Nashua Mobile has added the Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 300 and Nokia Asha 303 to the selection of Nokia devices it supports on its flat-rate Xtreme Data package.

The Nokia Asha range will be available in store as of 7 May 2012. For R59.00 per month – on top of standard contract charges – consumers will be able to enjoy access to email, instant messaging, browsing and social networking on these devices. The predictable and fixed monthly cost removes the uncertainty associated with other data rate plans and eliminates the chance of ‘bill shock’. The package is subject to fair usage policies though.

The Nokia Asha 201 offers a Qwerty keyboard, while the Nokia Asha 303 integrates Qwerty and Touch and the Nokia Asha 300 offers a keypad and touchscreen.

All three devices offer access to the Internet, integrated social networking, messaging and applications from the Nokia Store. Nokia Asha mobile phones make use of the new Nokia Web browser for Series 40 with up to 90% data compression. This means smaller downloads, pages that load fast, look great, and are easy to read.

Says Nashua Mobile Managing Director, Chris Radley: “We are excited to make the Xtreme Data package available on a new range of Nokia handsets, giving users even more choice of mobile phones that they can use with a flat-rate data package. In the next few months, we hope to add even more smartphones to the selection of devices supported on the Xtreme Data package.”

Xtreme Data is currently also available on Nokia X2-01 and Nokia C3 mobile phones based on the Series 60 platform, and the Nokia N8, Nokia E5 and Nokia E7 from Nokia’s smartphone range.

Nashua Mobile’s Xtreme Data service works by routing data from the handset to Nashua Mobile’s shared GSM data access point names (APNs) from Vodacom and MTN. Web access is controlled and managed intelligently by Nashua Mobile’s infrastructure partners, giving the customer a seamless experience that enables access to all their communication, social networking and information.

From today, Vodacom and Cell C will have the new, lower priced Nokia Lumia 710 phone available at R3999.

The new colorful device was designed to bring the Windows Phone smartphone experience to a new lower price point, without sacrifices. It combines the powerful social and Internet experience of Windows Phone with the ability to take pictures in almost any conditions and share with friends in seconds, as well as access to thousands of the most popular apps and exclusive Nokia services, like Nokia Drive.

Based on the Windows Phone 7.5 release, the Nokia Lumia 710 smartphone has a broad range of social-network focussed features:

• People Hub in Windows Phone displays all call, text, email and social network interactions with any individual contact in an integrated view, with the ability to group contacts and pin favourite groups and individuals to the start screen for live updates and easy access to the people who matter most.
• Faster, easier Web browsing experience with Internet Explorer 9 and one-touch Bing search.
• Nokia Drive delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device (PND) with free, turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated in-car-user-interface.
• Nokia Music introduces MixRadio, a free mobile music-streaming application that delivers 100s of channels of global and locally-relevant music. Also integrated in Nokia Music is Gigfinder, providing the ability to search for live local music events.
• With the 5MP camera, anyone can take pictures and share on social networks in seconds, even when the phone is locked.

The Nokia Lumia 710 can be personalised with a choice of white or black front finish and additional inter-changeable back coloured covers, very much like the covers from the Nokia 5110 days.

“We are very excited to be bringing the next device in the Lumia range to South Africa. The Lumia 710 offers the same functionality as the Lumia 800 at a lower price point, and is perfect for consumers that thrive on being socially connected. This again highlights Nokia’s commitment to delivering the latest smartphones with localized services to the South African market,” says Colin Baumgart, Nokia South Africa General Manager.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is still one of our favourite handsets, so we cannot wait to get our hands on the Lumia 710.

Nashua Mobile has introduced a unique data package called “Xtreme Data” for select Nokia smartphones and mobile phones.

For R59.00 per month – on top of standard contract charges – professionals and consumers will be able to gain access to email, instant messaging, browsing and social networking on their smartphones and mobile phones. The predictable and fixed monthly cost removes the uncertainty associated with other data rate plans and eliminates the chance of ‘bill shock’.

Says Nashua Mobile MD, Chris Radley: “The cost of data usage has been one of the most significant barriers to wider use of smartphones for Web access and other online applications. With our new offering, we hope to make the mobile Web accessible and affordable to a wider range of smartphone users.”

The service is initially available for the Nokia X2-01 and Nokia C3 mobile phones based on the Series 40 platform, and the Nokia N8, Nokia E5 and Nokia E7 from Nokia’s smartphone range. It is expected that in the near future the service will be expanded to other smartphones based on the Symbian, Windows Phone, iOS and Android platforms, allowing a much wider group of people to enjoy affordable, predictable data costs no matter which smartphone platform they prefer.

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No, that is not a typo. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia today did not have a lot to announce in the high end smartphone space, but did reveal a new Symbian based phone with a massive 41 megapixel sensor. To put that in perspective – Nikon recently unveiled their highest megapixel SLR camera, and that D800 model ships with 36MP camera.

