How Good Is The Nokia 5230?
At first glance the Nokia 5230 could be mistaken for any of its predecessors; the familiar slim style compares to that of the Nokia 5800 and the Nokia 5530. This is where the similarities end. This Nokia handset is one to rival the top end smartphones without actually being a one. It runs on the S60 Symbain operating system which is widely used in today's smartphones and it uses all the advantages of this operating system to the fullest. So why is it not a smartphone? Nokia smartphones are usually labelled Nseries or Eseries; these are aimed at business users and those who want the best in high end multimedia entertainment from their phone. The Nokia 5230 handset enters the market in a highly competitive price range and could be seen as a budget smartphone. The strong features of this handset surpass the other phones in this competitive price range. Nokia have crammed high specifications into this middle of the road handset.
Display & Keypad - Featuring a crystal clear 3.2" TFT widescreen display, the Nokia 5230 supports a resolution of 360x640 with 16 million colours. Data entry to the handset is done via your fingers or the use of a stylus pen; Handwriting recognition software for which is preloaded. Three keypad layouts are present within the phone. Firstly there is the standard alphanumeric keypad which makes use of predictive text or multi-tap and can be used in both portrait and landscape view. Secondly there is a mini QWERTY keypad for use with fingers or the stylus and again can be used in both portrait and landscape. Lastly there is the typing optimised full QWERTY keyboard which can only be used in landscape mode.
Music & Networking - While not being advertised or sold as a music handset the 5230 does have a fully capable and functional music system. As said previous the Nokia 5230 takes advantage of all that S60 has to offer, this includes the media player which supports a wide range of formats. You can take your MP3, WAV and WMA music files and create playlists, organise and sort your music via the music library. This handset makes use of MicroSD memory cards for up to 16GB of storage space. The disk space in phone is only 70MB. Listening to your music with earphones is done via the standard 3.5mm audio jack so you are not limited by what headsets you can use with this phone. The handset supports Bluetooth 2.0 to allow for easy movement of music between PC and phone. The internet connection has a speed of up to 3.6Mbps via HSDPA support. Lastly the Nokia 5230 handset includes a FM radio which has a total of 20 programmable preset stations.
Online Services & Extras - Nokia's Ovi online digital suite is fully supported by the 5230 and this gives you access to a long list of features and online content, from music and mail to online storage and social networking; which can be easily accessed at any time. The connectivity of the Nokia 5230 has many methods, the HSDPA we mentioned earlier or GPRS, EDGE and HSCSD. Turning your Nokia 5230 into a GPS Navigation system is one outstanding feature of this handset. It comes with an inbuilt A-GPS chip and combining this with Ovi Maps gives full GPS navigation complete with directions, 3D modelling of your surroundings and more.
To conclude, the Nokia 5230 handset is very impressive for its target price range and market, it might not be a top end smartphone but it isn't far behind and offers a wide choice of features commonly found on smartphones but at a cheaper, more affordable price.
Looking for a ? I review and sell this budget handset along with associated accessories as well as a broad range of other products for the US and UK markets on my website . Thank you for your time and custom.
