Nokia Asha 311 review: A penny saved

Display

The Nokia Asha 311 comes with the standard for the family 3" WQVGA LCD. However there are some nice upgrades compared to the unit we saw on the Asha 305. For one, there's a polarization filter here that should improve sunlight legibility. There's also a protective layer of Gorilla Glass on top of the display for extra protection and those are normally really hard to come by in this class.

The Nokia Asha 311 display is hardly the best around

However, the screen underneath is not too bright and the low resolution gives icons a dot-matrix-printer look. The colors look a bit washed out as well, but to be fair, competition is not doing much better in that aspect.

This time, Nokia went with a capacitive screen, which is far more responsive than on the Asha 305. It's not as good as on the entry-level droids, but still an improvement.

And here come the Asha 311 score from our display sunlight legibility test. It actually fared impressively well, beating quite a few elite competitors. That polarization filter that Nokia installed is obviously doing a marvelous job.

Contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• Nokia Asha 311
  2.250
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Sony Xperia acro S
  2.119
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• Sony Xperia go
  1.577
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• BlackBerry Curve 9320
  1.488
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Samsung Galaxy S Duos
  1.400
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Nokia Asha 305
  1.178
• Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos
  1.148
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

Here's a photo of the screen's RGB matrix under a microscope.

Nokia Asha 311 screen matrix

Handling

We can't say we're too fond of the Nokia Asha 311 in terms of design but the build looks solid. Fingerprints are an issue and overall, it's the looks that raise doubts not durability.

Nokia Asha 311 held in hand

It's not that you could realistically expect much better in this price range. Good looks are normally achieved by the use of expensive materials and those just can't be squeezed in a budget this tight.