Nokia Asha 310

Overview

Basic yet value for money mobile phone

Overview of Nokia Asha 310

Released in February 2013, the Nokia Asha 310 is a dual-SIM feature phone designed as an upgrade of the Nokia Asha 309.

Nokia Asha 310 Design and Build Quality

The Asha 310 feature phone is available in dimensions of 109.9 x 54 x 13 mm and weighs a paltry 103.7 grams. The phone is available in Black, White and Golden Light, and features a 3-inch TFT touch screen protected by scratch-resistant glass. Build quality is good, and the phone’s size makes it easy for the average person to hold it.

User Interface and Comfort to Use Nokia Asha 310

The device runs Nokia’s proprietary Series 40 operating system, and has a slick interface, while the screen’s pixel density of 155 ppi also provides crisp text. The phone offers capacitive multi-touch capability, and the on-screen keyboard is fairly responsive.

Telephony and Phonebook

The Asha 310 has a phonebook capacity of 1000, and features Phonebook Access Profile (PBAP) to enable wireless sharing of contacts with other devices. The dual-SIM support enables users to receive and make phone calls from two lines on the same device and swap SIM cards without powering off their phone.

Messaging and Emails

The phone supports SMS, MMS and push Email messaging with the composer featuring predictive input, known as T9.

Nokia Asha 310 Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

The phone allows for display of most common image formats, in addition to playback of video in MP4, WMV, H.263 and H.264 formats. However, its low screen resolution of 240 x 400 pixels, coupled with a modest pixel density of 155 ppi makes for a very basic viewing experience.

Nokia Asha 310 Music Player and FM Radio

Bundled with a Stereo FM radio with RDS and FM recording, the phone provides good audio quality from the included earphones, but the speaker sounds tinny. The audio player supports WAV, MP3, WMA and eAAC+ formats.

Nokia Asha 310 Camera and Image Quality

The Asha 310 has a 2-megapixel main camera, capable of taking photos up to a resolution of 1600x1200 pixels, but lacks a secondary camera. The picture quality is average, and the camera has only basic image processing capabilities.

Video Camera and Video Quality

The device offers the user basic video capture capability, recording at a resolution of only 176x144 pixels and a frame rate of 10fps, resulting in considerably jittery recordings.

Nokia Asha 310 Connectivity Options

The Asha 310 has a MicroUSB port and Bluetooth for connecting to devices such as PCs. It also features a built-in 802.11 Wi-Fi adapter but lacks hotspot capability.

Organizer and Other Utility Tools

An organizer, calculator, converter and alarm clock are the only standard organizer applications offered, which is in line with the market trend for budget phones in this category.

Nokia Asha 310 Web Browser and Applications

The device offers users the stock Nokia browser, and the 2G network means a noticeably slow browsing experience, and considerably long load times for large pages. The low resolution display also means that text and images appear noticeably fuzzy.

Value for Money

The Nokia Asha 310 retails for about INR 5000 (approx., may vary) in major cities across India, and has adequate but unimpressive features. However the build quality and reliability of the device offers good value for a phone at this price point.

Verdict

The Nokia Asha 310 is a budget smartphone targeted at users who require only the very basic communication and connectivity features and are looking to pay the lowest price possible for such features.