Nokia 5230

I physically sigh when I realise it’s that time of year again where I have to upgrade to another phone. I feel like these days it’s as important a decision as re-mortgaging. It seems that every other day there is a new phone with new capabilities and I end up feeling like an over the hill and out of date old fogey than the 30 something that I am.

Mr E is frequently breaking and destroying phones due to the fact he works on building sites and I have therefore only got friends and work colleagues to keep updated about what is in and hip (Christ almighty did I just say that?). So after realising that 90% of the people I know are plugged into the latest I-Phone or smart phone which I seem to have some phobia about, I realised I was on my own.

Is my phone smart?

Now I am by no means stupid but sometimes I feel like I don’t know what mobile phone companies are harping on about. After a bit of research I discovered that a smart phone is exactly that, smart. They seem to have more capabilities as ‘normal’ phones and many of them have added features such as touch screen, social networking and media players. I knew that an I-Phone was a no no for me and to be truthful I was sceptical about getting a touch screen at all but relented when I say this Nokia 5230. I have always liked Nokia as they are pretty simple and easy to use. I figured that I could upgrade with no cost to me (always a bonus) and that I would manage to get some nifty little features in addition to this.

The Basics

The Nokia 5230 is a reasonable size at 111 x 51 x 15 mm and weighs in at only 115 grams. This for me is the perfect size, not too light and little that I lose it, and nowhere near brick proportions. The screen itself is pretty big too (360 x 640) and it is a quad band phone meaning you can use the phone on most continents including America. It’s actually a smart looking phone and comes in both black and white although the covers are not interchangeable.

Music

There seems to be quite a lot of features available for the music player side of this phone although I admit I don’t use it. You can have dedicated music keys and can playback MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC and WMA file formats. There is also an FM radio (always handy when you run out of something to read). Nokia also comes pre-loaded with Nokia Ovi Player which again I can’t comment on as I haven’t used it.

Camera/Video

As always it seems that cameras and video quality gets better the more phones get released. This Nokia has a 2 megapixel camera with 3x digital zoom as well as a photo editor built in. The picture quality is very good with the few limited photos that I have taken. It certainly won’t replace my usual camera but is handy when you are out and about and haven’t brought your phone with you. The video recorder is 640 x 480 pixels and up to 30 fps (with a TV of high quality) and decreases for the type of output you are using. The video also has the added bonus of both automatic and night scenes as well as colour tones of normal, black and white, vivid and negative.

Web Browsing

It seems that it doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing you have to have the capability to access the internet, at least that what it seems like. This phone has the usual web support mark up languages of HTML, XHTML and WML. It also has a Nokia search and surprisingly integrated GPS. There are also some handy shortcuts already set on your home menu for links to the likes of Facebook and Ebay. I have used it very occasionally and can’t complain at any aspect of it. It was very straightforward to use and the download speeds were pretty good too.

Menu

The Menu screen is easy to change to whatever style you like. You can choose to have a screen full of little shortcut widgets or a list, or like me have nothing but a small shortcut bar at the bottom of your favourite or most used add-ons. Like nearly all Nokia’s the menus are easy to navigate with basic menu choices such as; Calendar, Internet, Contacts, Call Log, Messaging, Gallery, Music, Settings, Applications and Help.

Messaging

The messaging side is again straightforward although it takes some getting used to having a touch screen rather than hard keys. Thankfully the screen is big enough that even those less nimble than others should be able to manage a text message. You also have the capability to set up, send and receive email.

Other Bits

Well you have a memory card slot so you can essentially use a storage card to increase its memory should you want to use it more for music or photos. It has Bluetooth version 2, a micro USB connector, flight mode feature, automatic switching between GSM bands, integrated hands-free speakerphone, vibrating alert and probably many more which I have forgotten to mention

Cost

I upgraded for free and I am on Orange, however when searching around this phone seems to be available on all the networks. If you want to buy the phone on Pay as You Go then you can from around £90 plus top up although shopping around would be the
best bet as phones are always being reduced.

The Drop Test

In my house it makes no difference how great the capability it, or how many features there are. The most important things are that it stands the test of time in a home where phones are just that, phones. Neither me nor my husband care what the extras are, they are merely there for killing time if we are bored. Essentially phones have to live up to the drop test (and with a husband who is averaging 8 phones a year it’s quite important). I have had the phone for nearly three months and so far it has survived the following.

Test 1: Being dropped over the balcony in my block of flats (I live on the top floor) whilst I was trying and failing to open the front door. It dropped two floors hitting the banisters on the way down but miraculously had not a mark on it?

Test 2: My husband being slightly worse for wear and stepping on it in work boots. Small scratch on the back of the case but otherwise unharmed.

Test 3: Whilst throwing a ball to hubby at football on a Sunday morning I inadvertently threw my phone too so a football boot at high velocity! The phone gained another scratch at the side of the phone, but no marks otherwise.

Negatives

If I am being honest I had to actually try and think of some. I can truly only think of one and that is that when you send a text message you have to touch type the text and instead of there being a direct ‘send’ button you have to go to the options choice at the bottom of the screen and choose from the menu to send it. Aside from this there have been no issues with it at all.

Overall

Okay so you can all see I am certainly not one for judging a phone by its capabilities more by its practicalities. In this sense the phone is perfect. I get great reception; texting is easy as is taking photos. It certainly stands up to the durability test which is a godsend for me and in addition to this the battery life is outstanding. I think for a free upgrade phone I have ended up with a smart looking and durable phone that I think would have most accessories to please the majority of people.