Nokia 500 is the first 1GHz smartphone to come out of Espoo

Despite all of its talk of Windows Phone, Nokia is still cranking out Symbian-powered smartphones, and the 500 is the latest handset to come out of the Finnish company's labs. Sporting a familiar slab design, the 500 is the first Nokia smartphone equipped with a 1GHz processor.
The 500 looks similar to the previously announced N9, though it has a smaller 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 640 x 360 pixel resolution. Nokia is positioning the 500

as a lower-cost alternative to the N9, and has equipped it with interchangeable back covers for easy personalization. The back houses a 5 megapixel camera with video capture.

Accompanying the 500's 1GHz processor is 2GB of internal storage and support for microSD cards up to 32GB in size. The 500 runs the latest Symbian OS, Anna, and includes Nokia Maps, social network integration, internet radio services, and an FM radio. It has pentaband HSPA 3G support on the 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz bands, so it has global appeal. The battery is an 1110mAh unit that provides up to 7 hours of talk time or 19 days of standby. The 500 measures 111.3mm x 53.8mm x 14.1mm (4.4in x 2.1in x 0.6in), and weighs 93g (3.28oz), the lightest of any Symbian^3 smartphone to date.

Nokia will be releasing a black version of the 500 in Q3 of this year, with a white version to follow in Q4. Both versions come with three different colored back plates in the box. Nokia expects the 500 to retail for just 150 EUR (US$216) before any taxes or subsidies when it hits the market. Take a look at the two videos below to see the 500 in action.

It's a remarkable piece of engineering ergonomically, as well. Cramming a full keyboard into a chassis this narrow is easily enough done, but making it usable is much more of a challenge. Nokia has achieved that and more with the E71: the keys, like the E61 before it, are slightly rubbery so your fingers don't slip off them when you're trying to type; they're slightly domed, so you can press one easily without hitting a neighbouring letter by accident; and the keyboard is blessed with a sensible layout too - important symbols such as the full stop, comma and @ characters are all accessible instantly, without the need to press shift - an ailment all too many other phone keypads are afflicted by.

The keyboard, then, is easily a match for the 8820's excellent offering, but how about the rest of the device? Well, there's no scrolling trackball, but the directional pad above the keyboard is easy to use and works well. If anything, the buttons for picking up and hanging up calls next to the pad are a little on the small side but they're easy to get used to. Combine those with the four well-sized shortcut keys and the pair of soft keys and overall you've got a very comprehensive control cluster.