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There’s nothing like a simple, comfy pair of jeans, and just like a pair of worn-in Levi 501s the Nokia Asha 501 phone is both simple and comfy. Look out for the 501 on Vodafone pay-as-you-go.
The colourful, budget-priced phone is powered by an updated version of Asha, Nokia’s bargain basement software.
Nokia has improved the
Asha software, borrowing Windows Phone’s big colourful icons and simple swiping. There are two main screens: Home is your standard grid of apps; and Fastlane is a feed of your recently-used apps, Facebook and Twitter gubbins, and — if you swipe down — upcoming events.
This Asha phone is only 2G — as opposed to 3G or 4G, which make connecting to the Internet much faster — so posting pictures to Facebook, for example, would take ages. But it does get round that in some ways, including a Web browser that compresses websites so they load quicker.
Like its bigger brothers and sisters in the Lumia range, the 501 comes a rainbow range of bright colours: cyan, red, yellow, lime green, black and white.
The 501 goes on sale this week in Thailand and Pakistan, then India after that. It’s coming to Europe in “subsequent weeks”, as well as the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
When we first tried out the Asha 501, Nokia had committed to bringing the new phone to the UK — without specifying a date — at a price of around €75.
Could you live with a 2G phone? Would the Asha 501 suit anyone in your life? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
