Nokia 206 brings new technology, design to classic feature phone

The feature phone is not dead. Nokia is bringing new life to these guys from "back in the day" with their announcement of the Nokia 206 today. So long live the alphanumeric keyboard.

This classic design has a 2.4-inch display and comes in single and dual-SIM versions. The camera is nothing to brag about at 1.3 megapixels and it also has video capture. But the camera is optimized for sharing pictures - let's say on Facebook - at around 700KB. The downsizing is done automatically.

But here is something to brag about. Nokia is claiming 20 hours of talk time in battery life for the single-SIM version, with a 47-day standby mode. That's over month without recharging. The dual-SIM model has a lower 25-day standby time.

As for memory, there is 10 megabytes of user memory, along with a slot that accept a 32-gigabyte SD card.

Nokia did manage to incorporate some nifty technology into the feature phone platform. Their "Slam" technology allows the sharing of items over Bluetooth, but you don't have to pair the phones. Their "Xpress Browser" allows Web browsing using cloud-based servers, which helps to limit excessive data charges and saves the user money.

When the Nokia 206 is available before the end of the year, there will be a choice of five colors - white, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. It'll cost around $62 without carrier subsidies and will be offered in markets outside the United States.

The one thing I can say about the newest feature phone from Nokia is that it's very snazzy.

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