Nokia 5200

...many problems caused by my Nokia 8310 which is getting pretty old really -- so I thought why not buy a new phone to replace it. Having my Nokia 8310 on Tesco Mobile (cheapest network around!!), I thought I should buy a new phone directly from a nearby Tesco store.

I'd gone to the Tesco Mobile website (www.TescoMobile.com) and looked through the extensive selection of phones available and saw this one. Did a bit of research about it ...
...~

The Nokia 5200 mobile phone has a built-in MP3 Player which allows you to play both .mp3 and .aac file formats, possibly even some other file formats too. Whilst the MP3 Player itself is really simple to use, the only real problem is that the screen has a scroll feature which scrolls the current artist if it's too long to fit in the space. This scrolling is rather annoying because it's not exactly very easy to read as it scrolls ... more

OK so I've had enough with the many problems caused by my Nokia 8310 which is getting pretty old really -- so I thought why not buy a new phone to replace it. Having my Nokia 8310 on Tesco Mobile (cheapest network around!!), I thought I should buy a new phone directly from a nearby Tesco store.

I'd gone to the Tesco Mobile website (www.TescoMobile.com) and looked through the extensive selection of phones available and saw this one. Did a bit of research about it and decided that I'd buy it at the price of £79.97 (a.k.a: £80.00) which I have now done. Mine is blue in colour which is rather interesting because the main part of the Tesco logo is also blue!

So, here's a few details about the phone;

- Built-In VGA Camera.
- Built-In FM Radio.
- Built-In MP3 Player.
- Bluetooth & Infrared.
- WAP / GPRS connections.
- 2.5mm Headphone socket.
- Dedicated camera/video access button and controls.

Now I'm going to go into sections about the phone itself.

~ Camera / Video ~

- Camera

I knew before I brought the phone that the Camera was only VGA quality, which basically means it's a pathetic 0.3 Megapixels!! As an example of how crap it is, I took a photo of myself (face only) and although the viewfinder on the screen showed it as awesome quality, it ended up looking utterly terrible!! It sort of turns all grainy on you once you've actually taken the image so of course it'll look terrible on a computer screen.

Also, when I connected the phone to my computer I found that the image was quite small in size and didn't improve in quality.

This camera doesn't even have night mode so isn't very good for night-time shots .... and of course there is no flash either! That said, there is a mirror next-to the camera lense which is somewhat useful although it's rather crude.

I guess that the only good things about the camera are that it's got a zoom-bar instead of a "x?" zoom and so you can set the zoom level exactly how you want it instead of preset zoom levels. Additionally, being such a poor quality, you can take tonnes of photos which would have small file sizes. I got a 256mb memory card with this phone and I could store over 17700 (but under 18000) photos on it -- if the card is almost empty.

- Video

Although I haven't fully tested the video out on this phone, I'm getting the odd feeling that the video player is better quality than my other phone's 1.3megapixel camera for video useage. It looks better quality anyway.

The great thing about the video is that you can zoom in which can of course have it advantages ... although this is only digital zoom, not optical zoom. This zoom feature uses the same zoom-bar that the camera uses, so makes it easy to use.

Another great feature with the video is that you can pause capture and re-start from the moment you paused it -- this is obviously a great feature and is really useful when needed.

The video does also record sound which again can be useful.

- Camera quick-access button.

On the rear half of the phone (the bit that doesn't slide up and the same bit with the keypad on it) to the right hand size, just at the bottom of the blue strip going around the middle, there's a camera button. This button isn't your standard type of button..instead it's like a small square shaped area with curvy-corners and it's like slightly raised up along the edges of this button but the inside area is like lower down. Confused? Basically, imaging a key on your keyboard but it's slightly indented in the middle of it.

To access the camera (when the keys are unlocked), you simply press this button once really quickly and the screen will become the view-finder.

or

To access the video (when the keys are unlocked), you simply press & hold this same button until the video recorder opens -- which is pretty clever.

Once either Video or Camera is opened, you can press and hold the same button again to either take a photo or begin recording the video.

