The bright, budget Nokia Asha 501 (pictures)

The Asha 501 is a colorful, tiny budget phone aimed at emerging markets. At just $99, it's a good value for its specs and style.

At just 3.9 inches tall by 2.9 inches wide and 0.47 inch thick, this phone is tiny. It's easy to slip into tight jeans pockets and take with you anywhere.

The most prominent feature on this compact phone is its vibrant back cover. The Asha 501 comes in a neon red, yellow, green, blue, black, and white.

Behind the back cover is the removable battery and SIM card slot.

The phone comes with 128MB of internal storage, plus it ships with a 4GB microSD card. You can pop off the back cover to install another microSD card of up to a 32GB capacity.

The Asha 501's 3-inch QVGA 320x240-pixel-resolution touch-screen display is unimpressive. Colors look dark and the screen looks dim, even at full brightness. In full sunlight, it's almost impossible to read.

The 501's 3-megapixel camera has a digital 3x zoom, but no flash or manual focus. The camera includes white balance settings, a self-timer, and four color tone modes; regular, grayscale, sepia, and negative.