Nokia 207
Nokia dominated the phone market for quite a long time before the arrival of the Android OS. Nokia had become synonymous for a phone and every family in India had at least one Nokia phone. But with the coming of the smartphone generation other companies such as Samsung, Sony and HTC are forming a huge part of the market now, not limiting the profits to Nokia anymore.
Nokia however does not lag behind even in the modern market and has released a number of phones right from the ‘Lumia’ range to the ‘Asha’ range. Nokia is now back with its bar design phones by releasing the Nokia 207 and Nokia 208. The Nokia 207 and Nokia 208 are multi utility phones which have 3.5G connectivity.
Display:
The Nokia 207 and Nokia 208 sport a 2.4 inch display screen with a QVGA resolution and LCD Transmissive display technology. The phone is a usual bar phone and not one with a touch screen which is hard to find in a new release these days. There is not any high end display feature or technology which will blow you off your feet but the display is good enough for low end phone.
Nokia 207
Dimensions & Weight:
Both phones are same in measurement with its dimensions being 114.2 mm x 50.9 mm x 12.88 mm however there is a very slight difference in the weight of the phones with Nokia 207 weighing 91.3 grams and the Nokia 208 weighing 89.6 grams. Both phones have a bar design with the usual function key, call key, end key, 4-way navigation key with select button and an Alphanumeric keypad.
Connectivity:
The Nokia 207 as well as the Nokia 208 have connectivity up to 3.5G networks. The phone uses a micro-SIM which is a first for a phone that does not a touch screen feature. The 3.5G network allows user to access high speed internet browsing. One can easily stream videos from YouTube and check e-mail easily. This allows the user to stay connected to his circles through social networks as Facebook, Twitter and Nimbuzz come pre-loaded. Therefore one can post photos and videos, chat and share all at once without any hassle.
Nokia 207
Interestingly Nokia has marketed the, micro-SIM and 3.5 G features in a way that seems a little odd at the first read. The phone is referred to as a great companion to a smart phone. As the Nokia 207 and Nokia 208 have micro-SIM usage one can easily use a SIM they are using in their smart phone and work without any problem. This marketing scheme may work very well for their phone but calling their release a mere companion phone does not go well with me personally.
In addition to the 3.5 G network connectivity the phone has USB connectivity and also is Bluetooth enabled with the help of Bluetooth 3.0. There are a number of Bluetooth profiles that are available such as the Object Push Profile, Hands-free Profile, Headset Profile, Serial Port profile, Phone Book Access Profile, Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and many more such profiles. With regards to data connectivity the phones can utilize GSM max data download speed of 236.8 kbps and WCDMA max data download speed of 7.2 mbps.
Nokia 208
Battery Life & Memory:
Both the new releases run on a 1020 mAh battery. The battery has a 2G stand by time of 490 hours and 3G standby time of 500 hours. The talk time on 2G network is 12 hours and talk time on 3G network is 4.5 hours. Nokia phones have always been known for their battery life and this phone does not disappoint on that end. The phones have a RAM of 64 MB which I think is the least that is produced nowadays.
The internal memory is a mere 256 MB but the same can be extended up to 32 GB with the help of a memory card. Though it is a great feature that memory can be extended quite a bit, but one wonders what can one store in the phone of that capacity considering the phone doesn’t have any out of the world feature. However I guess it is just a case of meeting the current trends that are prevalent in the new phones.
Camera:
Now coming to the only point of contention that separates both these phones the camera. While the Nokia 207 does not have any camera, yes I’m right it does not have any camera, the Nokia 208 has a 1.3 megapixel camera with fixed focus and a 3X digital zoom. The camera however has no flash feature. The phone has the panorama image shooting also which is exciting to hear in a camera of not so high quality.
Features:
The other features that come with the phones are, media player, radio with recording feature, GPS navigation, Nokia Xpress Browser, Data Encryption, Email Clients, Nokia Chat, Java Games, Dictionary, Recorder, Calculator, Clock, Calendar, Alarm Clock, Reminders and a number of other features. All these features run on the Series 40 software platform.
Nokia 208
Conclusion:
The Nokia 207 and Nokia 208 are not too different from each other except the fact that the 208 has a camera which the 207 does not have. Apart from that there isn’t much to separate the phone and one fails to understand that why would you release two versions which are almost the same except a small camera. It is very difficult to separate these phones, but these phones no doubt are multi-purpose and can cater to all basic phone needs.
The marketing maybe has been done rightly and these phones can act as a good companion phone to a smart phone. But somehow everything does not add up about the phone. Still one has to wait and see how the phone fares in the market and only then can one come to a conclusion about their utility. But it is refreshing to see Nokia release one of its classic designs which is a favorite of a large number of population.
Author bio: Ajay Chauhan is expert in handsets and technology reviews working at 91mobiles. He has done a great research to find out the features of Nokia 207 and Nokia 208.