Nokia announced that the Nokia Asha 501, the first smartphones to run on, yet another OS from Finnish company, the Asha Platform is going to surface in Pakistan with-in a week.
Launching with Pakistan and Thailand, Nokia Asha 501 will roll out in subsequent weeks across countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. It is said that US, Canada and European markets may not see Asha 501 as Nokia is focusing these rich markets with its Lumia series.
Nokia Asha 501 is part of new smartphone range from Nokia, aimed at emerging markets and those early buyers who are going to get their first smartphone.
“The new Nokia Asha 501 helps people quickly access everything they love with just a simple swipe,” said TimoToikkanen, executive vice president, Mobile Phones, Nokia. “Coupled with beautiful design, it’s a smartphone with both style and substance, offered at a great price.”
It merits mentioning here that Asha series has been considered as a set of feature phones, however, with Asha 501 the Finnish mobile phone manufacturing company has come up with with massively tweaked version of S40 which it is claiming to be the smartphone OS.
Nokia said that Asha 501 will be available in Pakistan around Rs. 10,000 in six colours.
The Nokia Asha 501 is available in a choice of six colours: cyan, bright red, yellow, bright green, black and white. Its seamless design comes in just two parts: a durable, removable shell and the scratch-resistant, tempered glass display. The compact, easy-to-use Nokia Asha 501 weighs only 98 grams, for the ultimate in portability.
The Nokia Asha 501 works with just a simple swipe. Swipe unlocks the phone, closes apps and is used to shift between two screens: ‘Home’ and ‘Fastlane’. Home makes full use of the three-inch capacitive touchscreen, displaying a traditional application launcher.
Fastlane is the second screen that adapts to display recent activity on the phone as well as upcoming events, helping people multi-task. Fastlane also supports social integration with Facebook and Twitter, by allowing people to post directly from within Fastlane.
The new Asha comes with the Nokia Xpress Browser pre-loaded, which compresses Internet data by up to 90%, making mobile browsing faster and more affordable.
People can enjoy a world of entertainment on the Nokia Asha 501, including pre-installed social apps like Facebook and Twitter; chat services like Line, Nimbuzz and WeChat; as well as up to 40 free EA games available to download, such as Plants vs. Zombies. Even more free apps and games are available from Nokia Store, including HERE Maps and the new Nokia Xpress Now content discovery web app.
Nokia Asha 501 is claimed to offer whooping 48 days of battery stand-by – when using a single SIM.
