NOKIA ASHA 502

Nokia, the Finnish smartphone and tablet maker, has always been considered a game changer in the ever-evolving smartphone industry. As a rival to other world leaders including Samsung and Apple, the firm fell behind for a while but has now made a huge comeback with its line of Lumia devices running the Windows Phone OS.At last year's Nokia World event, the company introduced six new handsets. While the high-end phablets took the spotlight, Nokia also made sure that it still caters to the needs of its budget customers. Introduced at the event, the Nokia Asha 502 budget smartphone is a shining example of how hard the firm is still trying to take over the low-end smartphone market by stuffing a bunch of impressive features into a small-sized device.

The Nokia Asha 502 is the successor to the Asha 501, and has some noticeable bodily and internal OS feature tweaks.

DESIGN

The Nokia Asha 502 is extremely comfortable to hold, as its sharp corners give the user a better grip and reduce the chances of it slipping and falling. The small device measures 99.6 x 59.5 x 11.1mm and is well suited for users who have average or small hands. One its most distinctive features is the plastic mono – block body. The entire back panel and all four edges of Asha 502 are encased in a transparent material, giving the handset a crystallized effect.

The Nokia 501 had curvy edges whereas the 502 edges are less curvy. It seems as if Nokia has placed a less curvy transparent shell over the 501. The 502 however is slimmer than the 501 (12.1mm) model.The touchscreen display is 3 inches supporting resolution of 320×240 pixels. Touch is smooth and responsive, supports orientation and double-tap to wake up. There are two sensors accelerometer and proximity. Screen supports 2 point multi touch.

PERFORMANCE

There are dual SIM slots with dual standby mode, you need micro SIMs. Other features are Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This handset supports 2G (GPRS/EDGE); 3G is not supported. 502 runs on Nokia Asha software platform 1.1 with 64MB memory.

Performance is good. There is 64MB memory and micro SD card support of up to 32GB. It is a basic budget phone so don’t expect too much out of it. The handset does support social sites; Facebook and Twitter apps come pre-installed.

Nokia Asha 502 supports Whatsapp that also comes pre-installed. The Nokia Asha 501 initially did not support whatsapp but the support has now been added. There are few basic games that also come pre-installed.

CAMERA

Even though it's a budget device, the Asha 502 has a 5-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera with an f/2.4 aperture and an LED flash with a range of one metre. There's no front-facing camera and very few camera software features.

The camera interface of Asha 502 is pretty easy to operate. The camera app can be directly accessed from the lock screen by swiping upwards. Once open, you can long-press on the screen to access the camera settings which include flash adjustment options, self-timer, white balance, filters, camera shutter sound and a choice of five resolutions.

FEATURES

The sound is loud and clear. 1080p and 720p video playback is not supported. It is a bit difficult opening up the back cover as compared with 501. The Asha 502 screen is not scratch resistant; mild scratches are clearly visible. OTA (Over the Air) software updates are supported. There is built in FM Radio.

BATTERY

The 1010 mAh BL-5A battery according to Nokia gives talk-time of up to 13 hours. You can play music MP3’s for up to 40 hours.

The Nokia Asha 502 is undoubtedly a fingerprint magnet. After a little time, the screen as well as the crystalline cover will accumulate smudges, and you'll have to wipe the phone repeatedly to make it look good.

To sum it up in few words, the Nokia Asha 502 is a very basic phone with the simplest features one can expect in this segment.The handset is priced at Rs. 5,739 on the official Nokia India website, but it can be bought for around Rs. 5,500 from online retailers such as Flipkart and Snapdeal.

- Vandhiyadevan