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Nokia-Asha-501

The Nokia Asha 501 Dual SIM phone definitely stands out with its popping colours. The phone comes in vibrant red, cyan, bright green, black, white and yellow. It’s small, fitting well in the hand, and is shaped well, like a box. It’s an attempt to get the Asha series looking closer to the Lumia design. It’s a little chunky at half an inch thick, but generally a friendly size that can fit in a pocket without peeking out like a lot of the phones in the market. It’s also affordable, going for just for just Kshs. 9,500 in the Kenyan market. So it looks good, it’s convenient to carry around and it’s relatively cheap, but does it work just as good?

The box has the basics: Nokia charger, one pair of earphones and the manual in English and Swahili for the Kenyan market. The phone has a 4GB microSD card already inserted in the memory slot. There’s no USB cable though, but the phone can comfortably charge via USB.

The screen resolution is fairly low at only 240*320 pixels and in bright sunlight, it becomes difficult to make out what’s on the screen. The interface is relatively easy to navigate. It has a 3.15 MP fixed focus camera so don’t expect to get any stunning shots with this. It doesn’t have 3G but it has Wi-Fi connectivity which is a better feature to have in my opinion. It supports FM radio which is one of my must have features on a phone. The Lumia wasn’t as attractive to me because of that. And as you guessed it, the Nokia Asha 501 Dual SIM supports dual SIM.

The battery lasts for up to 17 hours. I used it quite a bit and it held up very well. I didn’t have to charge it until almost a day later. I spend a lot of time online and so the Nokia Xpress browser was a challenge but I managed to reach my twitter quota satisfactorily. An addition to the Asha series on this phone is the proximity sensor, which turns off the screen during a call.

The back casing is plastic and has a great matte finishing. It’s easy to remove by just pressing a nub at the bottom to push the phone out of the case. Beneath the casing are the battery, SIM card slots and microSD slot. All the controls, volume and power, are on the right side of the phone and are easy to use. The top has the USB slot, charger port and earphones jack.

All in all, the Nokia Asha 501 is an improvement on the Asha series. It gets an approval nod in the design department which makes a difference in its attractiveness to potential buyers. It’s not a smartphone but it gets close and gives quite a lot for that price. If you’re looking for an affordable and good looking phone, this is the one for you. It also makes a great second phone especially if you have a busy working life.

Select specifications

Dimensions: 99.2*58*12.1 mm
Weight: 98 g
Display: 3 inch screen
Back camera: 3.2 MegaPixel (2048 x 1536 pixels)
Talk time (2G): Up to 17 hours