Introduction
The Nokia 500 is not a phone Nokia desperately needs to succeed. They've got bigger things on their mind and we don't mean Windows Phone 7. With Symbian Belle just launched on two brand new handsets, the Anna-running Nokia 500 is beyond hope of getting in the spotlight.
It's exactly phones like the Nokia 500 though that do well, giving good return of the minimum investment. They thrive in anonymity and get the job done without fanfare. Think Nokia C5-03 but duly upgraded: a 1 GHz processor and double the RAM, a capacitive touchscreen and Symbian Anna - and it will only get better with Belle.
The Nokia 500 is an entry-level smartphone and that's what Nokia are good at. It won't deliver super multimedia but it will open those internet pages for you and do it the way a true modern smartphone should - with multi-touch support. It's the complete smartphone experience with the speed of a 1GHz CPU, solid connectivity, free SatNav and multi-tasking, all in a much friendlier Symbian Anna fashion.
Nokia 500 at a glance:
- General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
- Form factor: Touchscreen bar
- Dimensions: 111.3 x 53.8 x 14.1 mm, 73 cc; 93 g
- Display: 3.2-inch 16M-color nHD (360 x 640 pixels) TFT capacitive touchscreen
- Memory: 2 GB of inbuilt storage, microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
- OS: Symbian Anna OS
- CPU: ARM 11 1GHz processor, 256 MB RAM
- Camera: 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera with geotagging, VGA video recording @15fps
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, stereo Bluetooth v2.1, microUSB port, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS
- Misc: Accelerometer, Stereo FM radio with RDS, Flash lite 4.0, changeable colored back-panels, proximity sensor
- Battery: 1110 mAh Li-Ion battery, quoted for up to 7h/5h talk time in GSM/HSDPA mode and 500h/455h standby.
With an upgraded processor, penta-band worldwide coverage and improved data speeds, the Nokia 500 means business. But it knows its target audience and tries to stays relevant with the feature set and customization options including exchangeable back covers.
It keeps an eye on budget too. The all-plastic finish, garden variety TFT display, fixed-focus camera with no flash and VGA-only video are compromises that had to be made. It still looks like a viable option - a young, affordable smartphone with a good speed boost and colorful personality.
Looks like an easy one to get along with. We guess we can cut the courtesies and move on. We only have time for a short preview anyway.
Design and construction
The rich assortment of colorful back covers gives the Nokia 500 enough youth appeal but other than that, it's actually a conservatively designed phone. It's a touchscreen-bar device of simple styling and low-cost finish, nothing extravagant about it.
The curved rear makes it comfortable to hold and the soft rubbery finish is pleasant though probably not very durable.
The front is dominated by the 3.2" nHD (360x640) capacitive touchscreen. The resolution is a match for the screen size and the display looks good with pleasingly vibrant colors and enough detail. It's just not as crisp and punchy as a ClearBlack screen.
Outdoor performance is average, bordering on poor. With brightness set at maximum it will do on most occasions.
Under the display you'll find the two call buttons, the Menu key in between. Just above them, in the display bezel, is the microphone of the Nokia 500. The earpiece is above the display where you also have an ambient light detector and a proximity sensor to disable the display during calls.
The right side of the phone features the Lock button, which replaces the lock slider usually found on Symbian handsets. The volume rocker is above it.
There's nothing to note on left side of the Nokia 500.The top is where the connectivity ports are. The MicroUSB port is enabled for both charging and data connections. There's a standard Nokia 2mm charging port, as well as a 3.5mm audio jack.The bottom of the device has only a lanyard eyelet.
Our test Nokia 500 unit is all black but a collection of exchangeable rear covers will be available in different colors. The back cover wraps around the phone's bottom to create a nice color accent.
At the back you see the 5 MP camera lens and the loudspeaker grill. There's no LED flash on the Nokia 500 and no camera key either - a virtual shutter is all there is. A Nokia logo is nicely etched out in the soft rubbery surface of the back cover.
A 1110 mAh Li-Ion battery powers the handset, with the SIM compartment and microSD card slot under it.The Nokia 500 is quoted at up to 500h of 2G standby and 455h in 3G. Talk times are 7h and 5h respectively.The Nokia 500 feels comfortable in the hand and is not a hassle to carry around. It's a simple design free of embellishments and we don't mind the plastic finish. Exchangeable back covers are the only design feature to note in this entry-level package.
