Nokia Asha 205 and Asha 206

Today Nokia announced two new additions to its feature-phone lineup, the Asha 205 and Asha 206. Both phones come with dual-SIM variants as well, and look to dethrone the Asha 201 as the cheapest offering currently in the Asha lineup.

The Asha 205 comes with a 2.4 inch screen of 320 x 240 pixel resolution, 64 MB of internal memory, and a 0.3 MP camera capable of VGA images and QCIF video. It also features a full-QWERTY keyboard.

The Asha 206 has the same 2.4 inch QVGA screen, except in portrait orientation, and the same 64 MB of internal memory. Its camera has been bumped up to 1.3 MP, although it comes with a regular keypad, rather than a full keyboard.

Both new devices feature Nokia's new Slam connectivity feature, which allows fast sharing over Bluetooth without the need to pair devices. Slam works with Bluetooth versions 2.1 and up, and on several mobile platforms (Windows Phone and iOS are not supported currently, though). Also, if you're worried about the rather sparse internal memory filling up quickly, each device supports microSD cards up to 32 GB.

Both the Nokia Asha 205 and Asha 206 feature a dedicated Facebook button for quick access to your social profile, and are available in several color combinations.

Zen dual-SIM Android 'Ultraphone U1'

Zen Mobiles has launched a dual-SIM smartphone running Android 2.3 Gingerbread for Rs. 4,999. The Ultraphone U1 has a HVGA 3.5-inch display, 3.2MP camera, no front-facing camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 512MB of built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. It runs on a 1GHz processor and is powered by a 1,200 mAh battery.

The Zen Ultraphone U1 comes preloaded with a bunch of apps that include Skype, Facebook, MapmyIndia, G-talk, nexGTV, WhatsApp, and GaneshaSpeaks.

At the launch of the Zen Ultraphone U1, Mr. Deepesh Gupta, Managing Director Zen Mobile, said, "We at Zen Mobiles aim to deliver consumer friendly products, with latest innovations in place. With our Zen Ultraphone U1, we have kept our commitment to the rapidly evolving smartphone market of the country, by bringing them top of the line product innovations. Zen Ultraphone U1 is one of the top of the ladder innovations from Zen Mobiles and reaffirms our business tenet of getting best of technology to the end consumers at affordable rates. We take pride in bringing pioneering technologies to the mobile users of today, which is in line with transforming their constantly evolving Android mobile experience."

In the sub Rs. 5,000 category, the consumer is spoiled for choice with the availability of a large number of devices such as the Karbonn A5, Spice Mi-320, iBall Andi 107, Micromax Superfone A45 and more.

In the recent past, Zen launched a budget tablet called the Zen Ultratab A100. The Ultratab A100 is priced at Rs. 6,199. It has a 7-inch display with a 480x800 pixel resolution, 1.2GHz single-core processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB storage expandable via microSD card up to 32GB, a 1.3MP video call camera, Wi-Fi and running on Android 4.0.3. You can read a review of the tablethere.