After a round of teasers and rumors Nokia has finally announced the Asha 501 in India. Asha 501 is the first member of Nokia’s refreshed lineup of Asha devices, and comes with superior design and performance. Nokia Asha 501 follows a brand new design philosophy that is built keeping the youth in mind and we got to experience the device during the launch that took place in Delhi on May 8. The device will be making its way to customers in the coming few days. It sure is impressive and even more so because its price is less than Rs 6,000.
Look and feel
Nokia Asha 501 is like a breath of fresh air and Nokia has built it from the ground up, adopting a brand new design philosophy and exciting range of color schemes. The Asha 501 looks and feels like a solid device, although there is not much to compare it with in the market. Compared to Nokia’s very own budget Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the Lumia 520 is absolutely impressive. It comes in exciting color options with a matte finish to avoid any smudges and fading. The design of the device takes hints from the design of Nokia Lumia 520 but obvious adjustments have been made to reduce its price.
Nokia Asha 501 also adopts a two part body design wherein the device is one big chunk fitting into the color casing, which acts like a bumper protection for the device as well.
The device is lightweight and feels sturdy at the same time. The display has been protected with a scratch resistant glass layer, although not Gorilla glass. The device features minimal hardware buttons with a single return key on the face and volume rocker along with a power/standby key on the side.
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User interface
The Nokia Asha 501 is built to make it easier for people to access everything with just a simple swipe. The user interface has been divided mainly into two parts: Home and Fastlane. While Home is the traditional listing for individual apps the new Fastlane offers a breezy get around to the device, which any mobile phone user would love to do. Fastlane offers quick access to recently accessed contacts, social networks and apps all in one place that is called the Fastlane. It provides a record of how the phone is used, giving people a glimpse of their past, present and future activity, and helping them multi-task by providing easy access to their favorite task on the phone.
Hardware
Asha 501 comes with a 3 inch display that does an impressive job. The display has a native resolution of 240 x 300 pixel. The device has a lower Pixel density but the operating system has been optimized for the display as well, which makes the visuals look crisp and there is hardly any pixilation visible. The display reproduces bright and vibrant visuals that complement the new Asha operating system completely.
The device features an undisclosed application processor, which we think is upwards of 600 MHz, alongwith 64 MB of RAM. The device gets 128 MB of onboard memory along with a 4 GB bundled Memory card for storage. The memory can be upgraded to another 32 GB with the use of Micro SD cards.
Camera and apps
The Asha 501 gets a 3.2 Megapixel camera capable of recording QVGA resolution videos at 15 frames per second. The camera, though it might sound small, takes good quality images for a low cost mobile device, and although video might sound bad it gets the job done.
Nokia has partnered with Facebook to offer the best in call experience of Facebook to users and Nokia is in talks with operators to provide free Facebook access with the device, which is a great thing. Gameloft will also be offering a bundle of 40 free games for users to download and enjoy on their device but this will only be valid for up to 60 days from the date of purchase.
The Nokia Xpress Browser is pre-loaded on the Asha 501; it compresses internet data by up to 90 per cent. This is aimed at making mobile browsing faster and more affordable.
Finally
The Nokia Asha 501 will be coming to markets in the next few weeks and it will give free Facebook access to most users across different service providers. While the device is good the Asha 501 has all the potential and is more than capable with Nokia’s applications that offer great utility to the device. With the price being lower than Rs 6,000 the device is likely to be a new Asha for Nokia and probably a huge hit globally.