NOKIA Asha 311 Pro Reviews

The featurephone game is quite the non sequitur. It is simultaneously a vestige of a time before smartphones and a reflection of their influence - and sometimes not a very clear one at that. Yet undeniably there is market for such devices, and the Nokia Asha 311 shapes up as the likely frontrunner as the Asha series keep blurring the lines between old and new, smart and dumb. The Asha 311 is not exactly the same old story of being stuck with a bottom-of-the-barrel feature phone, with a handful of extras and archaic software. As we with the Asha 305, the new S40 Touch interface has brought the Asha line closer to their smartphone brethren than ever before. And while Asha Touch is not, and never will be, up to par with what smartphones can do, it's not as big of a sacrifice - or step away, depending on where you're coming from.

As a tonic to these all-singing, all-dancing smartphones – that cost too much and consume power like there is no tomorrow – the Asha 311 has much to appreciate. It’s cheap, well made, does many of the basic things a fully fledged smartie will do, is easy and satisfying to use and will get you through many a day on a single charge. I’m not sure I could recommend one as a main phone over, say a G300 but as a backup or travel phone or your young’uns first handset, it’ll do very nicely.

We’ve looked at the Nokia Asha 311 from all sides, but we’ve reserved its most important aspect, the price, for last. The device costs between $120 to $140 depending on the market which puts it in the same category as low-end Android smartphones. Devices like the Samsung Galaxy Y (sold for around $130), the Galaxy Pocket (around $115), the LG Optimus L3 (some $140) cost either the same or lower than the Asha 311, but bring you into smartphone land with tons of actually useful and well performing apps unlike the Java horror that you’d have to deal with on the Asha. If for some strange reason, you do not want to use a smartphone, the $100 Samsung Star 3 is another feature phone option that is reasonably priced and similar to the Asha. On its own, the Asha 311 is not a bad phone. It’s relatively responsive - even though some lag is still noticeable, - it comes with Series 40 in brand new clothes and it’s not too expensive. Sadly (or rather luckily), it’s not in a world of its own. With smartphones packing more and better features, it looks like a device the Nokia time machine has brought from the past into the present at a wrong moment, a couple of years too late.