Nokia 5230 deals & review

This is one foot solider that is as smart as any commanding lieutenant but does the job with no pretensions or even aspirations to advance in the ranks. It’s quite happy in the hands of a youthful crowd that wants smartphone touchscreen functionality with fun playful designs courtesy of interchangeable battery covers that 3^rd party aftermarket suppliers can make available. Nokia has just redefined what an entry level smartphone should be

Features at a Glance

This is a 3G smartphone on the dual band UMTS for US and European markets and comes with HSDPA at 3.6 Mbps on 3G. It is also quad band GSM with class 32 GPRS/EDGE data speeds on 2G.

It comes with SatNav functionality with a built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support and Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch. The Nuron version apparently does not have 3G and GPS. There’s no WiFi, a concession to its affordability, but comes with wireless Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and wired microUSB 2.0 for local high speed data transfers.

With a full touchscreen form factor measuring 111 x 51.7 x 15.5mm and weighing 115g, the Nokia 5230 runs the Symbian S60 5^th edition on a 434 MHz ARM11 processor. Its display is a 3.2-inch TFT LCD resistive touchscreen with Half-VGA resolution and 16 million colors. 

It comes with a proximity sensor for automatic shut-off in a call as well as a gravity accelerometer for auto rotate viewing. You get a fixed focus digital camera with a rather outdated 2-megpixel resolution. There’s VGA video recording at 30fps. Entertainment on the road gets a stereo FM radio with RDS and the usual media playback support for the popular audio and video file formats, a 3.4mm headphone jack and wireless stereo listening from its A2DP profile support on Bluetooth.

Phone memory comes with practically unlimited phonebook entries and a user storage capacity of 70 MB expandable up to 16 GB from its microSD expansion slot. You get up to 7 hours of talk time, 432 hours of standby time and 33 hours of continuous music listening from its BL-5J li-ion battery rated at 1320 mAh when fully charged. SAR EU rating is 1.08 watts/kg.