Fun phone to play with. Review on Nokia 5230

I have the nokia 5230 and have been using it for nearly 4 months now. before this, I had the samsung star, which is a so-so mobile for mobile enthusiasts like me! now, coming to the nokia 5230, this phone is a partial smartphone! u have the option to multitask, which were initially found only in phones above 15k.

I got this phone for Rs.7500 from a priority dealer in Coimbatore. but, the phone is now available at a price of 6.5k-7k!

Pros of this phone-

1. the processor is very fast for a phone of this price range(clocked at 427mhz or so)

   
   




2. the display is pretty good, though it is barely readable in direct sunlight!

   
   




3. multitasking does its charm. there are no issues with it!

   
   




4. 3g asusual is fast(well, this is not a pro of this phone!)

   
   




5. build quality is very good. there are no squeals or cracks. but, removing or putting back the rear panel of this phone may not inspire much confidence to the user!

   
   




6. hot swappable memory card option is a boon!

   
   




7. camera quality is very nice.

   
   




8. a lot of games are available. as it supports both nokia's(.sis and .sisx) file formats and java formats

   
   




9. even with a fully loaded 8 gig microSD, the phone doesn't lag at all!

   
   




10. paint quality is very good

    
    




11. stylus has been provided and it neatly tucks in it's place in the phone.

    
    

cons of the phone-

1. the speaker volume is too low(but the quality is very good). this issue comes up when u r talkin to sumone in the speakerphone mode

   
   




2. the phone becomes hot very soon(even if u talk for just 15-20 minutes)

   
   




3. the phone is bulky and fat, so, keeping it in a jeans pocket may be a bit difficult(though I like it)!

   
   




4. the earpiece is too small. a bit bigger earpiece would have been better for better volume during conversations.

   
   




5. the phone is not very easy to use for beginners(for beginners, I would suggest the samsung corby or star)- symbian is the problem here!

   
   




6. as I mentioned in the pros section, the rear panel doesn't inspire much confidence!

   
   




7. the camera is only 2MP but the quality is very gud!(but this again justifies it's price tag!)

   
   

this phone is a steal for it's price

i wholeheartedly recommend this phone to all those who have a strict budget of 7-7.5 k who are particular about touchscreen phones! if ur budget is flexible, say upto 9k, then, I would suggest u to take a look at the samsung's galaxy pop which comes with android 2.2, a highly preferred OS.

and for beginners, there's absolutely no harm in taking this phone, but if u r too much of an amateur, then u must take a look at the samsung corby/star. it is better to take a demo of both the phones before buyin one!

i've uploaded some of the photos of my nokia 5230. the pics were taken from my kodak c140! pls read my review on the kodak c140 here-

https://mouthshut.com/review/Kodak-C140-review-tmnmuorlnn

Kaushik