The specs on this new Nokia “PureView” 808 is not half bad either. It runs a 1.3GHz with 512MB  of RAM, but is still using the Belle operating system (yes, that is marketing speak for the latest version of Symbian, which is even considered by their CEO as a “burning platform”).

But people will buy this phone for the camera – and here are the specs:

• Carl Zeiss Optics
• Focal length: 8.02mm
• 35mm equivalent focal length: 26mm, 16:9 | 28mm, 4:3
• F-number: f/2.4
• Focus range: 15cm – Infinity (throughout the zoom range)
• Construction:
· 5 elements, 1 group.All lens surfaces are aspherical
· One high-index, low-dispersion glass mould lens
· Mechanical shutter with neutral density filter
• Optical format: 1/1.2”
• Total number of pixels: 7728 x 5368
• Pixel Size: 1.4 micron

So far no-one has gotten actual hands on time with the phone (or more specifically the images) , so we cannot really report on whether that monster sensor can actually deliver a massive leap forward in image quality.

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The entire mobile industry is currently focussing on the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, so it was a great time for Nokia’s CEO to announce some strategy changes for Nokia. The most important revelation is that Nokia will be cutting down on the number of devices it releases – and instead will focus its efforts on fewer models.

“We don’t see it as a single device strategy or anything like that, but it will be pared down” Elop mentioned to Business Week. After a declining marketshare due to poor platform choices, Nokia finally decided to switch to Windows Phone, after the then-new CEO called Symbian a “burning platform”. Nokia is clearly not going to follow the same business model as Apple, which only ships one new iPhone model per year.

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I have to come clean about this – I review many phones, and normally when the review period is over I cannot wait to get my SIM card back into my iPhone. But when reviewing the Lumia 800 something very strange happened: I moved my SIM card back to my iPhone (currently a 4S), and then a few hours later I put it back into the Lumia.

I don’t know what exactly it is about this phone – but it is clear a lot more thought went into this phone then most other phones on the market. The entire widget as a whole is very close to perfect, and the few issues it does have can hopefully be fixed over time.

This is frankly Nokia’s last shot at the high-end smartphone space, so they had to bring their A-game. But did they deliver? Read on… (more…)

Nokia has announced their latest high end flagship phone  at CES 2012- the Lumia 900. Continuing the beautiful minimalist design of the Lumia 800, the Lumia 900 is a new super sized version with some much improved internals. Still sporting a polycarbonate design, it is apparently a lot more resilient than most new smartphones.

The camera is also taking center stage on this model – it features a 8MP sensor behind a Carl Zeiss wide angle lens with a nice f2.2 aperture at 28mm, and a 1 MP front camera. No mention is made if it is a backlit sensor like the iPhone 4S, but at least at that aperture you should expect some better low light camera performance. The camera can also capture 720p video at 30fps. On the inside there is a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor (single core though) and 512MB RAM with 16GB of storage. The phone will run Windows Phone Mango 7.5, and also ships with an LTE capable radio (at least in the US). The screen size has been increased to 4.3 inches, but still only packs 800 by 480 pixels. Not that it is anything to sneeze at. That big screen might make you worry about battery power, but its broader design means the Lumia 900 can handle a 1840mAH battery which is good for 7 hours talk time or a claimed 300hrs standby.

As part of Nokia’s adoption of Windows Phone 7, they have enhanced a few things in the software stack – Nokia Drive is a fully featured GPS navigation system which is free with the phone. And no, it is not just a subscription. Social networking is also catered for with Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter integration into the contacts.

Nokia has in recent years fallen behind other smartphone manufacturers in terms of operating system innovation and phone design – but the latest Lumia 800 and 900 really makes us think that Nokia still has some life in it yet. Right now the Lumia 900 is US only, but we will keep you posted when it ships internationally.

The first leaked images of these phones have been doing the rounds, but now Nokia has finally given us the official specs. Two new Windows Phone devices, the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 will be released, both sporting the latest Windows Phone Mango update, but also sporting very impressive design and specs. Windows Phone 7 has been begging for some decent hardware design to go with it, and Nokia really brought their best.

The Lumia 800 is the one most people will be keeping an eye on – this will afterall be Nokia’s new flagship device. Until now Nokia flagships did not always have greatest specs, but this time they seemed to beef their phone up quite a bit. The Lumia 800 will be running on a 1.4GHz processor with 512MB RAM, and it is encased in a polycarbonate body which is great to look at and hold. It continues the N9′s minimalistic design, but it does gain three touch sensitive buttons upfront, unlike the N9. The Lumia 800 will also have Navigation built into the phone, which no other WP device has had yet so far. The camera has a f2.2 aperture, so expect some pretty great snaps. Expect pricing of around $585.

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