[Facebook Touch For Nokia 5230
Demi Kemmeries
The Nokia 5230 breaks new ground for Nokia by being one of their first S60 handsets that has significant reach into the low-end of the market. Available to buy unlocked for under 100 (if you shop around), and packaged up for T-Mobile in the US as a $70 contract or $180 pre-pay handset (locked to the network, admittedly), the 5230 packs almost all the features you would expect to see in a smartphone but at a price point that is, frankly, bonkers.... in a good way.
The biggest omission, and one that smartphone purists will raise an eyebrow over, is the lack of WiFi for Internet connectivity. It's not that long ago that the addition of Wi-fi was a bonus feature, but the modern ubiquity in handsets has meant it feels more like a default option. So when you're used to paying 300 or more for a smartphone, of course you'd expect it to be in the handset.
But it's not missed, and I don't think the target market really expects it. The last two weeks have seen me tour round America with this handset for All About Symbian (Ewan's recent travels with the Nokia 5230: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6), and you'll have seen that, thanks to the 3G connectivity, you can do everything you need from a handset. A 100MB data plan will cover the basics of web, email and social networks, while a 250MB plan is going to leave you buckets of bandwidth to experiment with.
Something has to give to get to this price point, and no matter what you might think from the specification sheet, in the real world you can live without the WiFi and live on 3G, assuming you have connectivity where you live and work.
Running S60 5th Edition, the 5230 packs the standard Nokia applications, so you have the Web-kit based browser, which continues to do a competent job in bringing as much of a web site to the handset as possible. It has not really changed over the last year or so, and handles the modern web with ease. Having a touchscreen device makes browsing much more intuitive, from scrolling around the screen with a flick of the finger (the 5230 has kinetic scrolling in most menus and applications) to selecting links.
This is mostly down to the TFT technology used in the screen, and is of a similar quality to many other Nokia touchscreen phones (the N97 classic is the only exception). There's more than enough brightness when indoors or in the sort of weather that Scotland has, but sunnier climates will need to find a shadow during the noon sun to see what's going on. This is made doubly difficult by the themes Nokia have put in the 5230. All of them are white text on a black background (the only change between them is the background image on the main screen and the colour of the cursor highlights), which is the exact opposite of what you need in strong sunlight. Whoops.
If you have an existing microUSB cable, then you can use this to make a connection to your PC, but if this is your first peripheral with that connection, then you'll either have to buy the cable separately or connect using Bluetooth - to keep the cost down, Nokia have not put a USB cable in the retail box. This isn't as crippling as it first appears, partly because of the number of USB cables in circulation (either around your house or in the local electronics shop) but also because Bluetooth and Ovi Suite work very well together if your computer is Bluetooth-enabled.
What is in the box is the by now standard eco-charger, which draws as little power as possible, a basic hands-free and headphones combination, and a guitar pick on a bit of string that's the MacGyvered solution to the lack of any space in the 5230's case to store a pointer. To be honest, this is more of a hassle to use, so after about ten minutes I ditched the pick and resorted to the nail on my finger.
And after another thirty minutes, I flipped the finger over and used a nice fat index finger. And the 5230 was sharp enough to work out where I was tapping my finger in the vast majority of cases. Unlike previous touchscreen devices on various platforms, the need for a stylus is much reduced on the 5230. Partly down to the OS being smart enough to decide what is meant to be be pressed, but also because the 5230 screen to very responsive to a light press, so you can get away with a little bit of pressure. The level required is very comfortable, and over the first few days I was conscious of trying to use less and less pressure to activate the screen.
It's not as light a touch as on a capacitive-screened device such as the Nokia X6, but there's not that much to choose between the thresholds. Does the 5230 lose points for being a resistive touchscreen? Only between geeks who study spec sheets. In the real world, it's a touchscreen that works, and arguably the fact a stylus and your finger works could be seen as a plus point in a crowded budget market.
