Nokia Asha 502 vs Nokia X

There are very few options in market for budget smartphones buyers who are looking to buy a decent phone under 10K, phones available in this price segment are either Samsung Galaxy variants kind of phones with very low specs or phones from Indian manufacturers such as Micromax, LAVA, Karbonn etc where investing money is like a gamble due to lack of after sales support and service, no word on software update and low build quality and performance.

Then there is Nokia (soon to be Microsoft Mobile) in market with its budget phones in form of Asha series and the newly launched Android based phone Nokia X. Recently Nokia launched Nokia Asha 502 and Nokia X in India. In fact Nokia has few more devices in this price segment as they realize this is the segment where most of the phones are sold in India. We will discuss about Asha 502 and Nokia X in this post. Let’s see what these devices hold within them and which one has an upper hand over the other.

Nokia Asha 502

Nokia Asha 502 is third in the series after Asha 500 and Asha 501.

Hardware: Asha 502 comes with a 3-inch screen with 240x320p resolution; 5MP rear camera with LED flash , no front facing camera; 64 MB RAM, microSD card support up to 32GB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and microUSB 2.0. As earlier devices from series Asha 502 comes with different color options viz. white, black, red, blue  and yellow.  Asha 502 is fueled by 1010 mAh battery and comes with Accelerometer and proximity sensors. 4GB memory card comes in package.

Nokia Asha 502

Software: Asha 502 run on Asha software platform 1.1.1, with Nokia Smartlane feature which enables users to navigate to their favorite apps easier and faster. You will be disappointed if you are looking for android or windows phone smoothness.  You can access important apps such as Gmail, Facebook, whatsapp, linkedin, WeChat etc on this device.

Pros: Low price, Availability of popular apps, LED flash with 5MP camera for an entry level phone.

Cons: Sluggish UI, Lack of internal memory, No 3G support (but for the price offered one should not expect much)

Price: Nokia Asha 502 is available for Rs 4,302 online at shopclues  at time of writing this post.

Nokia X

Nokia X is Nokia’s first phone running on Android (forked Android) which was launched at a rate of slightly higher than Rs 8,000.   

Hardware: On hardware part, Nokia X is powered by 1 GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512 MB RAM. Nokia X comes with 4 GB internal storage which can be expanded upto 32 GB via micro SD card. It sports a 4 inch WVGA LCD display. Nokia X camera is a 3 MP camera and does not have any flash light to support it in low light conditions. The body shell is removable which covers 1500 mAh strong battery, two micro-Sim card  and a micro SD card slot.

Nokia X

Software: The phone is running on highly customized version of Android as mentioned earlier, the UI is mix of that of Windows and Asha phones, Tile based launcher is inspired from Windows phone while the fastlane feature which aggregates notifications, open and frequently used applications which can be customized as per user preferences is taken from Asha feature phones. One can go to next screen by swiping left or right , applications are showed up as tiles some of which can be resized as in Windows phones. You will not find app list as in Lumia phones, when any new app is installed it is added to same launcher which may irritate user to scroll down to the complete list of installed apps.

Nokia X comes with number of preinstalled apps such as BBM, Facebook, Twitter, Opera, Skype. Nokia has stripped  off its version of Android from the Google services suite which includes google maps, Gmail, Google search , Google Play Store. However it doesn't mean that users can't install Android apps on Nokia X. Nokia X comes with its own app store and if your favorite application isn't listed on this store you will be redirected to third party Android marketplace such as Apoide, 1Mobile, Slide me.

Nokia X is available in green, red, cyan, black and white. Nokia X is available for Rs 6599 at time of writing this post.

Pros:

Battery: Nokia is known for its devices with longer battery life with 1500 mAh battery it is said to offer 10.5 hours of talk time on 3G connection and up to 22 days in standby mode.
Android on Nokia : For those who are tight on pocket and don’t want to take a chance with local brands for Android based phones.

Cons:

No Google Services: While users can download most of the applications with the options provided by Nokia, still the wide range of applications that Google play hosts will be missed on Nokia X.
Low Specs: There is too much competition for under 10K budget Smartphone, Nokia was expected to come up with decent specs instead it offers a 4 inch display and 3 MP camera that too without flash and no Front camera at all.

The Bottom Line: Both the devices are priced less than 10K but has good difference of around 2000 Rs and so is the difference in hardware specifications. Choice to buy one depends upon your budget and features/specs you are looking for. If you are willing to spend more you can go for Lumia 520 which available for around Rs7800 which is a impressive Windows phone at this price or  If you are not a Nokia fan then you can go for other Indian brands such as Micromax, LAVA, Karbonn etc where you will get decent specification devices for similar price.