The Nikon Coolpix S500 was reviewed by the website Vnunet and they like it for its image quality, its build quality, its easy to use controls and ability to handle tricky exposures. What they didn't like was the expensive price tag and its small internal memory.

The Nikon COOLPIX S500 has a resolution of 7.1 effective megapixels and also features a new high-performance image-processing engine with a 35-105mm (equivalent with 35mm format picture angle) and a 3x Zoom-Nikkor lens. The Nikon COOLPIX S500 is available in a choice of Urban Black or Silver body colors and boasts both the world’s fastest power up time* which allows for the LCD monitor to appear within 0.6 seconds and the world’s fastest shutter release time lag* which is 0.005 seconds when Response priority is set.

In the end the website writes "One of the most compact and attractive Nikon cameras around, the new S500 pulls off the trick of being lightweight yet impressively sturdy."