While Microsoft had, earlier this year, agreed to sell its “dumbphone” business, it has just unveiled a new feature phone – the Nokia 216 – for India during the wait for that deal to close.
The Nokia 216, which will be one of the Redmond corporation’s most basic phones when it is released in India priced at about $37 next month, features a 2.4-inch QVGA display, 0.3-megapixel front and rear cameras, and the Opera Mini Browser. The handset will run on the Series 30 OS, with which users will be able to download further apps from the Opera Mobile Store.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsKCq1rwG8c
While rudimentary in features compared to the likes of the iPhone and Samsung smartphones, feature phones remain popular; The Verge reports that Microsoft continues to sell millions of them monthly. Nonetheless, there have been rumblings that Microsoft is set to “end sales” of its Lumia range of Windows smartphones this December.
The Nokia 216 looks likely to be Microsoft’s last Nokia-branded feature phone, as Finnish firm HMD Global City is expected to get its hands on Microsoft’s feature phone assets before the year’s end, after which point HMD will be able to make its own Nokia-branded devices.