User interface
The Nokia 500 might be getting an update to Symbian Belle but Anna seems a sensible choice for a low-end smartphone anyway. The OS has been getting friendlier and more polished and the Nokia 500 is part of the new experience, whether or not it receives the latest release.
It may not be immediately apparent to the untrained eye just what exactly Anna does to the homescreen to give it a nudge in the direction of usability. But after using it for a bit, you start to notice things.
Here's a demo video of the user interface on the Nokia 500.
The new style icons should be the first thing to note – the simple, rounded icons are a good new look for Symbian – or it could be that scrolling the homescreen is much more tangible. You “push” the homescreen sideways and it moves, instead of the old homescreen that moved only after you’ve finished with your swipe.
Other things haven’t changed however – the hierarchical menu that is a throwback to a past era is still here. You can rearrange your icons, but the flat menu structure that iOS and Android have popularized is beyond reach.The task manager only fits three apps at a time and even in landscape mode where there's much more space it still only fits three. If you have too many apps running, you’ll have to do quite a bit of scrolling.
The one UI change that really makes Anna a must-have for Nokia owners is the new text input – lo and behold the split screen keyboard.
In previous versions of Symbian you had two options – go to a new screen to enter your text on a full-screen landscape QWERTY and then go back or use that tiny, movable QWERTY keyboard that was basically a pain in the butt.
Anna however enables the portrait QWERTY, which overlays the bottom half of the screen and lets you stay in the app and type simultaneously. Besides letting you enter text without flipping the phone to its side and without going back and forth in the UI, it enables more subtle changes – like autosuggestion in the web browser that actually works.
The keys on the portrait QWERTY are quite small. Still, you can activate word prediction, which will fix the word you’re trying to type and show a small popup with the word you actually typed, in case you’re trying to enter something like a user name (which doesn’t have to be a valid word, in fact word prediction in this case gets in the way).
The landscape QWERTY keyboard is also available in split-screen mode and it offers bigger, easier to hit keys, making it the preferred option for entering long text.
It’s not all perfect though – several apps stick to the old text edit interface, covering the app screen even though we were using the portrait QWERTY. The Ovi store app is an example of where that happens, which was a little disappointing.
So, while Symbian Anna isn’t a huge change in the interface department, it does sand away some of the rough edges of Nokia’s aging OS.
Some of the native apps also received an update, which improved the general functionality of the phone.
Gallery
The gallery on the Nokia 500 hosts all your taken photos and videos in one big place. You can opt to browse all of your multimedia content (aside from songs) all together or to break them down into individual albums - captured and favorites are set by default.
There's kinetic scrolling in the gallery but it also offers a scroll bar. The Nokia 500 is fluent in multi-touch so there's pinch-zoom support with two fingers and there's the double tap option.
You can mark files inside the gallery and move them to other folders, mass mark and delete are available too. You can also do this through the dedicated File Manager supplied by Symbian since its early days.
Music player
The music player on the Symbian Anna strives to mix functionality and eye candy. It offers a cover-flow-like interface where albums and songs are placed in a floating line and you can browse them by dragging your finger. In landscape mode this effect is enhanced and receives full-screen support for your viewing pleasure.
When you select "Music" through the revamped menu icon you're greeted by a dedicated window with 5 additional icons - the music player, radio, Ovi music, internet radio and the Shazam music-recognition service. In this aspect Symbian hasn't changed all that much since the days of the N70 and beyond.
The main view of the music player holds artists and albums. When you select an artist you get a flashy pop-out menu with the songs of this artist you have preloaded.
First impressions
Nokia are keen to match every single one of their older generation Symbian smartphones with a new, improved and updated version. Symbian Belle, 1GHz processors, new generation screens and NFC are all over the headlines. Phones like the Nokia 700 are stealing the show.
What's the Nokia 500 gonna do about it? Nothing much really. It's what you are going to do. Will you look at your C5-03, your 5250 or your 5230 and tell them it's been a pleasure? Maybe you should.
We haven't been able to test everything about the Nokia 500 but the package is simple enough and there aren't too many unknowns. The big question perhaps is whether it’s getting Symbian Belle or not. Even without it though, the Nokia 500 makes sense.
We're looking at a very capable phone for the budget-conscious user. With all round fast connectivity, 1GHz processor, a capacitive screen and the free drive and walk navigation, the value for money is there. Two extra battery covers in the bundle add color to the package. At around 150 euro pre-tax, there isn't much to ask for. Or is there? Stay tuned for the complete review.
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