Mobile Phone Review Nokia Asha 502 503

So, what is the Nokia Asha 502. Let me introduce the phone first , it’s a phone which is an upgraded version of the Asha 501. Let’s look at the basic comparison between the two phones, as always I will make use of a table to illustrate it for clarity

Design

This is where the Asha 502 is different, it looks completely different from the 501 . The 501 is curve, and Nokia has taken off the curves from the 502 and added a layer of transparent plastic to it . Of course the advertisement says that the difference is crystal clear , but its plastic , sad jokes apart . The plastic does give the phone a very elegant and classy finish. The finishing and the build quality feels good as well. And, in spite of the additional layer of plastic the 502 is slimmer than the 501. The 501 is 12.1 mm thick while the 502 is 11.1 mm. Well, its slimmer but it definitely heavier than the 501 and feels better when you hold it. Sometimes, weight does add an air of solidity to phones , is it , or is it me who feels so.

The navigation button of the 501 which is a physical button under the screen is replaced by a touch sensitive button. The phone has a 305m audio port and a micro USB port at the top. The power and Volume buttons are placed at the right.

The screen is 3 inches , which is the same as the 501 and the operating system is Asha 1.1 while the 501 had Asha 1.0 The micro SD card is already inserted into the slot , but it’s just 4 GB , what did I expect 32 GB , that would have been like a dream come true. The 3 inch screen has a 320x240 resolution and the touch is pretty responsive, yes but with the screen size , if you have bigger or fatter fingers it could become a little difficult.  Accelerometer and proximity sensors are in built in the phone and like the 501 the 502 also supports 2 point multi touch. 

Performance

The 64MB memory in the phone is enough to support it , and the extendable memory up to 32GB is enough storage. The Asha is a dual SIM phone and you need micro SIM’s , the same as the 501. Anyway, everyone is shifting to Micro SIMS, the iPhone started it all.  This is a 2G ( GPRS/EDGE) handset, no 3G supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It runs pretty smooth and comes pre installed with Facebook and Twitter, and yes Whatsapp. After, Whatsapp came for the 501 the phone suddenly felt like it already got an upgrade.

Yes performance wise do remember, this is a budget phone, and comes with some basic games, if you want more performance , spend more money.  Don’t expect the Asha to be an iPhone competitor. 

Camera
This is an upgrade over the 501, the 501 had a 3.2MP camera and the 502 sports a 5MP camera and yes it has a flash , I mean the Lumia 525 doesn’t have one, so the Asha can keep clicking pictures even after sunset. The pictures come out pretty nice, again not a Lumia 1020 remember. The video quality , well how do I put it sucks, reminded me of the age old phones when camera phones just began. That’s it just one camera and no front camera, so all you selfie addicts , turn your phone and click. 

Battery

The 1010 mAh battery is a downgrade over the 1200 mAh battery of the 501 , now you know why the phone is slimmer, with the 501 you can talk for 17 hours and with the 502 the limit is set at 13 hours , so talk a little less. Anyway, with Whatsapp running constantly I don’t know how long your battery will last anyway. Yes you can play music up to around 40 hours. 

Verdict
If you ask me the 502 definitely looks better than the 501 with the transparent plastic , and the camera is better . If you want a budget handset then the 502 is a great option. You get 6 bright and brilliant colours too and with the price difference being about  Rs 1000 it is definitely better than the 501. 

A Note about Asha 503

The Nokia Asha 503 is a smart phone similar to the 502 in look and design , but it supports 3G , so if you want a Asha with 3G capabilities then the 503 is the phone for you, further the 503 has a battery which is 1200mah, slightly more than the 502, but with 3G the batterey won’t make such a big difference. The price difference between 502 and 503 is almost Rs 1500 and I don’t think that it’s that big an upgrade to pay 1500 for a 3G capable Asha. The rest is left to you.

The Windows Phone Experience

Windows open

I got my windows phone some time ago, that was the time when windows phone 7.5 (Mango) had just entered the market.  I desperately needed a new phone to replace my Nokia N97, which was going out of fashion at very fast pace. So, I decided I will buy another Nokia to replace my Nokia. I didn’t want to go for another Symbian phone, so I decided to look at the Lumia models. But, at that time Lumia was just beginning and the models in the market didn’t impress me much. The only Lumia model that I liked was the Lumia 900 and it was not available in India yet, and furthermore I thought it was overpriced. So I decided to hunt for other Windows Phone models.

Samsung it is

After a lot of research on the available windows phone models in India, I decided to buy the Samsung Omnia GT- I8350.  The phone had

• Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) OS
• 5 MP Primary Camera
• 0.3 MP Secondary Camera
• 3.7-inch Super AMOLED Capacitive Touchscreen
• 1.4 GHz Scorpion Processor
• Wi-Fi 

  

  Samsung Omnia GT- I8350

As far as the windows phone models available then this seemed like a great buy, and looking at the Samsung phones available in the market now, the build quality of the Samsung Omnia GT- I8350 is amazing, and completely non plastic and has a premium feel to it. Well I am not writing this piece to praise the Samsung phone, but to tell you about my experience with the windows phone operating system.

