Looking For A Dual SIM Smart Phone? Try The Nokia Asha 305

Saturday, April 27th, 2013 at 1:30 pm

A dual SIM phone is a must have for some people. Whether you’re a constant traveller who needs to keep two SIM cards for two different countries, or someone who needs both a business and a personal SIM, a dual SIM mobile phone can give you the ability to run both your SIM cards at the same time. Until quite recently, dual SIM phones were low on features and high on price. But as more people are using two SIM cards, more companies are manufacturing higher end dual SIM devices. Nokia is probably the king of dual SIM phones, manufacturing more models than any other company. And their new Nokia Asha 305 is the cheapest touch screen dual SIM phone on the market right now. We took a closer look at the Asha 305 to find out exactly what it offers…

The Nokia Asha 305: The Good

The biggest advantage of the Asha 305 is definitely its price, but it’s got some pretty sweet features too. The updated browser, access to the Nokia store and new touch interface all give the Asha 305 a real smart phone feel. It has a hot swap feature, allowing you to switch between SIM cards without switching the phone off, as well as a specialised app that lets you control how texts, calls and data are switched between cards. It’s a dual band phone with a three inch resistive touch screen that includes auto rotation. It has multi touch capability in both the picture gallery and Nokia maps, letting you pinch to zoom, for example. There’s a standard micro USB port for charging, as well as micro SD card support up to 32 GB of memory. The camera is only a 2 MP device, but at least there is a camera, unlike on a lot of dual SIM models. There’s Bluetooth connectivity too, and a 1100 mAh Li-Ion battery that gets pretty good battery life.

The Nokia Asha 305: The Bad

There are some down sides to the Asha 305 though. The device doesn’t run much RAM, so it can get a little sluggish and slow. The screen quality isn’t great either, and the resistive touch screen can feel a little awkward at times. The camera is only a fixed focus device, there’s no auto focus or zooming, which can make picture taking a pain. And the video recording is pretty low quality overall. Plus, there’s no smart dialling, which is a fairly standard feature on most smart phones.

Should I Buy One?

Yes, the Asha 305 has its disadvantages, but as far as a dual SIM phone goes, it is one of the better ones on the market. It is a compromise, you get poor screen quality, but it is a touch screen phone, which is still very unusual on the dual SIM market. And in fact it’s so much of a touch screen phone that the soft keys are barely needed at all, which is convenient. There is the occasional lag, but on the other hand there are great pull down notifications and a side scrolling home screen. In general, the Asha 305 is a pretty amazing phone.

Phil Turner knows  all the advantages a dual sim mobile phone has to offer and is glad that there are more dual sim models becoming available.

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