in the past, going on budget means trade-off for quality, but not with the Nokia Asha 501, the latest budget smartphone that aims to bring high-end design and quality accessible to more folks. well, at least that’s what the Finnish handset maker is touting. along with high-quality build is a series of bold color that is geared towards the young and trendy. its 3″ capacitive touchscreen afford it with a rather adorable form factor and the device tips the scale at a mere 98 grams (or about 3.5oz). it is a feature smartphone running on Nokia’s proprietary software with Nokia Xpress for surfing the web and boasts Facebook and Twitter apps for your social needs. other features, if you could actually call them ‘features’, include a 133ppi 3″ QVGA (at just 240 by 320 pixels, it is definitely not for the ‘fainted hearted’), a 3.2-megapixel shooter with F/2.8 lens and self-timer, QVGA recording at 15 fps, built-in FM radio and YouTube player, WiFi (no mention of Bluetooth, though), a microSD card slot that supports up to 32GB (a 4GB card is included), GSM 900 and 1800 MHz radios, and a typical pre-smartphone era fashion, a removable and swappable covers.
so as you can see, it is really a basic phone that’s slightly smarter than a regular feature phone. available in both single and dual SIM models, the Nokia Asha 501 is expected to start shipping this June and will be available through about 60 operators and distributors in more than 90 countries globally, and it has a retail price tag of just $99. you can learn more about this cheerful budget smartphone from the Finnish folks HERE, but before that, you might want to check a few more images as well as a short product demo in the embedded video below.
PS: despite being a budget feature smartphone, it does have apps support too and developers are welcome to develop apps for the Nokia Asha platform.
