Nokia Asha 501 Dual SIM

Overview

Handy Dual-SIM Phone

Misc

Shades

Design

Nokia Asha 501 Design and Build Quality

With the dimensions of 99.2x58x12.1mm, Nokia Asha 501 is very compact and lightweight (only 98.2 grams). The phone looks trendy and sporty. The phone comes in various colours such as bright green, yellow, and blue, black and white to suit different moods. The phone has a 3-inch TFT display in the front and a back button at the bottom. The screen look like it is built in the phone and not over it. The battery life of the phone is excellent and it lasts comfortably for 2 days with regular use.

User Interface and Comfort to Use Nokia Asha 501

The phone has come out with the new Nokia software i.e. Nokia Asha software platform 1.0. The UI is much better than Symbian. The UI is gesture controlled and you can easily work with it. One stand out feature of this UI is the Fastlane feature, which lets you view your app activity in the order of the date used. Recently used apps can be accessed by swiping up the bottom. The phone has 128 MB of internal storage and 64 MB of RAM. The memory can be expanded up to 32GB using a MicroSD card.

Telephony and Phonebook

The phone supports Dual SIM but you can only use Micro SIMs on the phone. The phone does not support 3G operations and we feel that it is a downside of the phone. Call clarity is very good.

Messaging and Emails

MMS, SMS, Email, and chat work very well on the phone.

Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

Gallery of the phone supports pinch to zoom feature. The video player has very limited capabilities. While the YouTube videos play effortlessly but they are limited to only 720p. Music player does not support MP4, MOV, MKV or AVI formats which leaves very little choices. The photo viewer is very basic but you can download various apps from the OVI store to make photo editing easier.

Nokia Asha 501 Music Player and FM Radio

FM playing is good but the music playing on the phone is not so good. The speaker is good and loud but missing options such as equalizers and presets dim the experience.

Nokia Asha 501 Camera and Image Quality

The phone has a 3.15 MP rear camera. The camera does not have flash or auto focus capability. The photos turn out to be just ok in the daylight but in night mode or low light, you cannot take any usable photos. Timer settings, white balance, effects, and photo resolution adjustment are the features available on the phone.

Video Camera and Video Quality

The camera can record videos at 15 fps with a resolution of mere 320x240px. Video recording is not smooth and if you move the camera too fast, the image is barely discernible.

Nokia Asha 501 Connectivity Options

Connectivity options on the phone include USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPRS. Connectivity works fine on the phone and we did not have any problem in connecting even to weak Wi-Fi signals.

Organiser and Other Utility Tools

Digital Clock, Audio Recorder, Calculator, Clock, Calendar, Notes, Alarm, Social Networks in Phonebook, Weather, Java Games, and Photo Sharing with Slam are the tools available on the phone.

Web Browser and Applications

Nokia Xpress browser on the phone is fast and works very well for checking emails, data, and social networks on the phone. Facebook, Twitter, Nokia Chat, and YouTube are some of the applications available on the phone. You can play all the major games on the phone.

Value for Money

The phone is priced at INR 5000 (approx., may vary) in the market. The phone does not support 3G, the alarm tone is fixed, has no Java support and the phone is only Dual SIM standby and not dual SIM active. The lack of the mentioned features makes the phone a little pricy but the phone is very dependable and does not hang or lag when using multiple applications and games.