Indians are known for their attachment towards Nokia. Whatever be the category, most of them prefer going for Nokia than any other. Nokias have been replacing the Blackberrys with the E Series and SE-Cybershots with the evergrowing N Series. Now, there’s a new kid on the block who has got his younger brother along, too. The Nokia 5230. It’s all touch, YES! Everybody wants a touch screen phone these days. A school kid owns a Corby whereas an entrepreneur owns an iPhone. The new Nokias 5230 is priced around Rs.8000 in the market and have been doing well. Nokia has entered this segment with their new products. They could have done this a bit earlier, though.
The Nokia 5230 comes with 3G [HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps].
Appearance.
The 5230 looks just as its elder brother, the Nokia 5800. It’s the same height and the same thickness, but weighs 6gms more than the 5800.
5230, Features
|] 2 megapixel camera.
|] GPS with A-GPS support.
|] NO WLAN.(Wi-fi)
|] NO Secondary camera for Video Calling.
|] FM Radio, Bluetooth and a 3.5mm Audio Jack.
User Interface.
If you’ve used the Nokia 5800 and feel you can skip reading this section since the 5230 phone is a cut down version of the 5800, HOLD ON. The dimensions and the hardware of this phone are same as the Nokia 5800’s but the UI is very ahead of the 5800.This one features a scrollable Contacts bar on the homepage , a full QWERTY keyboard in the landscape mode and Kinetic Scrolling. Everything else is just Nokia, TYPICAL NOKIA. If You press and hold the menu button, the “Open applications” bar pops up or if you want to go back to the Homescreen, you press the “red” button.
Three buttons on the front, one for the camera on the right along with a volume control, one on the top for Power and none on its left. There’s the Green, Menu and the Red button on the front. Come on, you know what those three buttons are for! You have to open a small lid on the top to get to the microUSB port to connect your cable which might get a bit irritating when used frequently. The phone also got the proximity sensor, which was proven useful in the 5800. You take your phone to your ear during a call and the screen blackouts itself. You want to mute that incoming call, you just got to turn it upside down. Quite Simple, Isn’t it?
The GPS.
It’s got GPS in it, steals the party again. With Nokia making its turn-by-turn Voice guided navigation free recently, one could travel wherever he wanted to, all day long with his 5230.
There are a lot of Samsungs invading the touchscreen market in India. The Corby is priced along with the 5230 and is quite popular for the ‘chic’ design and color profile. The Samsung Star 2G is another phone in this category. Both of these do NOT feature GPS and their UI has beem complained of sluggishness and irresponsible behaviour many times,Hope Samsung is hearing!
To sum it up, it’s another product from the Nokias which is hitting the Indian population exactly. If only it featured Wi-fi, I would get one too, as my secondary phone. The lack of 3G and good data plans in our country is stopping me from buying it now. Those who wanted a new Nokia with touchscreen but couldn’t afford the 5800 and would not use the internet too much, now have an option.
The 5230’s game has already begun.
Let’s sit back, watch it play.