Nokia is all set to launch its Asha 500 in India this month while the Asha 503 will hit the retail market of the sub-continent in January next year. We had earlier in October during the Nokia World 2013 conference in Abu Dhabi (UAE) had a chance to assess the phones for a brief period of time. With the latest announcement of Nokia (to launch the phones in India), we thought it apt to recount the hands on report of the Asha 500 and 503.
Design:
Both Asha 500 and 503 comes with Lumia design elements. With clean front and back panel, the new Asha 500 and Asha 503 sport Lumia-eseque design carrying ahead the legacy of the Asha 501. Nokia has used a new crystal clear glass panel over the previously textured back panel to offer more premium and rich look to these entry level devices. Almost two mm layer of the glass panel stuck together with plastic back panel can be easily removed. Just like the Asha 501, the new Asha devices also have interchangeable back covers just in case the user is feeling festive.
The new Asha series handsets do not have physical back button in the front as their predecessors; instead they have a capacitive button. Other keys remain the same at the right side – volume control and power key. Both the Asha 500 and 503 also comes in several colour options including bright red, yellow, white and black.
The Asha 500 features a 2 Megapixel camera without any flash. Also the Asha 500 features a 2.8 inch display and supports 2G network with Dual-SIM as well as single SIM options. Nokia has packed a 1200 mAh battery in this handset.
Asha 503 come with a 5 megapixel camera at the back with LED flash. It has a 3-inch display with a capacitive back button in the front. Both Asha 500 and Asha 503 are being offered in India in both dual-SIM as well as single-SIM versions.
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Asha improvements
Nokia has also updated the Asha software platform for the new Asha 500 and Asha 503. The new Asha interface includes a quick access to the camera App right from the single upward swipe gesture from the lock screen. As always, Nokia continues to promote the Asha series as the single swipe access experience.
The phones come with a new camera app that offer several interesting options including – live filters. The live filters can be accessed by a long press on the screen in the camera app interface. Then the settings menu will show up from the bottom. On scrolling down the settings you will get live filter options followed by the Resolution choices.
Fastlane has been updated to become more interactive and it now shows important bits of information from the social networking apps. Details such as likes and comments will easily be visible in the Fastlane panel. The Fastlane is accessible with a single swipe from the lock screen that shows the notifications of the new messages, missed calls and more. Even the Glance screen shows these notifications.
The Fastlane now integrates information about apps used in past and present in more comprehensive manner. The Facebook and Twitter updates show up with responses on either of the updates. There is a single press access to the app directly from the Fastlane panel.
A new version of WhatsApp will be made available for the Asha series as well. The new WhatsApp app will allow sharing images, voice Messaging and group chat functionality as well. Apart from that, several apps are expected to preloaded on Asha 500 and Asha 503.
Nokia is also working with developers to bring most smartphone level apps to be re-coded for Java platform and then make it usable over the Asha software platform devices.