Microsoft keeps the candybar dream alive with the Nokia 222

There was a time when, if you'd told me I could buy a connected MP3 player with a camera that makes calls, for $37, I'd have suggested a little less "jazz" in your cigarettes. Today, in 2015, that's called the Nokia 222. Of course, this isn't really a media player, it's a feature phone aimed at developing markets. Despite the obvious limitations of a "2.5G" candybar running a bespoke OS (Nokia Series 30+), there are some features -- like month-long battery life -- that remind us that fancy-pants flagships can have their drawbacks.

While we're joking about it being an MP3 player with a phone attached, it does support SD cards (up to 32GB) that you could stuff with media. Likewise, the 2-megapixel camera may be modest, but the handset is still good for Skype or Facebook, plus direct phone-to-phone sharing (via SLAM). There's also a flashlight, that the PR kindly explains what you might use for.

Nokia fans may have spotted it's very similar to the even more affordable ($29) Nokia 215, but with a much improved camera and a few aesthetic improvements. We suspect the "select markets" that the Nokia 222 (or its dual-SIM variant) are headed to don't include the US, not least because of the 900/1800 MHz radios, still, we're weirdly taken by its design. Enough that we hope the real Nokia (not the Microsoft-flavored version) breaks its own promise to make more phones once it's contractually allowed to.