We heard yesterday about a quartet of new Asha Series 40 handsets being brewed up in Nokia's mobile cauldron over in Espoo, now here's another new face to introduce: the Nokia 103.
Unlike the other four this one has actually been made official too, with Nokia announcing that the Next Billion-targeting blower is its “most affordable mobile phone for first time buyers”.
That title was previously held by the Nokia 100 introduced last year, but the 103 is lining up to deliver some decidedly uncomplicated mobile jollies for just €16, a full 25% cheaper.
As you can imagine, the spec sheet [PDF] is pretty modest compared to the high-tech smartphones we normally cover. The screen is a 1.36in black and white number running at 96 x 68 pixels – which means all of 4,608 pixels in total.
Given the target market, however, that's less important than the dust-proof chassis, integrated flashlight and 11-hour talktime/27 day standby time from the 800mAh battery.
Instead of Series 40 there's the ultra-basic Series 30 interface, so all those new bits and pieces Nokia has been adding to its main feature phone OS don't apply here.
And that's about it. Nokia says the 103 will debut in Nigeria, with other developing markets to follow in the weeks to come.
Is it likely to change our lives? Not at all – in fact, this is probably the first and last time we'll write about the Nokia 103. But in the greater scheme of things, connecting people to the world around them for the very first time is more important than whether the latest smartphone flavour of the month can record movies in full HD, or just 720p. So it's only fair that we at least give it a mention.
especially when they can't afford two separate things.
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