Plus, with the camera you can press the button to take the photo, then whilst viewing the photo, press it again to return straight back-to the camera and then take another photo with the same button. With the video, if you press the button whilst recording, you'll pause recording and you can do it yet again to continue recording.

- Zoom

Using the + and - buttons located on the right-hand size of the phone (above the camera button, still within the blue-strip area) you can zoom in or out whilst using either Camera or Video. You don't have to use these buttons as you can also use the RIGHT navigation key or the LEFT navigation key to either zoom in or out respectively. The idea being that you do this whilst holding the phone in landscape, hence why it's like this.

- Slider

Whilst you're using either Camera or Video, you can slide open or close the phone as required, without effecting the phone or image or anything (i.e: camera / video will still be active).

- Switching

It's really easy to switch between the Camera or Video, simply press the directional button down.

~ Games ~

I'm not fully sure whether or not this phone has Java but it's still got some good games.

- Canal Control

You're given a level in which you'll find two pipes -- one start and one end. You're also given a selection of pieces which you've got to place in the order in which they're given to you, so if you're given a straight piece then you've got to place somewhere on that current level. Either place them somewhere along the actual pipe that you're building or just 'dump' them somewhere else out of the way. The longer the pipe you build, the more points you'll earn. This is because the water flows a longer route through more sections of piping. However, you have a limited area in which to place the pipe pieces, something like a 6x7 (ALONGxDOWN) so about 42 squared in total, minus 2 for the start and end pieces.

- Other games

There are some other games that you get with this phone however, since I've now taken this phone back and gotten a refund, I can no longer remember what other games there were.

~ MP3 Player ~

The Nokia 5200 mobile phone has a built-in MP3 Player which allows you to play both .mp3 and .aac file formats, possibly even some other file formats too. Whilst the MP3 Player itself is really simple to use, the only real problem is that the screen has a scroll feature which scrolls the current artist if it's too long to fit in the space. This scrolling is rather annoying because it's not exactly very easy to read as it scrolls pretty fast and isn't very clear! In-terms of creating a playlist/tracklist, you can go through and select via All Tracks, Artist, Genre, Album, Song and maybe some other options too. This can be pretty useful for many things.

~ FM Radio ~

The Nokia 5200 mobile phone has a built-in FM Radio, but this requires a suitable wired headset to be plugged into the phone's 2.5mm socket to work. The reason for this is that the wire on the headset actually works as the aerial to pick-up the radio signal. This FM Radio is pretty simple to use and thankfully doesn't take a degree in Nokia phones to use. It even comes with an auto-scan feature that will scan for available radio stations locally and show you what it's found -- however this doesn't seem to work so well when needed.

~ Charger ~

For some stupid reason, Nokia have totally changed the charger design for this phone and many other phones in their range (i.e: Nokia 6280, Nokia 6300). If I've read correctly somewhere, this new charger plug/socket is only 2mm wide which is totally different from the original size of roughly 4mm on the standard phones (i.e: Nokia 8310 or Nokia 6310i). This is totally stupid as those who may be using a Nokia phone with both the old and new style chargers may find it annoying to have to carry around two different chargers! However, Nokia have recently-ish brought out a special adapter (which basically consits of a small section of wire) which allows you to plugin an original sized Nokia charger which can then be plugged into a Nokia phone with the new smaller desiged socket. I know someone with a Nokia 6300 who brought this adapter for just £5.99!

~ Memory ~

The phone has a decent level of in-built memory included with it but thankfully Nokia have had some sense and they've included a Micro SD card slot. To access this slot, all you have to do is remove the back cover of the phone and then it's there for you to access ... you don't need to remove the battery at all!

~ All things considered ~

Not really a bad phone if you're looking for something simple to use with some handy features. However, if you're planning to take a lot of pictures and expect good quality, I highly suggest that you don't buy this phone as your pictures will be of terrible quality. Plus, the price of this phone is a bit high considering the camera quality!

PLEASE NOTE: I cannot currently add anything more to this review as I've recently returned this product to the place of purchase and exchanged it for a better phone, that being the Sony Ericsson K750i. If I think of anything more to add to this review, I shall do so. 

...less