When touchscreen handsets start to take over the lower segments of the market you know the rules of the game have changed. The Nokia 5230 is a smartphone but it doesn’t mind rubbing shoulders with the common run of handsets. So, it’s free to explore grounds where few smartphones have ever gone, let alone full touchscreen gadgets.
The land of affordability was the last territory for touchscreen phones to settle in and not quite the place smartphones would call home. So it was, but Nokia just won’t wait for a special invitation when a niche is wide open. And they’ve got quite a fleet already of low key touchscreen smartphones that’s certain to make an impact. The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic had a great bang for the buck and the 5230 is welcome to try and beat the bargain.
Cheap is nice but free is even better – and we guess the 5230 will be available both ways through retail stores and carriers. But let’s see what it has and what’s been left out.
Key features:
- 3.2" 16M-color TFT LCD 16:9 touchscreen display (360 x 640 pixels)
- Symbian S60 5th edition
- ARM 11 434 MHz CPU, 128MB RAM memory
- Quad-band GSM support
- 3G with HSDPA 3.6Mbps support
- Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support; Ovi maps
- 2 megapixel fixed focus camera with and VGA@30fps video
- microSD card memory expansion, ships with a 4GB card
- FM radio with RDS
- Bluetooth with A2DP and USB v2.0
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation, motion-based gaming and turn-to-mute
- Ovi integration (direct image and video uploads, Ovi Contacts)
- Landscape on-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard
- Excellent audio quality
- Price tag on the cheap side
- Changeable color battery covers (two extra ones available in-box)
- Plectrum dongle available in the retail package
Main disadvantages:
- No Wi-Fi support
- Display has poor sunlight legibility
- Default font size is a bit small due to the smallish but high-res screen
- 3rd party software is still somewhat limited
- Extremely limited camera
- Doesn't charge off its microUSB port
- No smart dialing
- No DivX/XviD video support out of the box
- No TV-out functionality
- No data-cable or memory card in retail package
- No office document viewer
- Below par speaker volume
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