- Conclusion Get the lowdown
- Features How it compares
- Performance Real world benchmarks
- Differences Technical showdown
- Reviews Word on the street
- Competition Others to consider
- Discussion Answers and opinions
Nokia 500
- Symbian OS
- 3.5G
- 3.2"
- 1 GHz
Announced August, 2011
by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The resolution fits the screen size nicely and the display looks good with pleasingly vibrant colors and enough detail.
Features Key features of the Nokia 500
1 GHz
Symbian OS 3.5G
by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The resolution is a match for the screen size and the display looks good with pleasingly vibrant colors and enough detail.
screen size
3.2"
4"
4"
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)We're talking the same screen size and pretty much the same height and width - but the Nokia 500 is quite a lot chubbier.
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)We're talking the same screen size and pretty much the same height and width - but the Nokia 500 is quite a lot chubbier at 14.4 mm of thickness.
screen resolution
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The colors are decent, contrast is very good and there's a reasonable amount of detail, but noise levels are way too high and there are lots of artifacts, caused by the aggressive processing algorithm.
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The video quality is also disappointing - the lack of detail, the high compression and the low frame rate result in highly disappointing videos.
memory
| 0 GB | 0.77 GB   | 0.8 GB |
processor
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Performance-wise the Nokia 500 should be better than the previous Symbian^3 and Anna models - now that it's got a 1GHz CPU.
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)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.
camera resolution
| 0 MP | 8 MP   | 8 MP |
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The snapper on the back of the Nokia 500 is a 5MP full-focus camera (which is to say it’s a fixed-focus lens) for maximum image resolution of up to 2592х1944 pixels.
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The camera user interface has been reworked and, while not perfect, it’s better than the old setup.
Performance Real world tests of Nokia 500
cpu speed
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Never mind the sound of a 1GHz processor, this phone doesn’t mind starting small.
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Nokia didn’t skimp on hardware to give the 500 a bump in processor and data speed.
talk time
420 min
600 min
300 min
500 by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Unfortunately the card slot is under the battery, so it's not hot-swappable.
Our analysis How does it stack up against its top 10 competitors
pros
-
3.5 mm -
Nokia Store (Symbian OS) -
Capacitive -
5 MP -
Share your cellphone's data plan with other devices -
93 g -
Play games and use applications that take advantage of device rotation
cons
-
Photos in poor lighting will be dark and grainy -
54 Mbit/s (802.11g) -
640 x 480 @ 15 fps -
62.88% -
1,110 mA·h -
Many games and videos on the Internet require Adobe Flash -
None -
Some newer payment by phone methods require NFC -
-
0.25 GB -
Less convenient to hook into your car's radio -
14 mm -
420 min
Reviews Word on the street
 |
|
|---|---|
 |   Rated by 1 users at amazon.com Rated 40% by by Martina988 (May, 2013)   |
Screen
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The previous screen required going back and forth between screens, which was pretty much unusable.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)When stretched on a larger screen, however, the Nokia 500 images aren't so impressive.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)It's a touchscreen-bar device of simple styling and low-cost finish, nothing extravagant about it.
Apps
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)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.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Flash games wouldn't work.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The Nokia 500 email client allowed us to setup our Gmail account quite easily, including syncing the account as an Exchange Active Sync one so that we'd get all our contacts.
Web browser
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The Nokia 500 browser has good page rendering and offers some nice features such as different font sizes (5 options), auto fill-in of web forms and a password manager.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The 3G is pretty fast too with 14.4Mbps downlink and 5.76Mbps uplink.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Some of the nagging issues in the browser were fixed too - you can now open a new tab easily (why it took Nokia this long to implement this we'll never know) and it takes you only one tap to get to the popup menu with the most useful browser options (it used to take two taps, which is one too many).
Keyboard
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The keys on the portrait QWERTY are quite small.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Another thing we're really pleased to see is how the QWERTY keyboard integrates with the browser.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)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.
Video
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)The Nokia 500 video player looks quite capable on paper but the actual performance was a letdown.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)Posting a status update is simple as is attaching a photo or video (or shooting new ones on the spot) as well as adding geo-tagging information.
Nokia 500 | by GSM Arena (Sep, 2011)It's just not as crisp and punchy as a ClearBlack screen.
Competition What else you should consider
 | 1 | Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 Long standby time Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 vs Nokia 500 |
 | 2 | Sony Xperia U Outputs video to TV Sony Xperia U vs Nokia 500 |
 | 3 | Huawei Ascend G300 Rated the best by consumers Huawei Ascend G300 vs Nokia 500 |
 | 4 | Sony Xperia ray Sharpest screen Sony Xperia ray vs Nokia 500 |
 | 5 | Huawei Ascend G330 Transmits music over FM radio Huawei Ascend G330 vs Nokia 500 |
 | 6 | Apple iPhone 3G Most built-in storage Apple iPhone 3G vs Nokia 500 |
 | 7 | Samsung GALAXY Chat Has a keyboard Samsung GALAXY Chat vs Nokia 500 |
New duel?
Let the battle continue or dare to compare.
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