Inexpensive phones don’t have to look cheap. Nokia has reminded us of this time and time again, most recently with the Nokia 108, its latest feature phone. Equipped with everything you need for talking and texting, the 108 also features a colorful, attractive design and a VGA camera for picture and video. Not bad for just $ 29.
The Nokia 108 isn’t going to start a feature phone revolution. And it’s nowhere near as lovely as the Gorilla Glass-clad Nokia 515 introduced last month. But that isn’t the point here. The Nokia 108 is all about delivering a full set of features in a sharp design at the lowest price possible. In addition to you standard phone duties, the 108 features an FM radio, an MP3 player (along with microSD card slot for up to 32GB of storage), a flashlight, and, of course, Snake. Nokia claims the phone should last for up to 31 days on standby.
As you can see in the photos, the 108 remains true to Nokia’s current design language, with brightly colored matte plastic shells. The phone looks quite similar to the $ 20 Nokia 105 the company launched at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. But this time around Nokia has increased the size of the display from 1.4 to 1.8-inches, and added a 0.3-megapixel camera on the back. There’s no doubt that VGA images and video are going to look a little small and grainy, but Nokia plans primarily on digital sharing, where that won’t be as readily apparent. The phone features Nokia Slam, which allows you to share photos via Bluetooth with many different Android and Windows phones.
Nokia is expecting to ship the 108 in single and dual-SIM versions starting in Q4 for $ 29. The phone will be available in black, red and white at launch, with cyan and yellow to follow. Given the mix of design, features and price, it’s not a bad place to start for someone getting their very first phone.
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