Last year Microsoft bought Nokia, and they wasted no time developing a “smart” version of their infamous “brick” model. It’s a $29 “entry-level” internet-ready phone called the Nokia 215, and it’s being rolled out this year starting in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The 215 honors the Reddit meme of being able to retain battery power for a marathon length of time in comparison to today’s smartphones — up to 29 days on one charge. It also comes pre-loaded with Twitter, Facebook and the Facebook Messenger apps. There’s an Opera browser for everything else, and it’s Bluetooth capable. It only runs on a 2G network, however.
It’s less than five inches long, about a half inch thick, and weighs less than three ounces — that’s with a 2.4-inch Quarter VGA screen for checking your news feeds. You can also get it in lime green, if you’re feeling the indestructible nature of it and need to see it from ten miles away in order to fish it out of the bottom of your bag.
You can check it out at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. Otherwise, if you live in the U.S., you’re going to have to wait. That’s a shame, considering the number of people I know who on the regular are asking around for anyone with a deactivated phone because they dropped their iPhone and aren’t up for a renewal yet. For $30 and change, you could get a replacement that can still keep you relatively connected and also make phone calls, if you’re in to that sort of thing.
Or, y’know. You could buy 60 of them every two weeks if you had some sort of organization that would benefit from frequent use of disposable sorta-smartphones. Just make sure you buy them two at a time.