The difference between Nokia Lumia and Nokia Asha smartphones
I have to admit that I started to pay attention to Nokia Asha smartphones only recently even though they have been out for more than a year.
Nokia introduced new Asha phones recently and one of the first questions that came up in my mind was if they would be running Windows Phone 8 as I assumed that Nokia was putting all its power behind Microsoft's mobile operating system.
I quickly learned that the Asha line of phones is not using Windows Phone 8 or any other Microsoft mobile operating system. Recent Asha devices run on the Series 40 software platform which Nokia introduced back in 1999. The platform evolved over time from its very humble monochrome display origins to high resolution full color display support.
The first Nokia Asha phone were made available in October 2011 and Nokia has been pushing out new phones regularly every since.
The most recent Asha phone, the Nokia Asha 501 caught my attention not only because of its price of $99 but also because of its decent set of features it ships with. It offers 128 MB of memory and a 4 GB Multimedia Card that is included with the purchase, a 5 Megapixel camera, and dual-sim capabilities. It offers standby times of up to 48 days and talk-time of up to 17 hours.
It also ships with a new feature called Nokia Fastlane which provides you with access to a history feature that details activities of the past - think missed calls, Twitter usage - and appointments in the future.
It also offers access to the Nokia Xpress browser which uses technology similar to Opera Turbo to compress website data by directing it through a Nokia server.
A number of applications and games are included out of the box, including Facebook, CNN, ESPN, Twitter and games from EA and Gameloft. Asha owners get access to Nokia's cloud based mapping service Here as well and a couple of other features.
The core difference between Nokia Lumia and Asha smartphones is the operating system that is being used. Lumia devices use Windows Phone exclusively while Asha phones use the Series 40 platform instead. Lumia phones are designed for a mid to high end segment, while Asha phones for a low end to mid market instead.
Additional information about the Nokia Asha device line can be found at the Nokia Developer website.
Update: the Developer site is no longer available.
good phone…
I dont think Asha uses Smarterphone OS. To the best of my knowledge, Nokia has used the same guys who developed SmarterPhone (stand alone OS & Company) to work on Asha and add the features present in Smarterphone into Asha. Asha is actually based on s40 OS which has been present from the late 1990s. It is single-tasking and 2g based. So it has a terrific battery/standby life
You are right. I have corrected the article.
Claiming that Asha feature phones are smartphones is retarded. Nokia calls them “smartphones” for pure marketing reasons, but even they weren’t hypocritical enough to include them in its quarterly financials as smartphones. They are feature phones. Why are journalists buying this BS is beyond me.
Please give us a detailed explanation of the difference between a smartphone and a feature phone.
Asha in no better than the old Java phones and are inferior to Android phones with the same price. At least, even with cheap Androids you can still root and mod, and you have 700,000+ applications. These Asha are closed OS and have restricted sets of applications.
For people like me who want a phone just to talk, this “It offers standby times of up to 48 days and talk-time of up to 17 hours.” makes asha far superior to other android, ios or windows phones.
It really depends on what you want to use the phone for. I do agree though that the app ecosystem is inferior.
Stephen Elop : Why Asha phones don’t run Windows Phone OS.
http://mynokiablog.com/2013/05/09/qa-with-stephen-elop-on-the-asha-501/
Sorry Martin but I expected a bit better. I read all through only to get brief descriptions about the different os used and inferior hardware of the asha OS.