Nokia this morning announced a broad refresh to its device portfolio, with Stephen Elop, its CEO, stating that one year on from its strategy refresh, it is “very clear that we have changed the clock speed of Nokia.” In its smartphone portfolio, the company confirmed wider availability of its Lumia 900 device, which was announced earlier for this year in an LTE version for the US market. The vendor will offer a DC-HSPA version for markets where LTE is not supported, with availability from the second quarter of 2012.
Also announced was an entry-level Windows Phone device called Lumia 610, which is designed as the perfect introduction to Windows Phone for a younger audience. This terminal is the result of a new software release from Microsoft, which enables Windows Phone to be supported with lower memory and processor requirements – and therefore enabling lower price points. The Lumia 610 has a 800 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM. As you may know, Windows Phone requires at least 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM but thanks to a new update added to Windows Phone 7.5 Mango by Microsoft, Nokia was able to use this slightly weaker hardware in the Lumia 610.
Other than that, however, the 610 is similar to the 710, with the same 3.7″ inch LCD, 8 GB internal memory and 5 megapixel auto-focus camera capable of 720p video recording. The Lumia 610 also comes with Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive applications that offers free turn-by-turn navigation. You also have an option to choose from four different colors, the more sober black and silver to the more trendy pink and blue. The Nokia Lumia 610 will start shipping in India in second quarter for approximately Rs. 12,500.
Nokia announced three more handsets in its mid-tier Asha portfolio, the 202, 203 and 302 for the developing markets like India. Among the features supported are a fast, cloud-based browser which reduces internet access costs, with the company claiming that this compresses data traffic by up to 90 percent.The Asha 302 has a full-QWERTY keypad to facilitate messaging and is the first Series 40 phone to have Mail for Exchange support. This phone has a 2.4″ inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, 3G connectivity, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and expandable memory.
Asha 202, on the other hand, loses the QWERTY keypad but has a touchscreen instead. The 202 also lacks the Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and only has a 2 megapixel camera.
The Nokia Asha 302 will be priced at around Rs. 6,300 and the Asha 202 will be priced at Rs. 4,000.
Meanwhile, Symbian OS refuses to go quietly, with Nokia announcing its 808 PureView, the headline feature of which is a 41 megapixel camera sensor. We have covered this device in our separate blog earlier in the day.
