5 ms·

Hardly impressive - fairly pathetic really. Observe: http://androidandme.com/2013/04/smartphones-2/archos-reveals-stock-android-phones-starting-at-99/ http://a

• mtgx 14y ago
  I think there was a quad core 1080p Chinese phone for $160, too. Considering these are running Symbian, that's a lot less value for buck compared to an Android one, even if the price is "low". EDIT: This one iOcean X7 - quad core 1.2 Cortex A7, 1080p screen, PowerVR 5XT (1080p video support), 2 GB of RAM, 13 MP camera. Now that's impressive. And it doesn't look too bad either: http://android-sale.com/iocean-x7-phone.html http://android-sale.com/iocean-x7-phone.html
  • RaduTyrsina 14y ago
    of course, there are a lot of them, but what about the quality of them ... ?
    • Jhsto 14y ago
      I used a pirate Chinese phone for a year. It worked just like any other Android phone and the quality was great considering the price tag of 100€.
  • RaduTyrsina 14y ago
    would you buy it? :P
  • deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  • seanmcdirmid 14y ago
    These are not running Symbian. From the article: > Nokia Asha 501 represents the first fruit after Nokia bought Smarterphone, back in November 2012. And maybe thanks to the Smarterphone software, Nokia has managed to pack so much inside a tiny, 3inch touchscreen device. As for the iOcean, I can't find a review about it anywhere on the web in English. Kind of risky.
    • moystard 14y ago
      Indeed, it is running on a modified version of the S40 platform.
      • Zigurd 14y ago
        That's correct. That means the "app" runtime on Asha is J2ME plus some Nokia-specific classes. Only pre-installed software can access the S40 OS directly. That's not competitive with Android, Sailfish, or Firefox OS, all of which are already or will soon be in comparably priced devices in the developing world markets. Nokia should have kept Meego and/or Meltemi to remain competitive in this segment. They also could have sold Android alongside Windows Phone, as other OEMs do.
    • RaduTyrsina 14y ago
      +1 to that. And, you won't be paying 100$. This is that type of phone you'll get for free on your carrier with a basic plan
      • seanmcdirmid 14y ago
        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.
        • bonchibuji 14y ago
          You're right. Other than iPhone and some BB, I haven't seen anything coming with subsidies. Also, in India, almost of the connections are pre-paid. As per a Nielsen study, 97% of the youth (age 15 to 24) in India are on a pre-paid connection. http://trak.in/tags/business/2011/02/24/indian-youth-mobile-phone-usage-survey/ http://trak.in/tags/business/2011/02/24/indian-youth-mobile-...
• RaduTyrsina 14y ago
  Indeed, the first one is good, but second one - Starting at: $219.00 + it's a no name. the same about the rest of them. archos' interesting though. but no, asha 501 is not pathetic at all
  • RyanZAG 14y ago
    Sorry, my bad on the 2nd link, I pasted the wrong one. It was meant to be the 'cheap phones' link from that website. Here it is: http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58_53.html http://www.androidforcheap.com/cell-phone-android-phone-c-58... Those devices are better specs, cheaper (some are under $50), and run a real OS. The third link is the same, with better specs and well under $99, so I'm not sure where you're coming from here. Asha 501 seems very pathetic to me at least.
    • seanmcdirmid 14y ago
      All of those phones are pieces of junk. If you are comparing specs, the Asha loses. If you are comparing size, design, build quality, reliability, etc...then there is no competition here.
• seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  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.
  • RyanZAG 14y ago
    I'm not so sure about that. For example, this phone: http://www.androidforcheap.com/a7100-tv-wifi-smart-phone-android-40-os-sc6820-10ghz-5-inch-50mp-camera-p-679.html 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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx2ueazLvXI
    • RaduTyrsina 14y ago
      Ryan, there's some truth in your assertions BUT this is not ONLY Symbian. It's MeeGo + Symbian on the core + Smarterphone that Nokia has acquired = new Asha platform software.
    • seanmcdirmid 14y ago
      Ah, I've seen that phone for real (my office is in Zhongguancun). Its a piece of crap; all the Shanzhai phones are actually. In Chinese they have a saying: 便宜没好货，好货不便宜, you get what you pay for. What if I wanted to buy something for 7-800 kuai that wasn't a knockoff or a cheap piece of crap? The Asha promises "less" in terms of specs so it can offer more in other areas. Reasonable trade off.
