MNB RG: Nokia 301 Pics and hands on thoughts

Frequent MNB RG contributor, Janne had a chance to play with the Nokia 301 and shares some pictures and thoughts:

Nokia 301, announced at Mobile World Congress 2013, was the best-selling mobile phone (of all phones and smartphones) at the largest mobile operator in Finland last month. Nokia 301 is on sale in Finland in black, red (or magenta), yellow, white and cyan. I had a chance to quickly feel out this new phone “3.5G” in yellow and took a few poor snapshots of it.

Nokia 301 owes much of its looks to the “Fabula design” of N9 and later Lumia 920. I compared this yellow Nokia 301 to the yellow Lumia 920 and there certainly were similarities, although the color on the Nokia 301 is paler in hue and lacks the gloss of the Lumia 920. Indeed, Nokia 301 has a matte casing and feels a little more organic, as far as the texture goes, than the “hard” gloss of the yellow 920.

I didn’t play with the UI much, but anyone who has used a recent Series 40 phone, such as the non-touch Asha models would be instantly familiar. It is a snappy, solid UI for a cheap, basic feature phone. The camera UI (you can see it on the side of the box) looks quite nice too, with audible self-portrait and panorama shooting. Nokia Slam “NFC-like” sharing was there too.

Cheers Janne for the tip!

Category: Nokia