Monday November 26 Finish phone maker Nokia announced new phones for emerging economies available from Q4 2012. The phones, Nokia Asha 205 and  Nokia 206 come in single and dual-SIM varieties.

According to Nokia, “The Nokia 206 brings together classic and contemporary, with a traditional keypad married to a stunning design and a generous 2.4-inch screen.”

The US$ $62 phone comes in cyan, black, white, magenta and yellow, with a sleek curved form and a distinctive modern look. The single SIM phone has a battery life of 20 hours talktime and 47 days standby, has 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture. Its  Dual-SIM counterpart  has a 25 days standby.

The Nokia 206 also has the new Nokia Slam technology to help users share things quickly. Slam technology uses bluetooth sharing but one doesn’t have to pair phones. It also has the Nokia Xpress Browser to help users use as much data as possible without incurring more charges as they browse the web as it uses cloud-based servers which cut download sizes by over 90 per cent.

One can also share on Facebook and email. The single SIM handset has WhatsApp and eBuddy apps  preinstalled and over 1000s games accessible in the Nokia Store.

Nokia says, “The camera is optimised for content sharing with lower sized files. The 1.3-megapixel resolution can automatically resize pictures to around 700KB. This is great for a Facebook posting. It also offers an ‘intelligent imaging’ feature, which will tell you when self-portraits are in focus, and allows you to take a sequence of shots and choose the best. Video capture is also supported.”

For dual SIM users exchanging SIM cards  has been made easy by the Easy Swap technology which  according to Nokia gives access to a SIM-card slot in the side of the phone where one can swap cards without switching the phone off.