The Nokia Lumia range might be making headlines, but Nokia’s feature phones including its relatively new Asha series phones are the ones making cash registers ring for the company across India. The latest to join the bandwagon is the Asha 501, which was unveiled a few months back by Nokia chief Stephen Elop at an event in India.
Nokia has been known to come out with solid, sturdy devices rather than flashy, glitzy ones when it comes to its budget phones. However, we think that the Nokia Asha 501 is here to change that and reveals the brand’s playful side in the feature phone segment. The much hyped Nokia Asha 501 has finally made it to the Indian market. But does it live up to expectations? We take a close look.
Build/ Design
At a time when phones seem to be getting bigger, the Nokia Asha 501 goes the opposite direction, opting for a compact build with dimensions of 99.2x58x12.1mm. When we got the device in our hands the first time, the word that came to our mind was ‘cute’.
The Asha 501 easily reminded us of the Lumia smartphones and though it is a bit chunky, thanks to its design, it fits in one hand easily. It is pretty light in weight at just 91 grams.
Be it an entry-level feature phone or a Lumia smartphone, the one thing that remains consistent in a Nokia phone is its style and design, which generally exudes quality and matches international design standards. The Nokia Asha 501 lives up to this legacy.
The front panel is dominated by a 3-inch display that is surrounded by a black bezel with a physical ‘Back’ key placed at the bottom of the panel and the Nokia logo on top of the screen just below the earpiece. Nokia has followed the same Lumia design language, placing the physical keys for volume controls and power buttons on the right. We did miss a camera hardware key, though. The top panel houses a 2.5mm charging port, a Micro-USB port and a 3.5mm audio port.
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