Nokia 5230 Review

[nmenon]

I’ve had the Nokia 5230 for just over a month now, so here’s my review.

Box Contents: 6/10

The phone, Headset WH-102, Charger AC-8N, Battery BL-5J 1320mAh, UG, Nokia Music 10 track gift voucher and plectrum stylus. The normal stylus is built into the body. A disappointing lack of further accessories like Memory card and Data Cable, but still at Rs. 8300/- for a 3G phone with full touch screen and GPS, the bundle is acceptable. Purchased SanDisk 4GB Memory card for Rs. 600/-.

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8264/009fe.jpg
http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/708/010xg.jpg

Features: 9/10

The Nokia 5230 comes with 3G capability with HSDPA with download speeds up to 3.6 Mbps, A-GPS, a 3.2” 640x360 16.7million colour touch screen, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, 3 hardware keys for call, disconnect and menu, Symbian S60 v5 OS, a 434MHz ARM 11 processor and 128MB of RAM and a 2.0MP camera with Video recording resolution of 640x480 in mp4 format.

Living With It: 8/10

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9473/005bu.jpg
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/5536/001xws.jpg

In the month that I’ve been using the Nokia 5230 this is the experience I have had.

The phone is long, to accommodate the 16:9 nHD screen but fits comfortably in one hand and one handed operation is easy. The screen is very good in artificial lighting and in the dark, but under sunlight visibility is poor unlike most of Nokia’s other phones. The home screen shows the signal strength, battery level, clock, network name, a bar for up to 20 frequently used contacts, a music player bar if the player is minimized with controls for play/pause next/fast forward, and previous/rewind, along with the album art if available, a customizable bar showing 4 frequently used applications and the customary left and right soft key options (again customizable).


Build quality is okay though a bit plasticky. The memory card and sim card slots are adjacent on the left side of the phone and the loud speaker is close the top of the phone. The sim card can only be removed by opening the slot cover and back cover, removing the battery and pushing it out with the stylus. The memory card is hot swappable. The right side of the phone has the volume control rocker at the top, the screen lock slider in the middle and camera shortcut/shutter key at the bottom. The front houses the screen with the handset speaker, light sensor, proximity sensor and touch sensitive media key, above it and the call, menu and reject keys below.

Performance: 8/10

Handwriting recognition and speaker independent voice commands are standard with voice commands being built in for most common applications and automatically added for all contacts. Voice commands though give funny results occasionally especially for the contacts with a whole list coming up instead of the desired contact. Handwriting recognition is good out of the box though it had trouble recognizing my left handed writing, till I used the handwriting training option. The touch screen is sensitive needing only gentle touches to get things done, haptic feedback is very useful. Using the touch screen calibration allows fine tuning of the sensitivity of the screen. Using the stylus however scratches the original screen protector, so buying a high quality screen protector is essential.

The phone interface response is good even with an application or two open. Call performance good with good voice clarity. Battery life is good: I use two connections with this phone BSNL CellOne and AirTel both having good signal strength. With the BSNL (2G) network which I use only for calling I get up to 4 days of standby with daily calling of about 30 min. With the AirTel network I get about 2-3 days of standby depending on the GPRS usage.

Music quality is good on good headphones. The bundled headset has a low volume with music being almost inaudible below 25% volume (poor compared to my 3230 headset which is too loud even at the level just above mute), sound quality from the WH-102 headset is acceptable for music and good for calls. The 3.5mm jack allows connection to speakers directly. When connected to a Creative Inspire 2.1 speaker set the music quality is very good but Bass heavy.

The phone offers a traditional alphanumeric keypad as well as a QWERTY keypad in landscape mode. The alphanumeric keypad allows the usage of predictive text input which learns the most frequently used words in the same alphabetic combination (e.g. good and home use the same numbers i.e. 4663 but if you use the word home more often the predictive input recognizes this and
gives home as the first option instead of good). The QWERTY is also easy to use.

The 2.0 MP camera is good in bright daylight but other lighting conditions affect picture quality. Two samples' links are below.
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/9340/06032010010h.jpg
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/1042/06032010009z.jpg

Value for Money: 10/10

For the features the Nokia 5230 offers Rs. 8300/- is a bargain. No other phone offers a full touch screen, 3G, GPS, vast application support and multitasking capability at anywhere near this price.

Overall Verdict: 8/10

Nokia have made the best touch screen Smartphone available at this price point. Software updates are essential to iron out the bugs in the very new S60 v5 OS, which prevents me from giving it a 10/10.

[PraKs]

Excellent review..

[pradeepcec]

GOod review.. thanks it helped me a lot...

[TheHumanBot]

yeah nice reviewe thanks.

[harryneopotter]

94 views and only 3 replies ? Come on guys , its a great review ! Atleast show some encouragement !

[azzu]

i got one yester day for 8400 /-
in white
looks awesome
and yeah great review
GPS is awesome

[saurabhpatel]

Have you installed quick office in it?
Can we use qwerty option while editing documents in QO?
Pls reply soon I've to buy it in a day or two....

[sujoyp]

yes we can use qwerty in quickoffice to edit document

[nmenon]

Today (16/04/2010), I had the first opportunity to put the GPS Navigation to use (had to go to my University, MG University in Kottayam, Kerala), The drive navigation was reasonably accurate on highways but a bit off on the smaller roads. It gave me all the correct directions nevertheless so, I can't complain. A-GPS mode gives the best performance, the data usage was only about 200kb so that was also within limits. Total time was about 6hrs of navigation which meant that the battery life took a beating left with 2 bars out of 7 on the 3rd day after charging.

