Nokia mobile phones continue to be the market leaders in the industry, and the Nokia 5230 shows why. It ticks all the right boxes – squarely in the cheap mobile phones bracket, you can pick it up for around £78 on a pay as you go deal or free on a £15-a-month contract. As contract mobile phones go, this is exceptionally reasonable and there are plenty of punters out there looking for precisely this kind of deal. But it’s not just the price tag which is appealing.
The touch screen is generously large at 3.2 inches, and the resolution is pretty darned good at 640×360 pixels. Not quite the same size as the iPhone – but you get more pixels on the 5230. Although the touch screen is resistive rather than capacitative, it’s creditably responsive and you get a stylus thrown in to make life easier. There are a few pluses and minuses to consider – whilst the phone does have 3G, it doesn’t have Wi-Fi and although it has an A-GPS receiver, the feeble 2 megapixel camera is, well, pants. But the positives on this entry-level phone outweigh the negatives: it comes with Bluetooth and USB connectivity, and you’ll get download speeds of around 3.6 Mbps with the high-speed HSDPA.
The 5230 doesn’t have stereo speakers, and Nokia have been careful not to brand it as an XpressMusic phone. But you will find an FM player, a 3.5 mm audio jack for ordinary headphones, and a passable music player. You can also expand the phone’s 70 MB memory to 16 GB with a micro-SD card, and the battery life is outstanding. Not quite A star, but definitely above B+.