LG T315i: A feature phone with WiFi for $155 that shouldn’t have been announced

LG has just announced the T315i and the highlight feature of this dumb phone is WiFi connectivity. Starting this month you can pick up this thing up in Russia for ~ 4,400 rubles which is equivalent to $155. It measures 103 mm x 57 mm x 11.9 mm, has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, 2 megapixel camera, 2.8 inch display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, and supports all 4 GSM bands, meaning you’ll be able to use this thing anywhere in the world, albeit on EDGE. So now for the important question, should you buy this thing? Absolutely not. Right now the market is being flooded by cheap Android smartphones such as the Huawei IDEOS that sells for roughly the same price, but also features 3G and GPS, not to mention access to thousands of applications. Buying a feature phone these days doesn’t make sense and we don’t recommend you pick this up, unless you really just want to throw your money out the window.

If it’s a simple phone you’re after that also has a touch screen then check out Nokia’s Touch and Type lineup. They’ve got the X3 and the C3, the latter having a more traditional design versus the former who tries too hard to be innovative and makes a sacrifice by using a non-standard T9 layout. If you want to save yourself some cash then you should also think about buying something used. There’s absolutely no problems with Nokia’s earlier Symbian devices and you should be able to pick them up for relatively cheap, and again, you’ll have access to plenty of applications and probably a better spec sheet as well.

When will the market for feature phones in Western markets dry up? There’s always Africa and India, but if you’re living in Europe or America then what’s the logic in buying something that doesn’t do anything but call or text?