Nokia 5230 Full Review
Nokia is busy announcing new products this quarter. First, Nokia booklet 3G and now the cheapest Nokia touchscreen, 5230 came as a surprise without any leaks and rumors. Nokia 5230 belongs to the low mid-range category and is ready to give a tough competition to Samsung Star and LG KP500.
Video Review -

Nokia 5230 Features/ Pros/Advantages -
- 3.2 inch , 360x640 pixels display with 16.7 Million Colors
- 3G for high speed internet connectivity
- Accelerometer and proximity Sensor
- Excellent Audio quality
- Powerful processor for fast operations and sufficient RAM for multitasking
- Long lasting battery providing Nonstop 33 hrs Music Playback
- Best value for money touchsreen smartphone ever released
Nokia 5230 Cons/Disadvantages -
- Doesn’t belong to XpressMusic Series (Mono Speaker)
- Same old 5800 design with added weight(115g)
- Lacks Wifi
- Inferior camera as compared to 5530 and 5800
- No TV Output
Difference between Nokia 5800 and 5230 -
- Weight -- Nokia 5800 is slightly lighter than 5230. Nokia 5800 weighs 109 g, whereas 5230 weighs 115 g.
- Volume - Nokia 5230 is more compact. Its body volume is 78 cc as compared to 83 cc of 5800.

- Plectrum Stylus
- Stylus - Nokia 5230 lacks Stylus slot, so there is no Stylus in sales package. However, a Plectrum Stylus is included as shown above.
- Thickness -- Nokia 5230 is slimmer. It is 14.5 mm thick whereas 5800 has a thickness of 15.5 mm.
- Wifi -- Nokia 5230 lacks Wifi
- User Interface -- Nokia 5230 has more polished user interface with new homescreen and Kinetic scrolling which is a cool feature. 5800 is supposed to have this feature in future firmware update. Watch 5230 Kinetic scrolling in above video.
- Camera -- 5230 has a fixed focus 2MP camera without flash, wheras 5800 has 3.2 MP Autofocus Camera with Dual LED Flash. Both of them have same, DVD quality video recording with frame rate of 30 fps.
- Music through headphones -- Nokia 5800 belongs to XpressMusic range so you may think that it offers better audio quality than 5230.Thats not true, Nokia 5230 sound quality is comparable to iPhone 3GS. Its quite surprising, but Gsmarena has done the Nokia 5230 audio test and found that it is no way behind in the music department in comparison to 5530 and 5800 XpressMusic.
- Speakers -- Nokia 5230 offers mediocre sound quality through speakers as it has Mono speaker whereas 5800 has Stereo Speakers.
- Memory- No memory card in 5230 sales package whereas 5800 comes with 8GB micro SD card.
- Xpress-on Covers in Sales Package - Nokia 5230 comes with 2 spare battery covers in the sales package. However, it is not confirmed whether it’ll ship with Xpress-on covers or not. The sales package may vary region-wise.
Rest of the features of 5230 are same as 5800. Check the specifications below to know all features present in Nokia 5230.
Specifications -
| Model No | Nokia 5230 |
| Form Factor | Candybar |
| Frequency | 1800/1900/850/900 |
| Dimensions | 111x51.7x14.5 mm |
| Weight | 115 g |
| Volume | 78 cc |
| Display | Touchscreen, 3.2 inch, 360x640 |
| with 16:9 Aspect Ratio | |
| Keypad | Virtual QWERTY keyboard |
| Additional Keys | Camera Key, Volume Key, |
| Menu Key, Call + Call End Keys. | |
| Operating System | Symbian OS v9.4 S60v5 |
| Java | MIDP 2.0 |
| Flash Player | Flash Lite 3.0 |
| CPU | 434 Mhz |
| RAM | 128 MB |
| Internal Memory | 70 MB |
| Memory Card | Expandable up to 16 GB |
| Accelerometer | Yes |
| Proximity Sensor | Yes |
| Camera | 2MP Fixed focus camera with |
| Single LED Flash, 30 fps QVGA video | |
| Image Formats | BMP, EXIF, GIF, JPEG, MBM, PNG |
| Audio Formats | MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC+ WMA. |
| 3.5mm Audio Jack | Yes |
| Video Formats | 3GPP, Flash Video, MP4, RM |
| FM Radio | Stereo FM |
| USB | Micro USB v2.0 |
| Bluetooth | v2.0 with A2DP support |
| GPRS
|
Class 32 |
| EDGE | Class 32 |
| Wifi | No |
| 3G | HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps |
| Web Browser | S60 HTML Web Browser |
| GPS | Yes |
| Email Protocols | IMAP4, POP3, SMTP |
| Document Viewer | Excel, PDF, PPT, Word |
| Games | Roller Coaster |
| DJ Mix Tour | |
| Available Colors | White and Red |
| White and Dark Silver | |
| White and Pink | |
| White and Yellow | |
| White and Blue | |
| Black and Red | |
| Black and Dark Silver | |
| Accessories | Mini Speakers MD-8 |
| Mini Speakers MD-9 | |
| Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-214 | |
| Stereo Headset WH-102 | |
| Battery BL-5J | |
| Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-504 | |
| Stereo Headset WH-500 | |
| Bluetooth Headset BH-103 | |
| Battery | Battery BL-5J (1320 mAh) |
| Talk Time | Up to 7 hrs |
| Standby Time | Up to 18 days |
| Music Playback Time | Up to 33 Hrs |
| Video Playback Time | Up to 4-6 hours (MP4 ) |
Sales Package -
Nokia 5230
Charger AC-8
Battery BL-5J (1320 mAh)
Stereo Headset WH-102
Plectrum Stylus CP-306
Xpress-on Covers
User Guide
Competitors -
Samsung Star 3G, LG KP500
Price -
The expected price of Nokia 5230 is €149=$213=Rs10000
Release Date -
Nokia 5230 is expected to release in 4th quarter this year.
Conclusion -
You won’t get a touchscreen smartphone cheaper than Nokia 5230 offering high end features such as 3G, GPS and 30 fps video recording. So, if you are on a tight budget and can’t afford Nokia 5530 or 5800 just wait for this budget touchscreen smartphone. It won’t take long as 4th quarter is already running.
January 18th, 2010 at 7:11 am
u got a v good featured data…n compare. god bless u…! thnx .
January 26th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Apparently the 5230 differs from some regions. In some video’s and pictures I can see there is a stylus inside the phone.
There is clearly a stylus in this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YhKg2pl8c4
January 27th, 2010 at 10:27 am
I know I’ve mentioned it here -
http://nokia5230.com/nokia-5230-pictures/
January 27th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
which games can i play game.over.buddy@gmail.com reply me
January 27th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Very soon I’ll write post on free Nokia 5230 games.Keep visiting for regular updates.
February 16th, 2010 at 4:24 am
Please upload some images of 5230’s music play (white). Is it comaes with many preinstalled themes. I want to buy 5230 , but confused whether to buy white/red or black/red. Please help. Black looks better but its grey border is ugly.
February 21st, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Please update me whether we can do video calling using the main camera or can we at least we video call feeds from others!!
February 24th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Please teel me nokia5230 support Youtube video in webpage.
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:29 am
does 5230 have call recording facility…?
March 8th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Hi..I have bought the Nokia 5230. It is an easy and is a good looking phone. I love the phone as is is good to use and the internet speed is really quick.