Very cheap, dust and splash resistant, very long battery life
No camera, no internet, no apps
No fancy operating system, no camera, no apps -- Nokia's back-to-basics feature phone looks like it has nothing of interest.
Except perhaps the price -- it's available SIM-free for as little as £15.
Design
It seems like a long time ago now, but Nokia was once a byword for mobile phone success and innovation. But even in its heyday, the Finnish giant didn't make its millions from its fanciest handsets, but from solid, reliable workhorses that did what you needed them to do, without fuss and without hassle.
So perhaps it's no surprise that its has introduced the 105 in these days of quad-core, 4G super-smartphones. It's an extremely simple feature phone that allows you to make calls and send texts -- and that's about it. But there's more to this than meets the eye. For a retail price of as little as £15, you get a fully functioning phone that will keep you in touch without having to worry too much about losing or damaging it.
It's slim and light enough to fit comfortably in just about any pocket and the rubberised casing claims to be dust and splash resistant. A few light splashes certainly didn't seem to do it any harm, but don't expect it to be submersible in water like some of
Sony's Xperia series. The basic keypad consists of rubberised buttons which are slightly raised to help you distinguish them under the thumb and there's a central five-way D-pad as the main mode of navigation through your menus, with back and select buttons on either side.
Features and performance
The colour screen is just 1.4-inch and offers a square resolution of 128x128 pixels (125ppi). It's not touch sensitive and is no use for surfing the web or watching movies, which is just as well since you can't do either of those things on the 105. You can't download apps either, and with no GPS, NFC, camera or even 3G connectivity, the standard capabilities of most modern phones are denied you.
You can play games though, and there are five old-school games including Nokia classic Snake (Xenzia version) and Sudoku. There's an FM radio too, and a torch at the top which isn't particularly bright, but it'll help you find your way round the guy ropes on the drunken lurch back to your mud-sodden tent at a festival. There's a speaking clock, plus room for 500 contacts and 8GB of memory on board, though heaven knows how you'll fill it up.
The battery may only be 800mAh, but considering what it's got to do, that's more than ample, and our test model was still going strong with a little under half power remaining after a full week!
We made calls on it every day, and played the odd game, but really, there wasn't an awful lot to drain it.
Conclusion
Strange that a phone like this should seem like a novelty, but it's so basic as to appear perverse. That barely-there price tag is what swings it though -- if you want to keep in contact while you're away, at a festival for instance, and don't want to risk your "real" phone, the 105 is a pretty good bet.
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Software: Symbian Series 30
Processor: N/A
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 1.4in 16-bit HighColor, 128x128 pixels
Connectivity: 2G GSM 900Mhz, 1800MHz
Ports: 2mm charging connector, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: No
Video playback: No
Audio playback: No
Radio: Yes
Battery: 800mAh
Size: 107x45x14mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
