In a few words: the Nokia 5230 is an entry-level touchscreen smartphone. Its main feature is the large touch screen, A-GPS with Maps Ovi, 3G, applications downloaded from the store Ovi and exceptional battery. In other ways it is disappointing, with poor camera, a mono speaker, no WiFi and no video calls. We think that 5530 offers a more rounded package, but otherwise a nice addition to a variety of Nokia.
The 5230 sit side by side with the Nokia 5530 in the range of Nokia smartphones touchscreen growing entry-level. You might think that 5230 is located under 5530, but that's not true. They cost the same as the contract (ie games at about £ 15 a month level), and offers the same features but are complementary. 5230 and 5530 enjoyed a strange relationship: if a phone does not have certain features, you can bet that others have it, and vice versa. So 5230 has 3G, but missing WiFi. It has A-GPS receiver, but the camera is rubbish. screen is larger than 5530, but the phone bigger and heavier too. Are you getting the picture?
Let us reverse this review and go back to basics. The 5230 is a Symbian S60 smartphone targeted at pay as you go and contract users who want to pay no more than £ 15 per month. That's a huge market, and we expect 5230 to be relatively high-volume handsets. The good news is that it is the latest in a series of the same phone, so you can be sure that the bugs have been ironed out of the firmware and that phone will work.
Physically, the phone looks almost exactly like, the Nokia 5800 which is the father of the type of handset. That's good too, because it means that you get a 3.2-inch screen is very large, high resolution 640 x 360 pixels. That's not quite as inches of the iPhone, but the more pixels, so you can tell that you have a partner for the iPhone! It's a resistive touchscreen, which is not smooth as a genius capacitative, but it works quite well and has the advantage to come with a stylus.This screen is fantastic for web browsing, multimedia, and only works with the menu.This phone is bigger than 5530, but that's because a larger screen and a larger battery in it.
The 5230 is a 3G phone, not like 5530, and has a high-speed HSDPA, offering download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps. The absence of WiFi, however, so if WiFi is more important to you than 3G, chose 5530 only. If you really need both, select 5800.But he has a Bluetooth and USB connectivity.
The most disappointing feature of the camera phone might be sub-standard. Withonly 2 megapixels and no flash or autofocus, this is only suitable for fast locked.Better video camera, but without the video call option. Poor camera phone featuresthe weakest and probably the biggest reason for choosing 5530 alone.
The phone comes with 70 MB of memory is honored and can be expanded to 16GBby adding a microSD memory card. Unfortunately, you will not find one in the box, so be prepared to fork out a few quid for one of them. You also may need to purchase a USB cable as well, because this is not included either.
We mention that the 5230 is heavier than the 5530. The main reason for this isprobably the size of the battery increases. The 5230 enjoyed a very good battery lifeas a result.
This is one funny, 5230. This has some great features: large touchscreen display, OviStore for applications, 3G, GPS, exceptional battery. But it also has a fewdisappointments: no WiFi, no video calls, horrible camera, and music playerunexceptional. However, if you are looking for a touchscreen smartphone, not much inthe price range, and 5230 to expand the options available.
