Nokia has launched a new mobile phone that needs charging less than once a month and costs just £13 to buy.

The Nokia 105 is a basic text-and-call phone aimed at mobile markets in the developing world where electricity sources may be scarce or unreliable, but it is likely to prove a hit in the west too as a back-up or emergency device.

The 105, which is set to go on sale in the next few weeks, comes with a full-colour screen, torch and FM radio, and can obviously make phone calls and send and receive SMS messages too.

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But the key feature of the new Nokia is its incredible battery life which, according to the Finnish company’s press spokesperson Pekka Haverinen, is around 35 days on a single charge.

That feature will prove useful in the developing world, where intermittent electricity sources mean mobile phones cannot be regularly or reliably charged for weeks at a time.

It will also surely attract western smart phone users who, despite enjoying the high-tech apps and features of their more expensive devices, regularly complain of unpredictable battery drain leaving a fully charged phone dead in well-under 24 hours.

Complex apps and functions causing crashes and requiring resets are also a common reliability problem with many top-selling devices.

As a result, an increasing number of smart phone users are opting to carry cheap and technologically basic ‘back-up phones’.

These simple devices can be better relied on not to crash in an emergency, and their relative lack of features means battery life is usually days not hours.

The 105 marks the latest attempt by Nokia to dominate the ultra-low cost-focussed developing mobile market, having lost ground to Samsung and Apple in the smart phone sector in recent years.