[PraKs]

@nmenon
You said 200kb, that means U used GPS with GPRS

Why dont you try without GPRS. 5230 should be able to locate you directly using satellite. GPRS is not required.


Use it & give the feedback

[saurabhpatel]

got the phone 2day....
can't wait for 2:AM for BSNL net to get unlimited and download the maps

[nmenon]

I did use the GPS without GPRS on my 5230, the main problem os getting a GPS fix that takes about 5-7 min ( I live in Kerala: lots of trees around most roads) and its easy to lose the connection. When the satellite connection is through the performance is good and reasonably accurate. Using GPS with GPRS is better for places where the satellite connection is a bit dodgy.

I also updated the phone's software to Version V 20.0.005 released on 23/03/2010.
It has shown an increase in speed of the menu animation and the newer Maps application is a bit faster to load and the guidance is a bit more detailed even without the 103MB map of India which I got only yesterday(11/05/2010)

[i_am_crack]

Looks like the cost has gone down a lot.. I was offered for 7.3K but i am still confused with 5800...May be some more time.

eBro

[nmenon]

If you need the Wifi and a Video call cam you're better off with the 5800. The package of the 5800 is pretty good with the memory card and cable coming with it. The 3G on the 5230 is good for net usage only.

[Pravas]

I own One...and this is excellent review

[nmenon]

I got Airtel's 1 month unlimited GPRS connection this month. With the SW update the built in browser renders most pages without a hiccup and browsing is quite smooth, most of the full websites load and run well, flash occasionally gives issues but otherwise browsing on the phone is a nice experience.

[sujoyp]

Yesterday My cousin sis bought this Mobile and she was soo angry

previously she had N73....she found it useless..complaints are- :
1. poorer speakers then N73
2. Poorer camera then N73
3. Very delicate
4. Signal quality is poorer then N73

Just liked the high res screen...she might change it in some days

[desiibond]

nice review.

[nmenon]

Originally Posted by sujoyp

Yesterday My cousin sis bought this Mobile and she was soo angry

previously she had N73....she found it useless..complaints are- :
1. poorer speakers then N73
2. Poorer camera then N73
3. Very delicate
4. Signal quality is poorer then N73

Just liked the high res screen...she might change it in some days

Actually the 5800 would have been the step up from the N73. So sorry to hear that your cousin did not like the 5230. The 5230 is a bit of a step down from the N73 the camera and mono loudspeaker being the major letdowns.

[sujoyp]

Originally Posted by nmenon

Actually the 5800 would have been the step up from the N73. So sorry to hear that your cousin did not like the 5230. The 5230 is a bit of a step down from the N73 the camera and mono loudspeaker being the major letdowns.

Actually she should have got N79 instead...it would have been a upgrade from N73...but again sound of n79 is not that loud

[Cool Buddy]

Some things have changed, I bought the phone today for 7500. It comes with 2GB memory card, small data cable & a car stand (not useful for me).

[funkysourav]

Originally Posted by PraKs

@nmenon
You said 200kb, that means U used GPS with GPRS

Why dont you try without GPRS. 5230 should be able to locate you directly using satellite. GPRS is not required.


Use it & give the feedback

how to configure 5230 to use gps without gprs?
i didnt know that 5230 could locate the user directly from satellite?

[PraKs]

Disable access to GPRS

Go out in open then start map.

It should be able to fix the position in 2 - 3 minutes.

[shivam007]

@nmenon good review. even am considering to go for this..waiting for diwali..may be get good offers

[the_souvik]

You might not get one. This phone is already out of stock. Nokia is keen on selling 5235 and so this market strategy. I got one after months of exploring.

[shivam007]

i compared 5235 and 5230 they are an identical copy (just an increased internal memory in the 5235) but that doesn't give them a fair reason to sell the 5235 at 1.5k more than the 5230
that's very silly of nokia

[the_souvik]

Originally Posted by shivam007

i compared 5235 and 5230 they are an identical copy (just an increased internal memory in the 5235) but that doesn't give them a fair reason to sell the 5235 at 1.5k more than the 5230
that's very silly of nokia

They both have identical internal memory because we get the asia version which does not have increased memory.The price difference is for unlimited ovi music .

[shivam007]

@the_souvik forum nokia device details page said about the increased internal memory in 5235

[nmenon]

Recently installed the 15 day trial of SPB mobile shell from the Ovi Store. Makes the UI beautiful. You get 3-5 customizable home-screens, with various widgets, like battery, connectivity, a beautiful digital/analogue clock, weather, incoming call/sms/email notifications which can be placed any where on the screen. The home screen also rotates unlike the standard S60 v5 screen. You also get a carousel for various home screens and other screens (i.e Contacts, Apps, etc.). This makes the phone's UI look like a non symbian phone (read HTC like interface, the poor mans HTC if you please )

Using Tata DoCoMo in my 5230 now. I've got the conventional internet pack (Rs. 48 2GB, 1 month) With local towers switching over to 3G/3.5G (as shown on the phone's signal strength bar) I occassionally get download speeds of upto 130KB/s (Kilo Bytes) which gives amazing browsing speeds too with heavy pages loading almost instantly on the phone and pc (modem). I was surprised when I saw the speed initially, but these speeds are consistent whenever the 3.5G icon shows up on the screen.

[kool]

I'm very happy with my Nokia 5230 which i bought 15 days ago for Rs.7000 with 2GB card free. By the way, Guys.. now My 2GB card is almost full, so tell me 4GB or 8GB will be good or not? As some ppl says that it get hang using big memory card.