It's not pretty. With the 5230 only having a standard load of applications there's not that much cruft in here, and everything's purpose is clear, but the UI could do with a spring clean. This is of course something that Nokia and Symbian are aware of, with Symbian^3 due in the later half of 2010, but that doesn't address any of the concerns of the consumers buying phones now.
If you wanted to be vicious, you could argue that computers are hard to use and as such need this complex interface to ensure everything you want to do can be done on the small screen. S60, for a new user, even on a phone like the 5230 with the basic software bundle from Nokia, needs some time and needs some dedication to learn. If you get over this hump, then S60 is one of the most powerful mobile OS/UI combinations around. Unfortunately, it takes time to get there and phones with simpler UIs (cough... the iPhone) have a much shallower learning curve which rewards playing around. That's graceful. S60 is the dependable builder on a German construction site in the 80s.
You can get good results out of the camera, as long as you remember to make sure to use settings that give the best look and you take account of the lighting (or so I'm told). This is doubly important on the 5230 as the camera does not have a flash. Outdoor and well lit indoor pictures should not cause too much of a problem, but night time shots are going to be little more than grainy keepsakes.
And once you're through that door then the chances of you using the other Ovi Services are much increased. I've already mentioned the Ovi Store for more applications and themes for the device, but the other two biggies are the Music Store and Ovi Maps.
Nokia's Music Store efforts never seem to get the press that they deserve - they've pulled off negotiations with all the major labels and numerous smaller Indie labels to get the into the store. You can get albums or individual tracks at the same price as other online stores, and it's available on the handset, or on your home computer, seamlessly. You want some music? There's a good chance you can get it through your phone or onto your phone in just a few steps. That it just works and sits there is a testament to how simple and effective an idea it is.
There's only a mono speaker on the 5230, so if you want to listen to music in a room, as opposed to using headphones (via the 3.5 mm audio port), you'll be transported back to the sixties. Being honest, once you step a little bit away from the phone you wouldn't get any stereo effect in any case, so this is one of those sacrifices that hits the spec sheet but not the practical use.
Which brings up the last missing piece of the equation, at least in the regular retail box. The 5230 only comes with 70MB or so of storage on the C: disk, and while there is space for a microSD card to be added, Nokia aren't shipping one as standard. Without this extra storage, music, maps, pictures and video will be fighting over an ever-decreasing amount of storage. To make best use of the 5230, you will need to get a microSD card of some description.
Buy the handset from a network operator and I'd expect to see one in the bundle, witness yesterday's offer from T-Mobile that included six months of data and an 8GB microSD card. The addition of a decent sized card and a sensible data plan turns the 5230 into a highly competitive package. You can pick up 8GB microSD cards from around 15 online.
So the 5230 is currently an anomaly in Nokia's line up. It's missing some key features that have been on all the recent S60 phones, yet if you give it a fair chance, you'll be rewarded with a nice nippy smartphone in your pocket. In the long term view, I think this is destined to be Nokia's entry level touch-based smartphone. If you move up a little bit higher, models are available with Wifi substituted for the GPS (Nokia 5530), or even the 5800 that has WiFi, GPS, and the improved camera lens from Carl-Zeiss. So everything in a nice, stepped progression.
You need a good first step though, and there's no doubt that the 5230 is exactly that. The power users may view it with disdain, but this isn't S60 with stabilisers, it's a perfectly priced entry level smartphone.
The latest addition in the Nokia touch phone portfolio, the Nokia 5230, is designed for those who lead an active life and use their mobile phone as their primary instrument for music, photos and videos, as well as sharing their lives online.
With the Nokia 5230, consumers can get new content, be it songs from the Nokia Music Store or apps, games, videos and other services from the Ovi Store, directly from their phones. The solutions offering is complemented by A-GPS navigation and the latest version of Ovi Maps with aerial images, 3D landmarks for over 200 cities and terrain map views for pedestrian and drive navigation.
"Competitively priced at 149 EUR, we believe the Nokia 5230 is an unbeatable offer for many new customers who aspire a device that stars in music, mingles with social networks from Facebook to MySpace, navigates you to where it happens, when it happens, and comes in an array of dazzling colors, " said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia.
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