The Nokia Asha 501 recently had its launch in New Delhi, India. The Asha 501 is the product of Nokia’s collective effort to target and capture the market of Smartphone phone seekers with lesser budget. The previous Nokia Asha versions have seen good results and this new entrant promises to be even better.
The Nokia Asha 501 is primed towards countries like Latin America and India, and may never be launched in USA. In India, the device will hit the market in June 2013 and will be priced about 6000 INR.
Nokia Asha 501 Review
Should you or should you not buy the Asha 501 Smartphone? Let’s review the product.
- SIM and 3G Connectivity
The Nokia Asha 501 device will be available in both single and dual SIM variants. However, the device will not have any 3G support. It is not surprising because most mobile devices in this price range do not have 3G support. Secondly, the target market does not consider it to be their top priority either. It’s aimed at consumers who cannot afford a smartphone. Not having 3G should not affect the Asha 501 sales.
If you are looking for a device which will load images on Facebook, download photos and do other social networking tasks at a lightning speed, Asha 501 will not be your best option. You need to buy other high-end Smartphones, preferably in the Android category.
- Operating System and Display
The device has a fresh look and some of the design elements are similar to MeeGo. The Operating System (OS) is Nokia’s own Asha software; it is fast and the Smartphone comes pre-loaded with basic applications like WeChat, Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, The Weather channel, CNN, ESPN, eBuddy and Nokia HERE maps. The Nokia Asha 501 has an acceptable screen size of 3 inches with TFT LCD display and 240 x 320 resolutions. The pixel density is low, but it isn’t so evident in the display. The design is really impressive. It has a polycarbonate back, with angular design and a lot of color options.
- Connectivity, Storage & Battery
There’s no available information on processors and speed yet. The device will have a micro USB slot for data transfer and charging. It will have 64 MB RAM power and has basic connectivity options like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Nokia hasn’t specified the internal memory storage value, but it is safe to assume it will have at least 32 GB of expandable external memory. The pack will also have a 4 GB SD card. Further, it has a strong 1200 mAh Li-on battery that will deliver at least 17 hours of talk time, 56 hours of music playback and it also claims 48 days of standby battery life.
- Image Capture
There is the only camera at the rear with 3.2 megapixels. It doesn’t have auto-focus or flash but if you are an occasional click-friendly person, this should be enough.
Who will buy Nokia Asha 501?
Given the fact that it is very reasonably priced, it should have a lot of buyers. There are other Android based Smartphones in the market, but they are not this budget friendly and even if they are, they lack in usability.
Nokia Asha 501 packs both. Nokia has targeted a market which is not looking for high-end features or latest games to play. The Nokia Asha 501 is for those who are into basic social networking, checking emails, do a little of web browsing and need strong battery capability, apart from the usual calling and messaging services. For such people, Nokia Asha 501 will be the perfect choice.
A quick tip: Major e-commerce outlets are already offering pre-booking options. Make sure you do a bit of comparison shopping before purchasing. Comparison shopping means you shop around a bit to compare prices for the same product and get the best offer. Don’t wait, grab your spot now!
Update: You can Buy Nokia Asha 501 from Flipkart for Rs. 5199.
Hey Chitraparna, nokia 501 is really awesome and My sister is very much interested in this post after reading your review. I’ve decided to buy one for her. Thanks
Glad to know that Raj. Even I’m going to purchase Nokia Asha 501 🙂 Its simply awesome.
Hi Chitraparna, I’m great fan of Nokia , it may any model, I get attracted to it. So it was pleasant reading this article.
I am a big fan of Nokia too. I have been from the first ever phone my mom bought for me in 2008. Nokia is just the best.
This is really a great phone from Nokia. I guess so far the best one in the Asha series. One of my friends have been thinking to buy it, but is pretty confused between this phone and Lumia 520. Which device would you recommend for him?
Hey its a really nice article. Nokia Asha 501 a stylish phone with affordable pricing. Nokia 501 is studded with quality features like 3.0 inch LCD display, 128 MB memory, 3G, Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, 3.2MP rear camera, stylish design and lots more.
hey chitrapana, is dis phone supports whatsapp?
Right now NO but this phone is soon going to support whatsapp mostly before the end of this month.
Itz NYC
Nokia is a well known and one of the finest mobile brands as of now. But because of their slowness in taking decision to adopting to new Smartphone requirement they failed.
The Asha series Nokia phones are very good in terms of performance. Ths Asha 501 has most of the basic features which are present in mid range smartphones. Hopefully, Nokia continues to work on Asha platform and it gets more and more apps. Asha platform is light and performs extremely good.
I just brought the Nokia Asha 501. The incoming call volume is very low (even setting volume at 100%). There is no Phone profile setting to set my incoming volume. While incoming call, if we touch the volume button, the phone goes to mute mode can’t increase volume through volume button. Missed a few important calls, while at home I need to keep my phone upside down (screen facing down) to hear the incoming calls.
Lot of improvement is needed for this phone waiting for updates, else its definitely a waste of money buying this phone. My old Nokia 5233 is much better than Asha 501
hifriends,
after i download it the below error showned.
null can’t be installed,because there’s critical information that is not formatted correctly or isn’t valid.please contact the app provider to get this fixed
how to install it?