Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

http://techpp.com/2013/05/09/nokia-asha-501/

by RaduTyrsina • 13 years ago

68 67 13 years ago

techpp.com

RyanZAG3• 13 years ago

Hardly impressive - fairly pathetic really. Observe:

http://androidandme.com/2013/04/smartphones-2/archos-reveals...

http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58...

http://www.pandawill.com/mobile-phone-c1/android-os-phone-c5...

etc. Just Google around for tons more.

Generally better in just about every way, and running a real OS that can run real apps.

mtgx• 13 years ago

I think there was a quad core 1080p Chinese phone for $160, too. Considering these are running Symbian, that's a lot less value for buck compared to an Android one, even if the price is "low".

EDIT: This one iOcean X7 - quad core 1.2 Cortex A7, 1080p screen, PowerVR 5XT (1080p video support), 2 GB of RAM, 13 MP camera. Now that's impressive. And it doesn't look too bad either:

http://android-sale.com/iocean-x7-phone.html

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

of course, there are a lot of them, but what about the quality of them ... ?

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

would you buy it? :P

seanmcdirmid5• 13 years ago

These are not running Symbian. From the article:

> Nokia Asha 501 represents the first fruit after Nokia bought Smarterphone, back in November 2012. And maybe thanks to the Smarterphone software, Nokia has managed to pack so much inside a tiny, 3inch touchscreen device.

As for the iOcean, I can't find a review about it anywhere on the web in English. Kind of risky.

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

Indeed, the first one is good, but second one - Starting at: $219.00 + it's a no name. the same about the rest of them. archos' interesting though. but no, asha 501 is not pathetic at all

RyanZAG3• 13 years ago

Sorry, my bad on the 2nd link, I pasted the wrong one. It was meant to be the 'cheap phones' link from that website. Here it is:

http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58...

Those devices are better specs, cheaper (some are under $50), and run a real OS. The third link is the same, with better specs and well under $99, so I'm not sure where you're coming from here. Asha 501 seems very pathetic to me at least.

seanmcdirmid5• 13 years ago

Think of the difference between a namebrand and a white label.

If you get a bland cheap Chinese android phone, everyone will know it and you'll lose face. An Asha is a bit more classier, well designed, higher quality, still very affordable.

RyanZAG3• 13 years ago

I'm not so sure about that. For example, this phone:

http://www.androidforcheap.com/a7100-tv-wifi-smart-phone-and...

Without a careful inspection, most people will have a very difficult time telling it apart from newer Samsung phones, and it runs far, far better than the terrible Symbian OS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx2ueazLvXI

mcintyre1994• 13 years ago

Out of interest, how important is the view "everyone" has about your phone to you? I just don't see why you'd "lose face" over something like that.

moystard6• 13 years ago

To be perfectly honest, I have seen quite a few Chinese no name Android phones and I have never been impressed by any of them. On paper, everything looks great, but the reality differs a lot: stolen design, bad build quality, poor screen resolution/contrast/responsiveness, slow, under-performing battery, etc.

The 401 is not pathetic at all. It includes everything people from emerging country needs: a nice design with robust material, a solid battery life, and an OS good enough for Internet, and social network usage.

ippisl2• 13 years ago

RyanZAG also mentions an archos phone. Archos is definetly no a "a chinese no name android phone".

AlexSerban• 13 years ago

I'm not going to start the OS talk. From my point of view yes, Android is better if you want functionality and stuff like that.

On the other hand, I give my vote for the build quality, the design, color and why not, even for the platform. It may held certain tricks that will prove reliable in daily use.

Unlike the author, I still see this phone as a back-up. But I wouldn't say the same for my smaller sister.

eliasmacpherson2• 13 years ago

"Another big selling point of the Asha 501 is definitely represented by its battery life, as it has an astonishing 17 hours talk time and up to 48 days of standby"

I challenge you to find something comparable on the sites you've linked in terms of battery life.

claudius5• 13 years ago

Hey, 48 hours standby isn’t all that much…oh wait.

Kurtz792• 13 years ago

Is it really relevant in this day and age ?

I can think of a very few cases (like, being lost in the Borneo jungle) where this would be actually useful in a normal environment.

If you live someplace where you don't have easy access to a power outlet at least once per day, it's unlikely you will have support for the advanced features of a smartphone, and an older Nokia phone will work just as well ...

claudius5• 13 years ago

> running a real OS that can run real apps.

Don’t underestimate Symbian and the quality of apps available even for niche products. Sure, Android and iOS might get the newest fanciest things in the Valley, but as long as your expectations are not too uncommon, you will find decent apps for nearly every usecase. Add to this that Nokia still has some high-quality apps themselves (Nokia Maps, e.g.) and the fact that Symbian has been around for a long time, and you shouldn’t have too many problems from an app perspective with these phones.

