Microsoft’s $30 Nokia 215

|
, ,

Microsoft hasn’t been playing any games lately, except for maybe making fun of the Mac line up shortcomings in comparison with their Surfaces. While most of the big dogs in the tech world had stopped announcing next gen products at CES, Microsoft announced a Nokia device. Notice this isn’t a Lumia, but a Nokia, the name which people thought Microsoft was going to kill. This Nokia is different though, and is somewhat of a throwback to the early 2000s, with the old style brick keypad. The new device is the Nokia 215 and here it is, in all its glory.

Courtesy WinBeta
Courtesy Microsoft

This little device has a lot of incredible specifications, and in places you really wouldn’t expect. The one that immediately caught my eye was the 1100mAh battery, which may not sound like a lot by today’s standards, but, when you consider the 2.4” 320×240 QVGA display, 8MB of RAM, and Series 30+, the barebones Microsoft OS that won’t run Java apps, I realized that the battery life on the 215 is going to be insane. In fact Microsoft advertises the max standby time at basically a month, 20 hours of talk time, and 50 hours of music playback. Speaking of music playback, there’s space for an SD card with a maximum size of 32GB. On top of this, it does have a .3 MP camera, which, admittedly, isn’t amazing, but at least it’s there. You can also get a dual SIM variant, and 2G data connectivity.

Courtesy Muhyal
Courtesy Muhyal

So what was Microsoft thinking? Who is this device intended for? Well for $30, there is a lot of potential. Apart from my original thought of being ideal for drug dealers, this device could potentially be very well suited for the elderly, or on the other end of the spectrum, young children. The long battery life means it can sit in a backpack and be used when it needs to be without worrying about charging the thing up every night. That long battery life pared with data connectivity and the camera also give the phone another market to land itself: in the third world. Places where electricity isn’t reliable, a phone that lasts a long time that also puts the power of social networks into the hands of a huge population of the world living in poverty is potentially massive. Not to mention that if the build quality is in line with Nokia reputation, this device will last for years.

Unfortunately this device is not currently available on the US market, do you think it should be?

What do you think of the Nokia 215? Would you consider putting this in your kids backpack in case of emergencies? What about elderly parents? Do you think something like this would be easier to use than an iPhone or traditional Windows Phone? Let us know in the comments below or on social media.

[button link=”http://www.bidnessetc.com/32340-microsoft-corporation-releases-nokia-215-series/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Bindess Etc.[/button][button link=”http://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/phone/215/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Microsoft[/button]

Last Updated on November 27, 2018.

Previous

Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta Brings New Content and Ranked Play

Ballistic and Duracell Partner To Create Ultra-Protective Power Cases

Next

Comments are closed.

Latest Articles

Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap