Struggling at No.2 position in the Top mobile vendor list, Finnish Mobile giant Nokia Corp. has made yet another attempt to gain the top title with the announcement of three new budget phones to add to its Asha series of mobile phones. The Asha line-up mainly features QWERTY keypad but this latest release has touchscreen with dual-sim functionality as the priority.

Both the phones Nokia Asha 306 and Asha 305 packs seemingly decent hardware and are very good on looks and design. Although both the phones have similar specifications , Nokia Asha 306 is equipped with Wi-fi (WLAN) and Nokia 305 comes with dual-sim functionality which is not present in former one.

Nokia Asha 305

Bundled with some low-end specification, Asha 305 sports a 3-inch resistive display boosting a resolution of 320 x 400 pixels. The phone measures 110.3 x 53.8 x 12.8 mm and weighs 98 gms. It runs on Symbian S 40 operating system, which the company still recommends, it also packs a 2 MP rear camera with a resolution of 1600 x 1200p, 4x digital zoom and has no AF. As already mentioned, the phone doesn’t have 3G, GPS and NFC as such but has 2G support which works in GSM 900-1800 Mhz band for SIM2 and SIM1 in GSM 850-1900 Mhz. You will be getting a 2GB memory card free with the gadget.

Asha 305 will start shiping from the end of this month and will be priced at €63 ( 4,350 INR) ($98).  The phone would be made available in Mid Blue,Red,  Silver ,White, Dark Grey colors.

Key Specifications

• 3-inch resistive touchscreen display
• 320 x 400 pixel resolution
• Runs on Symbian S 40.
•  2 MP rear facing camera
• 10 MB onboard storage
• Expandable upto 32 GB via microSD.
• Bluetooth v2.1, micro USB 2.0
• 1,110 mAh Lithiun Ion battery

Nokia Asha 306

Comes with WLAN connectivity this single-sim handset has similar specification to Asha 305, it sports a 3-inch resistive display boosting a resolution of 320 x 400 pixels. The other specifications remain the same, packs a 2MP rear end camera, 10MB of internal storage expandable upto 32GB. On the connectivity front it has Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS, Wi-fi (802.11 b/g/n), microUSB v2.0, 3.5mm audio jack. It also has only 2G connectivity and lacks in 3G support.

Asha 306 comes pre-loaded with 40 free EA sports games like Tetris, FIFA 2012, NFS Run, Deluxe and many more. Some standard apps like Nokia life and Nokia maps come pre-installed with the handset. Asha 306 will be available from the Q3 of this year at an affordable price tag of €68 and expected price in India would be Rs. 4,700.