Nokia recently launched three budget smartphones–Asha 500, Asha 502 and Asha 503–in India. While the company is expected to start selling the Asha 503 in the first week of January, it stated that the Asha 500 is already available in the market, but there was no sign of it anywhere. Finally, we found an online listing with the phone available. The Asha 500 is now available online for Rs 4,649 on Infibeam. The retailer says it should reach buyers within a day or two of
purchase and also offers a Cash on Delivery (CoD) option.
Popular e-retailers like HomeShop18 and Flipkart have also listed the device, but only with a “coming soon” tag. Users can key in their email addresses to find out when the device will be available. They haven’t mentioned any pricing or shipping details yet.
Now available online
The dual SIM (GSM + GSM) Nokia Asha 500 features a 2.8-inch QVGA display, and is the lowest end Asha phone in the market. It gets a 2-megapixel rear camera, 64MB of RAM, Nokia’s Easy Swap technology for switching between SIMs freely, a dual standby mode for both SIMs and a microSD card slot to expand the internal memory. The 1200mAh battery is said to deliver up to 14 hours of talktime and up to 528 hours of standby time. The device is available in red, black, white and yellow colours.
On the other end of the spectrum is the Asha 503, being the most expensive among the most recent Asha devices. It has a very similar specs sheet to the Asha 502. The Asha 503 comes with a 3-inch display but gets a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection. Other specs include a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, dual SIM slots and dual-standby support, a microSD card slot, and a 1200mAh battery.