I mean, even the hardly-sold N9 has apps for just about everything (and fifty trillion more things only insane people with too much time on their hands could want).

kalleboo• 13 years ago

It's not Symbian, it's S40. So, J2ME apps.

anonymous• 13 years ago

AFAIK there's no freely available SDK for S40 phones, which limits the number of available applications to only what Nokia deem in their interest to make.

Nux2• 13 years ago

How is that pathetic?

Looks like a nicely engineered _PHONE_ with dual sim capability and can also check your emails/web sites/etc. To top it off they come with a battery LIFE that puts the whole industry to shame!

I think you are greatly overestimating the power of "android smartphones"; especially the cheap Chinese stuff. The hype is impressive.

Many people just want a _reliable_ phone they don't need to worry about charging every 12 hours. After having used a "smart phone" for 6 months I'm back to my cheap 4 years old Nokia phone: makes calls, receives calls, needs charging once a week (also does radio and flashlight, how cool is that!).

SimianLogic2• 13 years ago

Seems like a better "Facebook phone" than the one on Android.

cbg0• 13 years ago

A nice, cheap, small phone with dual-sim? Isn't this just like every other Asha phone they make?

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

Yes, but look at more features, read the article and you'll see

rajupp• 13 years ago

Awesome build quality and impressive design. The screen size could've been bigger though

Geee• 13 years ago

Interesting to see lots of influence from the N9. The interface seems quite good on this one, there's a little demonstration by Peter Skillman, starting at about 2:00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6iMsePF0kk

UnoriginalGuy• 13 years ago

ZTE produces tons of Android devices for this amount or slightly less. The ZTE Blade being one example: which has been out three or four years.

This seems less "impressive" and more "impressive marketing." Why are we reading about this? How does it advance anything? A worse phone for slightly more money, because it has "Nokia" on the front?

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

Did you read the entire article?

ultimoo• 13 years ago

This "used-car salesman" undertone, wordily mulling over the same points, and over the top praise are very typical of most Indian magazines and newspapers even. I'm not trying to be nasty here, even I am Indian and not a native speaker of English. I just find this style of writing very amusing and can recognize it anywhere. :-)

EDIT: I was wrong about 'recognizing it anywhere', this article isn't from an Indian publication. No offense.

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

huh?

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

It is, but I don't get your point. Though the writer is from Romania

feintruled• 13 years ago

By "the writer", you mean yourself, right? I think the GP is just pointing out how unusual in style such articles are compared to, say, US tech websites. I very much doubt you'd see a sentence like "There are many things that might steal your heart away at this device" there.

A more cynical man than I might label it a gushing puff piece garnered by some expenses paid Nokia PR event, GP points out cultural differences that might belay such an accusation.

ricardobeat• 13 years ago

Can I put Android on it?

RaduTyrsina10• 13 years ago

why?

Nux2• 13 years ago

This is awesome and may well be my next phone! Going to wait for the 3G version, though.

JonnieCache• 13 years ago

If this is a return to the good old days of being able to throw your nokia down a flight of stairs without even dropping the call, then count me in.

jdhzzz• 13 years ago

Wait, you can make calls with it?

pjmlp• 13 years ago

So, who will write J2ME apps for them?

Alterlife• 13 years ago

If by "free access to facebook" they mean no data charge for facebook access for the lifetime of the phone, I wouldn't be surprised by this being a hit with the college crowd... especially if the camera is decent.

Maxious• 13 years ago

A lot of carriers provide "free" access no matter what phone you have https://www.facebook.com/blog/blog.php?post=391295167130

The catch is the videos/photos are not free, nor are the links to other websites of course.

DocG• 13 years ago

For all the non-impressed people. It was unveiled in New Delhi, meaning it focus group isn't western world. It is not meant for you, who already own a smartphone.

And for its focus group, it is pretty darn impressive. Battery life for people who don't have toilet, not mentioning wall outlets.

edit: I think it would be perfect phone for kids first phone. Simple, cheap, good battery, durable.

pavlov2• 13 years ago

On a conceptual level, I like the approach of building up a mini-smartphone from the bare essentials. A few years back Nokia acquired a company called Smarterphone that was doing this[1], and this updated Asha platform is apparently the first fruits of the acquisition.

The alternative is to take the "kitchen-sink" platform of Android which is actively developed for quad-core phones and full-HD displays, and try to pare it down to run on low-end hardware that's an order of magnitude slower and also has an order of magnitude less pixels to work with... While still preserving compatibility with half a million existing apps.

That's of course pretty much impossible, so instead the super-cheap Android devices are running old software from several years ago with extra limitations imposed by the low-end platform.

The difference in the two approaches is analoguous to Windows RT vs. iOS on tablets -- the other party tries to cut down the full system for cheaper devices, while the other builds up from software that's been proven on smaller devices.

[1] According to previous reports, the Smarterphone OS had an app platform written in Scheme! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarterphone

...I doubt anything of that survives in the Asha platform, but it would be cool to do low-end smartphone apps in Lisp :)

Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

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