Windows Phone Begins

After I got the phone I was impressed with quite a few things, of course I need to tell that I had neither used IOS or Android till then and I had neither tried to use all the features of the Symbian phone I had. The first thing that impressed me was, contact sync. I mean all the contacts I stored on the phone went directly to my live id. Wow that was amazing, no more worries when I have to change the phone. All, I will need to do is log into the new phone and all my contacts will be there. Of course android and IOS offer the same facility, but I didn’t know that then . Anyway, a good start to the whole windows experience. And yes you can also sync your google contacts to your windows phone.

Facebook and Twitter Integration

If you are a user of facebook then you will certainly fall in love with the kind of integration a windows phone offers. The facebook sync is built directly into the operating system. You have the option of displaying your facebook and twitter contacts with your regular contacts. So it’s like direct connect , you want to send a normal SMS or write on someone’s facebook wall or tweet someone, its direct connect. Apart from this the regular Facebook and Twitter apps are available in the Windows marketplace.

Apps and Games

The windows marketplace or store as it is now called wasn’t such a happening place when I bought the windows Phone, but it has improved a lot now. Of course all Google apps are not available yet, only Google search and Gmail integration is available. But then I don’t miss it much. The store has quite a few apps which I think I require. For example,

Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram ( Windows 8)

M-Indicator

Temple Run ( Windows 8)

Kalpana ( Something similar to Temple run maybe better)

Skype

Skydrive ( Cloud Storage)

Viber

You can find the whole list of apps available on http://www.windowsphone.com/en-in/store

Performance

About the performance of my windows phone, I can tell  you that it has impressed me a lot. Though my device came with windows 7.5 it has now been upgraded to windows 7.8. What windows 7.8 has done is it has give the interface a fresh new look and it looks like windows 8. But,  That’s where all the comparison ends.  The apps for Windows 8 are different from the apps for 7.8 , so a lot of apps are available only for 8 and not 7.8. Windows 8 supports Bluetooth data transfer and has given the manufacturers the option of adding external storage i.e. micro sim card. From my experience I will tell you that my windows phone has never hung. Its fluid , its smooth and fast . Though, the only drawback I find in my phone is the limited 8 GB memory, which also has to accommodate the operating system.

Why Windows ?

I know that there are some die hard android and IOS fans in this world, okay make it a lot of die- hard fans. So, I won’t try to convert you people, you will always have nice things to say about your phones.  So here are some facts.

Android needs a lot of resources to run smoothly and hence buying a cheap Android phone is not that great an Idea , because even if it runs smoothly in the beginning, it is bound to slow down ans you go on installing apps into it. I have a cheap android phone, My Sony Xperia J  was a great phone when I brought it, but now it feels like a rotten cheap plastic piece of junk and guess what it’s not that cheap either , just about Rs 2000 cheaper than my windows phone.  So, my suggestion is if you are going for an economical device then windows is preferable, because it requires less resources and doesn’t slow down or hang.

IOS is a good operating system with some awesome drawbacks, no Bluetooth file transfer and syncing songs using ITunes is painful, of course windows 7.8 makes me use Zune which is equally painful, but Windows 8 is Zune free, so its direct drag and drop. From dropping I just remembered, if you have an Iphone, don’t you dare drop it, it just gets shattered. Furthermore, the apple phones are too expensive. Even the Iphone C is priced quite high.

The windows phone has truly come of age, and with Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia you can expect better integration of hardware and software. Further I would like to tell you about a few features which are by default available on Lumia Phones.

Here Maps ( Formerly Nokia Maps) : This is one of the best maps available in the market, I loved Nokia maps from the time I had my Symbian Phone. Imagine completely downloadable maps. You can download maps of complete countries. I took my N 97 to Singapore and I didn’t use any sim card, the gaps helped me navigate the streets of Singapore. This same superior map and navigation system is available in your Lumia windows Phone. So, you will never get lost anywhere. There is one more cool feature in the here maps. The maps of the interior of Malls. This is available in India I don’t know about the world. But you can navigate inside malls and go to your favourite store in a new mall by using your phone’s navigation software.

Camera : The camera on every Nokia Phone is simply superb. If you didn’t know, Nokia sells more camera phones than any other normal convectional camera maker. If you can just check out the camera of the Lumia 1020 its pure delight.  Furthermore, the software for the camera is also amazing, it gives you aperture and shutter speed settings like a DSLR. 

Nokia Music : Free music downloads for the first two months , unlimited music.

These are some of the awesome features of a Lumia. Having said that , I would like to state, like any other windows phone user that I love it and I will be a windows phone addict for some time to come, unless Microsoft decides to do something horribly wrong with it. My Android phone is just a few months old and its performing like an accident victim. But, my more than two year old Windows phone is still performing as good as new. In the end just take an informed decision after making your own comparisons and buy a phone based on your requirements. But, one thing I would like to state from my experience is that , if you are on a budget then go for a windows phone, it will give you good value for your money and wont hang and desert you at every given opportunity. 

Old Nokia Adverts

Go to Amazon or Flipkart and check all the specifications , as far as quality and user delight goes I strongly recommend the  Windows Phone.