It’s day 3 of CES 2015, and so far we’ve seen some pretty amazing things from the showcase this year. I mean really, we’ve got a lot of flashy smartphones and gadgets to look at. But among all of the eye candy that we’ve been presented with thus far, there’s one phone that, for some reason, stands out to me more than the others right now: the Microsoft Nokia 215.
There’s no real good reason for it to stand out, either. It’s not like it’s anything we haven’t already seen before - it’s a candybar style phone, very similar to those old Nokia “brick” phones that were so popular back in the day. This one just has some improvements that make it worth a second look. Perhaps it's purely nostalgia that draws me in.
I think the first thing that actually caught my eye about the 215 was the price tag, which is a mere $29. Affordability in smartphones seem to be in high demand lately, and the 215 definitely has that. Of course, one shouldn’t expect to pay too much for a phone that isn’t a smartphone. It’s not Android, iOS, Windows, or BlackBerry. This phone runs on the Series 30+ platform, which is optimized for minimal energy consumption.
It’s part of what makes this phone last for 29 days on a single charge in standby mode, another reason that this phone stuck out to me.
Battery life, in my opinion, is one of the most important features in a phone. As much as I love having apps upon apps, I do occasionally get bummed that I need to remember to plug my phone in once a night. I am patiently awaiting the day where I can at least go 2-3 days without having to remember to do so.
But this phone, it does that already. And maybe it’s not a smartphone, per se, but it does have some enhanced qualities from your typical brick phone from back in the day. You can still access the Internet using the phone’s built-in Opera web browser (2G only), and it even features Facebook and Twitter apps, along with a weather app and Bing Search. You can also e-mail, and it does have a camera, although the megapixel count still hasn’t been revealed.
All in all, no, the Nokia 215 isn’t a breathtakingly awesome phone. It’s not a smartphone. It’s also not really a dumb phone either, though. It’s just an extremely affordable phone that can do some of the important things that smartphones can do, and one of the most important things that most smartphones can’t do - which is last a really long time on a single charge.
With that in mind, Microsoft doesn’t seem to have any intention on releasing this phone in the U.S., but I honestly wouldn’t have minded if they did. This would be a perfect phone for a lot of people, especially older or younger folk who are either just getting their first phone or want to keep things simple. Not everybody needs a complicated smartphone, but sometimes there are certain perks of smartphones that push them towards getting one - like the Internet, or Facebook.
Maybe we’ll never see anything like that around these parts, but I think it’s cool that Microsoft was able to make something somewhat modern out of an old design. If nothing, it really brought back some nostalgic feelings for me.