Nokia 5230

How much would you pay for a Nokia touchscreen phone with a 3.2" display, GPS and 3.5G support? You would think that it might be quite expensive.. but you'd be wrong, because the new Nokia 5230 is priced at just €149 before tax and subsidy.

There are a few compromises to get the handset down to this price, but what is really surprising is just how many features are included. It's much cheaper than the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and even the new Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, but it is still competitive with both of those devices.

The display is a 3.2" 640 x 360 pixel touch-sensitive panel, almost identical to that on the 5800. The 5230 comes with A-GPS and Ovi Maps 3.0, you should be able to use it with Google Maps too if you want. The 5230 also supports dual-band UMTS and HSDPA with a maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps. Media playback is pretty comprehensive, and there's a 3.5mm audio socket too. Because this is a Symbian S60 smartphone, then there is a wide range of software available to download, plus a useful built-in web browser, email client and even support for Microsoft Exchange.

The camera is only a 2 megapixel unit when it comes to stills photos, but it can record video at up to 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second which is very good. The Nokia 5230 also lacks WiFi connectivity, but that would be asking a lot for a phone of this price.

The large 1320 mAh battery is meant to drive the 5230 for up to 4.3 hours talktime and 19 days standby time on 3G, and the size and weight are very similar to that of the existing 5800.

Memory on the Nokia 5230 is expandable up to 16GB, although there's no memory card in the standard sales package. There is a stereo wired headset included in the box, but at this price don't expect any other extras on top of that.

If the 5800 is too expensive for you, and you don't need WiFi and can manage with a fairly basic stills camera then the 5230 looks like an excellent choice. The inclusion of Exchange support along with a reasonable battery life could make this an interesting option for business users too.

Nokia say that the 5230 should be available during Q4 2009 in a wide variety of colours, priced at €149 SIM-free before tax. There will also be a "Comes with Music" version priced at €259 which comes with an unlimited music download subscription.