Small, 3.5G capable and touchscreen equipped, can the Nokia Asha 503 be used as a smartphone?
As the top-of-the-line model of the Nokia Asha 500 series of hybrid feature phones, the Nokia Asha 503 offers a number of features which are on par with that of most standard smartphones. This includes a capacitive screen, a 5MP camera with LED flash and 3.5G connectivity amongst other tech specs and features. Going for a retail value of just RM319, can you replace your smartphone with a Nokia Asha 503? The short answer would be: Yes. Yes you can. But it also raises the question of: Should you replace your smartphone with a Nokia Asha 503? Read our detailed analysis for the answer to this question.
How the Nokia Asha 503 can do it
For the skeptical ones who haven't even touched the Nokia Asha 503 but are already judging it, we'll start with what it can do as a smartphone. Most smartphone users use their devices to check their email and answer them, browse the Internet, take pictures and video and of course answer and make calls. In all of these tasks, the Asha 503 is more than capable. It can also view and answer social media with apps for Facebook and Twitter or chat apps like Whatsapp and Line. The Asha 503's 3.5G connectivity lets it pull off all of these mostly online tasks with relative ease and the compressed browser speeds up your Internet browsing experience somewhat as well. The swipe based interface is fairly intuitive and the capacitive screen is both sensitive as well as protected with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass.
The Nokia Asha 503 looks even better
Where does the Nokia Asha 503 excel?
For it's price, the Nokia Asha 503 probably has one of the better cameras complete with LED flash. It is also very portable, fairly light, fits into your pockets without bulging too much and has a reasonable battery life. While battery life use to be one of the main advantages for the Nokia Asha 501, the addition of 3.5G, a bigger screen and dual-SIM make the Asha 503 a bit less energy efficient. However, it is still better than your average smartphone, which usually needs to be recharged daily. You'll probably only need to recharge the Nokia Asha 503 after 3 or so days of heavy use and 5 days on normal but it is still a bit of a let down compared to the 2 weeks unplugged battery life of the Nokia Asha 501. In addition, the design of the Nokia Asha 503 also stands out from the crowd with it's clear transparent shell surrounding a brightly coloured polycarbonate casing. Most standard smartphones at this price range are either black or white and look downright boring.
Fast and simple to use, the Nokia Asha 503 lets you do the all the basic social media posts
Where does it flop?
The Nokia Asha 503's biggest limitation is it's 3-inch 240 x 320 pixel resolution screen. Sure, you can take above average 5MP shots, but they'll all look pixelated on the Asha 503's screen. Unfortunately, this also affects nearly everything, as browsing the Internet or reading emails isn't as sharp or clear. Video playback looks like that of an old-style television and if you have vision problems then everything is going to look even more blurry. Apps are another major problem. While there is an App store with more than 50 apps, how can you compare this against that of the Android app store which has hundreds of thousands? The apps are also rather limited because while you can check your Facebook feed and post, you won't be able to do much more than that and this limited use applies to almost all other third-party apps as well. Many Android apps can do a lot more than just the basic tasks. Last but not least is that the performance of the Asha 503 is slow compared to the various dual-core entry-level smartphones available on the market. There is a very noticeable lag when swiping or scrolling with the Asha 503 and while this may not affect the actual function of the phone, it does make the experience a bit less than what it could be.
The actual image may be sharp but on the Nokia Asha 503's screen it will look blurry and pixelated
Is the Nokia Asha 503 still a value buy?
If the Nokia Asha 503 came out when the Asha 501 came out then perhaps it would have been one of the better value buy smartphones out there. But since it just came out recently, this is no longer the case. One or two years ago, finding a good yet affordable Android smartphone was next to impossible with the cheapest also being the lowest in capabilities. Today, there are many new good and affordable smartphones from brands like Lenovo and Alcatel. A quick search on our sister site of MobileMegaMall.com for Android smartphones below RM319 reveals 327 possible matches. One prime example would be the Lenovo A390 which has 3G connectivity, a 5MP camera, dual-SIM support and a capacitive touch screen. True, the camera doesn't have an LED flash, but the 4-inch display with 480 x 800 pixel resolution is more than double that of the Asha 503. It also has a dual-core processor, relatively good PowerVR SGX531u graphics and a 1-2 day battery life. It is also only priced from RM290, less than the Nokia Asha 503. A quick look through will reveal other affordable smartphones with similar tech specs and features.
Now, you can find many affordable Android smartphones with similar if not better features
So, Should you replace your smartphone with a Nokia Asha 503?
Only if you don't mind the screen, the lag and limited Apps. With this sort of criteria we think the Asha 503 would be a good starter smartphone for either the young (because it is colourful and trendy) and senior citizens (because they won't mind about thelag or limited apps). However, the Nokia Asha 503 isn't a good smartphone replacement for those who like to take photos and videos but don't have a computer to view them, as they won't look good on the Asha 503's low resolution screen. This won't be an issue for those who have never seen a screen larger than 240 x 320 pixels but it will be a turn off for those who already have used a smartphone as most of them have higher resolutions than that. That being said, there are now many other smartphone options compared to the Nokia Asha 503, even those that cost less but still offer better features. So, if you're looking for a basic smartphone that can do more then you probably shouldn't replace your smartphone with a Nokia Asha 503. If you're looking for a backup phone, the Nokia Asha 501 provides better battery life and costs less too (about RM240 and above).
Good starter semi-smartphone for those who have never had a smartphone but not a very good smartphone replacement
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