Nokia continued its assault on the budget end of the market today at MWC by announcing the Nokia 220 and the Nokia Asha 230. They are bound for emerging markets where Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop, hopes they will “connect the next million people to the Internet.”
The Nokia Asha 230 is intended to be an entry-level smartphone. It has a touchscreen, and you can double tap it to wake the phone. It also features Nokia’s Fastlane, which is a stream containing all of your notifications and recently used services and apps.
Alongside the 230 there’s also a new release of the Asha software due in April. It will bring Microsoft OneDrive support to all Asha phones, allowing owners to back up their photos and videos in the cloud. Other improvements include smarter imaging, free streaming music with MixRadio, and there’s also Asha Motion, which allows you to create your own wallpapers.
The Nokia Asha 230 is on sale globally now and will cost $62 (45 euros).
The Nokia 220 has a 2.4-inch display, a 2-megapixel camera, 2G connectivity, and will have a dual-SIM variant. It is an affordable Internet-ready phone with Facebook and Twitter pre-loaded. Nokia has also integrated Bing into the Nokia Express browser.
When they said affordable they were not joking. The Nokia 220 will cost just $40 (30 euros).