Nokia Asha 500 Review & Comparison with Asha 502
Nokia launched Asha 500 along with Asha 502 and 503 keeping its mantra of having a phone at every price point, Asha 500 stands to be the lowest in the new Asha series but only by a margin to its immediate predecessor, the 502.
In this post, I have reviewed Asha 500 and compared it with Asha 502 side by side and in detail so you can decide if you would want to go for Asha 500 or spent few bucks to choose Asha 502 instead. Just if you want to read the stand alone review of Asha 502, its here.
Video Review
Hardware & Design (9.5/10)
Design
Asha 500 is built a little wider, thicker and taller compared to Asha 502. Though it doesn’t impact in a big way but those who like their devices to be little bigger, Asha 500 will be their choice. It does give you better grip if I have to put it in this way.
Being bigger, the dual shot look gets extra icy and beautiful with Asha 500. Honestly speaking I find it better compared to 502 because the transparent layer is more prominent and turns the device into a beautiful experience.
While Dual Shot concept mixes well in 502 i.e. transparent and colored casing, you can actually visualize Asha 500 to have transparent case with phone inside. This overall impact has turned the corners of Asha 500 partially sharp corners compared to nice and smooth curves of Asha 502.
Touch & Display
Asha 500 comes with LCD Transflective which helps in better readability in bright light and at certain angle in direct sunlight making it more reader friendly compared to Asha 502 which uses only LCD. If you take both the device side by side and switch to settings page which has black background, you would notice that 500 has better black compared to 502.
However Asha 502 has better touch experience compared to Asha 500 because of two reasons. First its much smoother while on Asha 500 you can feel more resistance when you swipe and press a bit harder. Second, 502 has rounded edges while Asha 500 edges are sharp. The later makes a difference when you are swiping a lot and its smooth & faster on 502 while 500 adds a bit of resistance.
Another advantage of LCD Transflective is that it will save on battery as the backlight gets activated in dim or low light only. This is something you should have seen in watches where push of a button illuminated the watch to check on time. During day time, it uses the ambient light to light up its display panel by reflecting what it receives. Like you see regular objects as light is reflected and reaches your eyes.
Battery Life (10/10)
Battery Backup of Asha 500 beats Asha 502 by a day. Both the phones have 2G and Asha 500 has 1200 mAh which is 200 mAh extra battery compared to Asha 502.
- 1st run : 16 to 18 hours a day over music when used with headphones or partly over speakers.
- 2nd run : 3 Days when used with two SIM, on 2G with twitter, Facebook and whatsapp usage all the time. When I say all the time, it doesn’t mean you keep using WhatsApp 24 hours but using it regularly on day-to-day basis.
I expect Asha 500 to last even longer if you are a casual phone users but it will differ from users to user and how they use it.
Performance (8/10)
The phone houses the same hardware as Nokia 502 and even when checked on specs with 503 except for the difference in camera and 3G support against 503. When used with two SIM inside, it turned out to be decent performing for all the web apps and apps installed. WhatsApp works pretty neatly and so does Facebook, Twitter, Picture sharing and all.
Notification centre is something I love on Asha series and how they show up on the lock screen. They stack over each other and all you need is swipe to right and it launches in the app.
Those who are too keen on the performance topic, let me tell that most of the apps on Asha are webs based or need internet connection in one way or other. Since the model is just 2G, don’t expect high-speed but they work out decent enough.
Asha 1.1. Features of OS:
Asha 500 has exactly the same features as Asha 502 when it comes to the software part except that camera has no settings for flash. I would suggest you to read on my experience of Asha 1.1. as a platform in my Asha 502 review.
Camera (3/10)
Asha 500 has the same 2 MP camera and there is no flash. Its even less than what Asha 501 which was launched with 3.2 MP camera. This in simple words mean camera here is something which you will not like to use and you will use it just because it’s there. This 2 MP camera is for those who don’t care about their phone having camera at all because the pictures are terribly bad in low light. Day light is ok to get some shots.
That said, the camera was added keeping in mind the strong social integration of the phone with Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. People eventually will click and share but don’t expect anything great from it.
Here are few samples:
The camera is available from the lock screen by sliding up and a long press brings the settings. The settings allow you to set timer, white balance, add effects or filters, turn off the shutter sound and change photo resolution.
I would have seriously appreciated if it had at least same camera as 501 but then it would have directly competed with the series.
Music + Nokia Music (9/10)
Like All Asha 5XX series, 500 comes with Nokia Music pre-installed and you don’t need and you don’t need to create a Nokia account to use it. The songs can be instantly downloaded using the store and played. Since the format is of lower quality, the quality of music is decent enough for you to enjoy the music. Anything better will not only need more storage space but you will have to pay for it.
The player or the platform doesn’t give any equalizer to adjust the audio output in any way. This is something many users who are switching from Android will miss because it is available on the platform as one of the basic settings for music players.
The downloaded music is stored on your SD card instead of your phone memory. You can connect to your PC and import songs and even export the downloaded music. The phone does come with 4 GB of SD card which should be more than for you to start with.
Audio (Level of Volume) :
Nokia seems to have put on better speakers compared to Nokia 502 and its damn loud and definitely louder and clear. While in quiet room, the speakers did perform brilliant (those who aren’t aware, they might just think you are playing music over speakers), even in crowded place the speakers made sure that you can listen to music when you have it in your front pocket.
Earphones:
The earphones that come along with box pack is of decent quality but it’s not ergonomic. That hurts a bit when used for a long time. However the quality of audio has no issue and its decent for music.
Gaming (6/10)
Same as Asha 501 and 502, Games are java based games and you will find a lot here but then its only kill some time. I am giving a rating of 6 here because it has some good popular games on the platform like Kingdoms and Lords, Pac Man, Ridge Racing and so on which are good. Graphics are pretty old style which is what will work on this platform. Don’t expect a lot.
Value for Money (7/10)
Good Things : Speakers, Design & Build, Better readability and longer battery life.
Not so Good Things : Camera & Sharp Edges.
So why would you pickup Asha 500 over 502 ? If you don’t bother about camera, look for even longer battery life and need a little bigger phone and all this if your budget is so tight that you cannot spend a 1000 bucks extra. Asha 500 is priced at Rs 4750 which is around Rs 1200 to Rs 1000 less compared to Asha 502.
On serious notes, since both the phones have 2G, spending 1000 bucks extra is totally worth for the camera and smoother touch experience. Though latter is marginally different but those sharp edges bother me a bit.
Conclusion:
While Asha 500 is a great phone keeping in mind the battery live, readability and overall performance. The dual shot effect really shows up in this phone when compared to Asha 502 and being little bigger, it gives you a better grip as well.
However, the phone fails to answer the question on why not spend a Rs 100 bucks more to grab a 502 which is equally good and comes with a better camera. As a matter of fact, I would recommend users to pick up Asha 501 instead of 500 and the only thing you will miss by large is the design.
Unless you are pretty tight on budget, Asha 500 should not be your choice, specially Asha 501 around, Asha 500 will have its first fight but as the price goes down in the market, it will pickup it sales.
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