Nokia Asha 309

Overview

Value for Money Music Phone

Overview of Nokia Asha 309

The Nokia Asha 309 (Also known as Asha 3090) is a dual SIM 3” touch screen feature phone that seems very similar to the Asha 308 only that it operates a little faster and smoother.

Nokia Asha 309 Design & Build Quality

The phone is a standard capacitive multi-point touch screen bar phone. It weighs 102 grams while its size dimensions are 109.9 x 54 x 13.2 mm. The phone has an 3-inch display screen with a resolution of 400 x 240 pixels. The pixel density is 155 ppi (pixels per inch). Just like the Asha 308, it also has some dedicated hardware buttons for send, call, a combined end/call & power button, volume and lock. It operates using the Nokia BL-4U 1110 mAh battery with a maximum talk time of 17 hours and a stand by time of 1008 hours. It is a 2G enabled phone (GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and has an internal antennae.

User Interface and Comfort to Use Nokia Asha 309

The phone’s Operating System is on the Series 40 Asha Touch platform that is Java supported. The phone’s Menu is the standard icon grid that is accessible through a 3-panel home screen.

Telephony & Phonebook

The Asha 309 has a phonebook that allows for 2000 entries. It has a call log for the dialled, received, and missed calls. It also has the hands-free loudspeaker.

Messaging & Emails

This phone supports SMS and MMS. It also supports the OMA Email tool that allows access to all Email services. There is a predictive option for text editing. Some of the features in the Messaging Menu include flash messaging, number screening for messaging, unified MMS/SMS editor, and automatic resizing of images for MMS.

Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

The phone has the standard Nokia Gallery. It also has an internal memory of 64MB and a mass memory of 128 MB. It supports an external microSD memory of up to 32GB.

Nokia Asha 309 Music Player and FM Radio

This remains the primary focus of the phone. The phone has an inbuilt Music Player and Stereo FM radio. It allows for scheduled FM recording. The audio quality is great.

Nokia Asha 309 Camera and Image Quality

It has a 2MP camera with 4x digital zoom. Some of the camera features include landscape orientation; auto and manual white balance settings, still image editor, full screen viewfinder, and self-timer.

Video Camera and Video Quality

The video camera records at 10 frames per second. The phone also allows for progressive video recording and file sharing on YouTube. Video quality could be better.

Connectivity Options

The connectivity options for this phone include:

• Micro-USB Charging Connector
• Micro-USB Data Connector
• 3.5 mm Nokia AV Connector
• 2.0 mm Charging Connector
• Micro-USB 2.0
• Bluetooth 3.0
• Remote SyncML synchronization
  

Organizer and Other Utility Tools

The phone has the standard organizer features like:

• Calendar
• To-Do list
• Notes
• The other utility features are:
• Games (Java Supported + downloads)
• Alarm
• Calculator
• Fixed Dialing Numbers
• Digital Clock (Both 24hr and 12 hr formats)
• Dictionary

Web Browser and Applications

The phone’s browser supports GPRS/WAP/XHTML features. The phone’s OS can support the popular Opera Mini browser.

Google Maps and GPS

The phone uses the Nokia Maps app that is available as a free download.

Distinctive Features of Nokia Asha 309

Like the Asha 308, the Nokia 309 targets music lovers. A swipe down on any of the home user panels gives quick access to the music player and files. There is very little difference between this phone and the Asha 308 apart from it being a little faster.

Value for Money

At a retail price of about Rs. 5600 (approx., may vary), the handset offers relatively good value for money.

Verdict

The Nokia Asha 309 is very similar to the Asha 308 apart from improved touch screen response. It comes with 75 free highly interactive games but it is still primarily a music phone. Still, one might find better value in smart phones priced at this range.