The Nokia 105 – Made for Sri Lanka

Staring at a small piece of blue plastic inside a blue box offered to us by Mobitel… I take out the latest of the ‘Ultra Low-Cost’ handsets introduced to the Sri Lankan market – The Nokia Lum… What?! Sorry… a Nokia 105.

At a price of Rs.2990, and backed by a powerful Nokia brand, this petite little piece of communication device is aimed point blank at the ‘Poor Sri Lankan’ mobile phone user – with Sinhala and Tamil language support, who is the most common of beings you see around if you swing the camera of your S3 or iPhone.

Display

Even though it’s not like a 6” 1080p AMLOED with PureMotion HD+ on the Lumia 1520 you do know that Nokia means business when everything is crisply set out on that tiny 1.4″ display. The colors pop out nicely and are not a sore for the eyes. Icons for each and every function are clearly designed and look pretty too.

The Body

The thick plastic of this pebble feels extremely sturdy, and the blue colour makes it look pretty. The moment you hold it, you will know that Nokia really means business with their REALLY “Durable” and “Usable” phone models.

The numeric keypad reminded me of the good old days when Nokia could take on the army any day! (Figuratively of course!) The rubber keyboard feels very good on the fingers, and the buttons let you know exactly that you have pressed the correct key. To all you people who type stuff without looking at the display; y’all are in for a treat.

Calls and SMS

In a world filled with the notorious Auto-Correct of the iPhone, sweet WordFlow keyboard of Windows Phone OS and the fluid Swype Keyboard available on the Android platform – Happiness is “typing away happily on the numeric keypad of a Nokia without even looking at it!”

True to the above statement, I was able to type a few paragraphs away on the 105 without even looking at the screen. And I can proudly say I scored only two mistakes in a fifty word paragraph. Rest assured, the average young Sri Lankan can use this phone to happily type away love letters without re-checking.

Call quality was also very good, and my friend to whom I made the test call didn’t have much to complain about the voice clarity or the loudness. Neither did I have regarding the ear piece or even when the loudspeaker was turned on.

Bits and pieces…

The back panel of this phone reminded me a lot of the Lumia 620 when turned around. The Nokia branding panel bordered by the loudspeaker looks very much like the camera area on the 620.

Special features include;

A single LED flashlight on the top – Yes, Let there be light!

A 3.5mm universal headphone jack so you will be entertained through the trek with some FM Radio entertainment, and the usual suspects of Calculator, Converter, Calendar and an Expense Manager too.

What do I think…?

This little lump of telecommunication device does what it should do best – take calls, send texts easily, shed some light on our path and help us waste our time a bit with some radio – all at a very no nonsense way.

If you ever need a backup phone in an emergency which will stick around you like your best friend when your girlfriend dumps you – get this!