The Nokia Asha 501 redefines affordable

Good, fast, or cheap — pick two,” goes a popular saying. It means that things that are good and fast are usually not cheap, and things that are quick and cheap are usually not good. But phone-maker Nokia has come out with a product that has all three qualities — a touchscreen smartphone that has remarkable features, is incredibly responsive, and is surprisingly cheap. Meet the Nokia Asha 501.

For a device that only weighs 98 grams, the Asha 501 packs a punch — a three-inch capacitive touchscreen, standby time of up to 48 days, talk time of up to 17 hours, a 3.2 megapixel camera, dual SIM capability, WiFi, Bluetooth, Facebook built-in, and a memory card slot that allows up to 32GB of space. It’s a phone that makes high-end design and quality accessible to more people, and it will attract customers with changeable covers and a choice of six striking colors — bright red, bright green, cyan, yellow, white and black.

The Asha 501 is also the first device to run on the new Asha platform, which is designed to make the touchscreen experience faster and more responsive. The cornerstone of the new operating system is Fastlane. Fastlane gathers recently-accessed contacts, social networks, apps, and even music, and puts them all in one menu. This gives people a glimpse of their past, present and future activity, and helps people multi-task by providing easy access to their favorite features.

Suggested retail price for the Asha 501: Just $99, according to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who recently unveiled the phone in Delhi, India. Pricing for the Philippines has yet to be announced, and the phone is expected to hit our shores in the third quarter of this year.

Budget-saving features

The caveat is that the Asha 501 operates on 2G, which means users will not enjoy the Internet browsing abilities of a 3G or LTE-enabled phone. But 3G and LTE are known for draining precious battery life, and Nokia’s decision to go with 2G means that the company prioritizes usability. It also signals a shift in the company’s priorities. It seems that Nokia has trained its sights on a market that is ignored by competitors like Apple: the developing world, where 80 percent of mobile phone users have no access to 3G or LTE, and where five billion human beings are not yet online.

Other features of the Asha 501 are tailor-made for emerging markets like the Philippines. The phone comes with the Nokia Xpress Browser, which compresses Internet data by up to 90 percent, significantly cutting down data surfing costs and making mobile browsing faster. It has two SIM card slots, and SIMs can be switched without having to turn the phone off — a welcome feature for Filipinos, who subscribe to multiple networks. The phone’s unprecedented battery life, which Nokia claims can reach up to 48 days in standby, will be a life-saver for Filipinos in areas with spotty access to electricity. And the Nokia Store features operator billing and try-and-buy, so users can sample an app first, and then charge their purchases to their phone bill — no credit cards required.

“The new Nokia Asha 501 raises the bar for what is possible in affordable smartphone design and optimization,” said Timo Toikkanen, Nokia’s executive vice president for mobile phones. “The synergy between the physical design and the engine that is the new Asha platform has created a smartphone with both style and substance at a great price.” 

“When we started this business, we were talking about ‘connecting people,’ and the core Nokia mobile phone strategy is to connect the next billion,” explains Juha Ala-Laurila, head of Nokia’s mobile phone business in the Asia Pacific. “It means connecting the billions of people who still don’t have access to the Internet, and we have to have a device that’s at an affordable price point to get them to have their first Internet experience.”