Nokia 5230 review: Foot soldiers get smarter

Gsmarena have posted their review of the Nokia 5230. Here are the phone's main features, main disadvantages and their final impression.

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

It may as well have been a matter of routine and habit, but Nokia have achieved another of their goals. The 5230 is ready to take on a segment that’s virtually free of smartphone competition. Giving customers another option is always welcome and it gets even better when the minimal R&D costs result in a welcoming price tag.

Nokia 5230 is the cheapest of them S60 touchscreen phones but quite a few users will be willing to consider it against the Nokia 5530. The larger screen and the added HSDPA and GPS connectivity are more than welcome, especially if your data plan is good enough to make Wi-Fi nonessential.

Essentially, the Nokia 5230 and 5530 XpressMusic are near equivalent options – it’s a matter of balancing your needs – whether it’s WI-Fi or GPS with fast HSDPA data transfers. The downgraded camera will count of course but imaging has never been a great asset in the 5800 or the 5530 XpressMusic in the first place.

None of this is to say of course that the Nokia 5800 and 5530 are not worth their money. Right on the opposite, the trio will be topping the bang-for-buck list of quite a number of users. If you can live with the software limitations the raw hardware is all there and gets the job done. The S60 touch UI is not the best piece of software money can buy, but it is near impossible to find a contemporary full-touch smartphone for this kind of cash.

Let’s have a brief look at the competition’s workforce in this price range.

Samsung are constantly updating their lineup of full-touch phones and they have quite a few handsets to offer. The Samsung S5600 Preston, S5230 Star WiFi and M5650 Lindy all cost about the same and have comparable connectivity features.

None of those handsets however can't beat the level of versatility a smartphone can offer. Screen size and resolution are also in favor of Nokia.

Those handsets are designed to compete against each another but seem unprepared to handle an attack by affordable touchscreen smartphones. This of course is the geek’s point of view, and smartphones are simply not everyone’s cup of tea. But Nokia’s expansion in the lower touchscreen market is nonetheless threatening. The Finns are hoping to gain from giving users the luxury to “go smart” without charging a premium price for that