While the Daytona 500 kicks off a race to the top each year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Nokia 500 is a race to the bottom. Nokia on Monday announced a new Symbian-powered smartphone that will aggressively attack emerging markets and smartphone users on a budget. The €150 ($217) Nokia 500 costs about what most popular smartphones do after subsidies, and it features specs we’re not used to seeing on entry-level devices. Highlights include a 1GHz processor, a 3.2-inch 640 x 360-pixel touchscreen display, a 5-megapixel camera, 2GB of storage and HSPA data. It also weighs just 93 grams, making it the lightest Symbian smartphone to date. As attractive as this handset could be in the low-end market, it begs the question: how long will it be until Nokia can attack young demographics and emerging markets this aggressively with entry-level smartphones powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS? Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has said on numerous occasions that Nokia will be able to push affordable Windows Phones out to market very quickly, but €150 before subsidies is not an easy price point to hit. Nokia did not specify a launch date for the Nokia 500, saying only that it will be available before the end of the year. A pair of videos showcasing the new Nokia 500 follow below.