    • jsnell 14y ago
      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.
  • 14y ago
• moystard 14y ago
  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 robust material, a solid battery life, and an OS good enough for Internet, and social network usage.
  • ippisl 14y ago
    RyanZAG also mentions an archos phone. Archos is definetly no a "a chinese no name android phone".
    • moystard 14y ago
      That's the exception in his list, but it does package the same hardware as the Chinese ones. Regarding the Archos 35 Carbon Spec (the only one under $100), I have never seen a single core processor running Android decently. Most of the time, it actually drains the battery because the processor is struggling to accomplish any task. Not saying Android is a bad OS, just saying that Android requires much more power than S40, and I am sure the Meego-like UX on the Asha is actually nicer than the one proposed by a slow Android phone.
      • ippisl 14y ago
        I'm dunno. My brother has a single core android, and it works fine.
      • Zigurd 13y ago
        Had Nokia kept Meego they would not be in the pickle they are in. Asha sales fell sharply in the previous quarterly report. S40 is not a competitive OS. Meego devices would have multiprocessing and Qt-based apps. While some customers prioritize industrial design, battery life, and UI responsiveness, the success of Android phones among low-cost Chinese OEMs indicates they think some customers want capabilities before a nice physical package.
• AlexSerban 14y ago
  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.
• eliasmacpherson 14y ago
  "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.
  • claudius 14y ago
    Hey, 48 hours standby isn’t all that much…oh wait.
    • 6ren 14y ago
      48 DAYS (because I didn't pick up on it at first, even with your comment, it's so unexpected).
  • Kurtz79 14y ago
    Is it really relevant in this day and age ? I can think of a very few cases (like, being lost in the Borneo jungle) where this would be actually useful in a normal environment. If you live someplace where you don't have easy access to a power outlet at least once per day, it's unlikely you will have support for the advanced features of a smartphone, and an older Nokia phone will work just as well ...
    • claudius 14y ago
      I find it quite helpful that I don’t have to carry a charger with me for shortish trips, although my phone only lasts about 5 days with medium usage. Granted, if I carry my laptop with me anyway it is just an extra USB cable, but if I don’t, it’s another 200 or so grams I potentially have to carry uphill on a bike.
      • micampe 14y ago
        200gr? Dude, that's the laptop charger.
        • 14y ago
• claudius 14y ago
  > 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).
  • kalleboo 14y ago
    It's not Symbian, it's S40. So, J2ME apps.
  • anonymous 14y ago
    AFAIK there's no freely available SDK for S40 phones, which limits the number of available applications to only what Nokia deem in their interest to make.
    • pavlov 14y ago
      Certainly there is a S40 SDK. It's been around for a decade -- the S40 phones have always been programmable with Java ME and many Nokia extensions. As of this new device, the S40 SDK has been renamed as the "Asha software platform": "The new Nokia Asha software platform builds on the success of the Series 40 Developer Platform, to deliver consumers globally the power of a smartphone in an affordable, pocketable form factor. A 3” QVGA screen and swipe UI delivers a superior, fun user experience. For developers the Nokia Asha software platform offers new Java APIs and an updated web apps platform for desirable, high value apps." http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/asha/ http://www.developer.nokia.com/Develop/asha/
      • Zigurd 14y ago
        That's technically correct, but J2ME, even on Asha, is limited in capability and capacity: 2MB jar size and 4MB heap size, and without the rich component lifecycle that enables Android software to fit in small-ish heap limits. There is also no background processing, and no concept of middleware components like bound services. If you are a close partner of Nokia, you can get an SDK to create code that accesses S40 OS directly, but that's much like coding on a feature-phone's RTOS, and only for creating pre-loaded software.
• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• Nux 14y ago
  How is that pathetic? Looks like a nicely engineered _PHONE_ with dual sim capability and can also check your emails/web sites/etc. To top it off they come with a battery LIFE that puts the whole industry to shame! I think you are greatly overestimating the power of "android smartphones"; especially the cheap Chinese stuff. The hype is impressive. Many people just want a _reliable_ phone they don't need to worry about charging every 12 hours. After having used a "smart phone" for 6 months I'm back to my cheap 4 years old Nokia phone: makes calls, receives calls, needs charging once a week (also does radio and flashlight, how cool is that!).