 144 pixels at 10 frames per second. Video playback is little better, and the low speed of the data connection will hamper downloading other media. So, we don't expect that Asha 205 users will have much of value to share with Slam.

Although this device has its limitations, it also has its strengths. In particular, people who do a lot of messaging will probably like the keyboard, and it isn't exactly expensive.

Nokia says that the Asha 205 should be available by the end of the year in cyan, magenta and orange colour schemes.