Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99 • Hacker News Board

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#21

Post by seanmcdirmid » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:38 AM UTC

RaduTyrsina wrote: post #16

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not running Symbian. From the article: > Nokia Asha 501 represents the first fruit after Nokia bought Smarterphone, back in November 2012. And maybe thanks to the Smarterphone software, Nokia has managed to pack so much inside a tiny, 3inch touchscreen device. As for the iOcean, I can't find a review about it anywhere on the web in English. Kind of risky.

+1 to that. And, you won't be paying 100$. This is that type of phone you'll get for free on your carrier with a basic plan

The markets that are targeted by Asha and Chinese shanzhai white labels don't have phone subsidies, mostly. China doesn't, I assume India doesn't either.

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#22

Post by jsnell » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:40 AM UTC

RyanZAG wrote: post #13

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of the difference between a namebrand and a white label. If you get a bland cheap Chinese android phone, everyone will know it and you'll lose face. An Asha is a bit more classier, well designed, higher quality, still very affordable.

I'm not so sure about that. For example, this phone: http://www.androidforcheap.com/a7100-tv-wifi-smart-phone-and... Without a careful inspection, most people will have a very difficult time telling it apart from newer Samsung phones, and it runs far, far better than the terrible Symbian OS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx2ueazLvXI

If by "without careful inspection" you mean "looking at the phone when it's turned off". That device is compromised beyond belief. For example it's got 256MB of memory while running Android 4.0. That amount of memory was appropriate for low-res phones running 1.5. Devices with double the RAM became close to unusable with 4.0.

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#23

Post by AlexSerban » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:42 AM UTC

RyanZAG wrote: post #2

Hardly impressive - fairly pathetic really. Observe: http://androidandme.com/2013/04/smartphones-2/archos-reveals... http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58... http://www.pandawill.com/mobile-phone-c1/android-os-phone-c5... etc. Just Google around for tons more. Generally better in just about every way, and running a real OS that can run real apps.

I'm not going to start the OS talk. From my point of view yes, Android is better if you want functionality and stuff like that.

On the other hand, I give my vote for the build quality, the design, color and why not, even for the platform. It may held certain tricks that will prove reliable in daily use.

Unlike the author, I still see this phone as a back-up. But I wouldn't say the same for my smaller sister.

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#24

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:47 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#25

Post by eliasmacpherson » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:47 AM UTC

RyanZAG wrote: post #2

Hardly impressive - fairly pathetic really. Observe: http://androidandme.com/2013/04/smartphones-2/archos-reveals... http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58... http://www.pandawill.com/mobile-phone-c1/android-os-phone-c5... etc. Just Google around for tons more. Generally better in just about every way, and running a real OS that can run real apps.

"Another big selling point of the Asha 501 is definitely represented by its battery life, as it has an astonishing 17 hours talk time and up to 48 days of standby"

I challenge you to find something comparable on the sites you've linked in terms of battery life.

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#26

Post by claudius » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:49 AM UTC

RyanZAG wrote: post #2

Hardly impressive - fairly pathetic really. Observe: http://androidandme.com/2013/04/smartphones-2/archos-reveals... http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58... http://www.pandawill.com/mobile-phone-c1/android-os-phone-c5... etc. Just Google around for tons more. Generally better in just about every way, and running a real OS that can run real apps.

> running a real OS that can run real apps.

Don’t underestimate Symbian and the quality of apps available even for niche products. Sure, Android and iOS might get the newest fanciest things in the Valley, but as long as your expectations are not too uncommon, you will find decent apps for nearly every usecase. Add to this that Nokia still has some high-quality apps themselves (Nokia Maps, e.g.) and the fact that Symbian has been around for a long time, and you shouldn’t have too many problems from an app perspective with these phones.

I mean, even the hardly-sold N9 has apps for just about everything (and fifty trillion more things only insane people with too much time on their hands could want).

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#27

Post by claudius » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:51 AM UTC

eliasmacpherson wrote: post #25

RyanZAG wrote: post #2

Hardly impressive - fairly pathetic really. Observe: http://androidandme.com/2013/04/smartphones-2/archos-reveals... http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58... http://www.pandawill.com/mobile-phone-c1/android-os-phone-c5... etc. Just Google around for tons more. Generally better in just about every way, and running a real OS that can run real apps.

"Another big selling point of the Asha 501 is definitely represented by its battery life, as it has an astonishing 17 hours talk time and up to 48 days of standby" I challenge you to find something comparable on the sites you've linked in terms of battery life.

Hey, 48 hours standby isn’t all that much…oh wait.

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#28

Post by ippisl » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:51 AM UTC

moystard wrote: post #19

RyanZAG wrote: post #2

Hardly impressive - fairly pathetic really. Observe: http://androidandme.com/2013/04/smartphones-2/archos-reveals... http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58... http://www.pandawill.com/mobile-phone-c1/android-os-phone-c5... etc. Just Google around for tons more. Generally better in just about every way, and running a real OS that can run real apps.

To be perfectly honest, I have seen quite a few Chinese no name Android phones and I have never been impressed by any of them. On paper, everything looks great, but the reality differs a lot: stolen design, bad build quality, poor screen resolution/contrast/responsiveness, slow, under-performing battery, etc. The 401 is not pathetic at all. It includes everything people from emerging country needs: a nice design with…

RyanZAG also mentions an archos phone. Archos is definetly no a "a chinese no name android phone".

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#29

Post by Geee » Thu, May 09, 2013, 9:55 AM UTC

Interesting to see lots of influence from the N9. The interface seems quite good on this one, there's a little demonstration by Peter Skillman, starting at about 2:00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6iMsePF0kk

Re: Nokia Asha 501: Impressive Low-end Touchscreen Phone for $99

#30

Post by UnoriginalGuy » Thu, May 09, 2013, 10:00 AM UTC

ZTE produces tons of Android devices for this amount or slightly less. The ZTE Blade being one example: which has been out three or four years.

This seems less "impressive" and more "impressive marketing." Why are we reading about this? How does it advance anything? A worse phone for slightly more money, because it has "Nokia" on the front?