Nokia 500 unveiled - new 1GHz phone from Finns

The new Nokia 500: fancy
The new Nokia 500: fancy

Nokia has announced a new smartphone is to be added to its ranks, in the shape of the Nokia 500.

The phone comes with a 1Ghz processor, the joint-fastest in any device from Nokia (as well as the Nokia N9), as well as a 3.2-inch nHD (640x360) capacitive screen.

More importantly, the Nokia 500 comes with Symbian Anna, the top end operating system on offer from the firm at the moment, showing Nokia is intending to keep Symbian on as many phones as possible prior to the Windows Phone range launch.

Other key specs for the Nokia 500 include Wi-Fi to b/g standard, dimensions of 111.3 x 53.8 x 14.1mm and a 1110mAh battery (which presumably has been optimised through Nokia making the processor more efficient, else we're going to see some horrifically high power use compared to the competition.)

Numberwang

2GB of internal storage is popped on board for media and apps, and while the 500 has a lovely microSD slot capable of munching on cards up to 32GB, there's no card bundled with the phone.

It's clear the naming conventions have altered within the Finnish camp, with the 500 eschewing the letter-number double act we've grown so accustomed to, but we're still not sure why a phone with the most powerful processor has been dubbed 'entry-level' - clearly we're about to see higher processor phones a-plenty from Nokia.

Anyroad, entry-level equals cheaper and that's been proven as Nokia says it will cost €150 (£130) before tax, so Symbian stalwarts won't be spending too much money come the Nokia 500 UK release date of August or September.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.