While Nokia bids us farewell, the brand will still be around for existing products. Here with us, the impressive Nokia Asha 501. Impressive? Yes, it is.
This is truly a low-cost phone that deserves the “Value for money” title.
It has a 3″ QVGA (320 x 240) with HighColor (18-bit/262k), it has Dual-SIM support, the package comes with a set of earphones and also a 4GB MicroSD card.
User Experience
The first thing that caught my attention is the User Interface, it works exactly like the Nokia N9.
Upon first time power up of the device, you’ll be given a tutorial on how to use swipes to go about the interface.
Battery life of this phone is superb, not surprising though. The 1200 mAh battery last for ages, it lasts so long I actually lost track. I can’t use it as my main phone due to work purpose but for what it’s worth, I do have a secondary line on it and it went on and on for about 5 – 6 days before actually needing a recharge.
No idea how the product page states 624 hours standby time, that’s nearly a month.
The phone comes with expandable memory card of up to 32GB, and it supports Dual-Sim, of which the primary SIM card is placed under the battery while the secondary SIM card slot is next to the MicroSD slot.
The phone comes with Micro USB connection capability and can even be charged using Micro USB cable but Nokia till made the 2.0mm connector as the primary charging connector. Even the bundled charger is of the 2.0mm connector.
The Asha 501 isn’t all perfect, for example the camera is horrible. 😛 What can you expect for such a low cost device?
Being on Nokia’s proprietary platform, the apps available are limited. The phone comes with default social media apps, and it worked fine. I tried their Facebook app and I could still read contents on my newsfeed but it’s a totally different experience. That’s not to say it’s good but it’s good enough for anyone to use for reading updates.
The greatest disappointment to me, is the lack of ability to acquire contacts from Google. 🙁 It works like the devices of old where the contacts are stored on SIM. You can choose either to import from elsewhere or key them in on your own.
As for the web browsing experience, the default browser works fine and loads websites as it is. This might drain the data usage quite a bit but Nokia claims that the browser is light on data.
The Asha 501’s audio output isn’t great though, the output seems a little soft and very slightly muffled but sufficient to carry a conversation without being driven up the wall.
For more details of the device, please visit the official product page.
The Verdict
This RRP for Asha 501 is RM 299, which is a steal, considering the amount of features you get on this little device.
It’s small and light, it feels like a toy yet it feels good to hold. In fact it’s pretty solid for something at this price.
For those who need a communication device with multiple SIM support and the occasional connection to social networks, I think there’s no better phone for you. For others, this is a great backup phone.
*Don’t bother playing games on this phone. 😛
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