Nokia 5230 Nuron
Phone Scoop Review
Mar 30, 2010 by Eric M. Zeman
Nokia's Nuron brings S60 5th Edition to T-Mobile. For S60 and T-Mo lovers, it may be worth picking up. It offers solid phone, camera and music experiences, but lags the competition when it comes to messaging and social networking. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
First smart phone-Nokia Nuron. Nice!
I had no intention of buying a smart phone, when I tossed my Motorola Renew into the trash. My goal was to simply get a newer, more reliable device. What I got was a great device, that may be smarter than the user.
After one month of ownership I still find the ease of which this device operates, and the logic of the Symbian OS amazing. I find new tricks/shortcuts all the time. While the OVI Store is smaller than Apple's, I had no problem finding apps that worked, and turned out to be pretty nice.
The GPS is just as accurate and responsive as my dedicated GPS device. Coupled with mobile internet, and I get real time traffic/road construction updates while driving.
Mobile internet on this device is nice too. Where I live (NW Pennsylvania) will be going to T-Mobile 3G first week of June. I had opportunity to try it in a 3G area and the speed is almost as fast as my cable internet at my home.
Call quality is good. Texting is great with either the full QWERTY or T9 options. It came with a stylus (guitar pick?) but I have yet to need it. The camera is real nice, for a phone. Videos are pretty clear too. Only one real negative is that it sometimes strains to get a signal in my house/area. But that may be an issue with tower location in relation to where I live.
PROS:
-Great battery life.
-Sound quality good.
-Loud ringers/speakerphone.
-Easy to operate.
-Bright display.
CONS:
-Prefer glass touch screen (no big deal).
-Strains to get signal.
-Plastic screen is dust magnet.
Overall this is an amazing device. Plus my data plan is a third of other data plans I looked at. I recommend this device highly.
Fantastic Smartphone, On a Budget
I've been a fan of PDA's and smartphones for quite a while - cutting my teeth on Palm devices (started with the Qualcomm/Kyocera 6035); most recently, I've used the BlackBerry Curve 8900. Although I enjoy RIM's BIS service for receiving my Gmail quickly, I don't like the web browsing on the device much at all. Opera Mini is a great browser, but it's still kludgy on BlackBerry. And, it's the web browsing that I found myself using the most.
Enter the Nokia 5230 Nuron... I was thinking of jumping ship from BlackBerry OS to Symbian a while ago, and was looking at either the Nokia E71 or E72 to replace my Curve. With the Nuron's non-contract price of $180, I was able to get a Symbian device outright for only a little more than the original contract price of the Curve 8900!
As for how the phone performs - it runs admirably well. Yes, S60v5 does take a bit of patience to learn, but it's the same with any phone OS when you're new to it. The included browser does a fantastic job of rendering sites, and Opera Mini runs circles around the BBerry browser. The music app is on par with most others, and videos are beautiful when run in widescreen mode. Email and messaging are, again, usable... not BBerry great, but sufficient. Contacts/Calendar and other PIM functions work very well - upcoming appointments and tasks are featured right on the homescreen and are easy to manage.
Of course, the most important feature on the Nuron has to be Ovi Maps. I've used TeleNav on the BBerry, and it's good... but also $10/mth extra. Ovi Maps are absolutely free, voice navigation runs in offline mode when you lose cell signal, positioning is very accurate, and... FREE!
All in all, the Nuron is an amazing value for a touchscreen smartphone. Low price, along with only $10/mth for 3G data (try touching that on BBerry or Android!) make it a great way to keep connected. I'd recommend this phone to pretty much anyone!
The Nokia Nuron Rocks!!!
Who ever gave this device a bad review really didn't study the device thoroughly!!!! i have had this device for over a day now and i must say off rip that this is one of the best smart phones t-mobile has to offer! sure it has no wifi, however this devices packs a mighty punch (especially for the price which is the lowest srp i have ever seen for a smart phone!!!)
Pros:
1. 7-8 hours of battery life (that is if you charge the device for about 4 hours on the first charge)
2. the Nokia OVI app store (it may not be the android app market but it works!!!)
3. speed, i don't have 3g coverage in my area but this phone can still process web data very quickly (faster than the sidekick 2008 and lx 2009)
4. customizable ring-tones!!! (if you have mp3 music or any music stored on your SD card you can set them as ring-tones!)
5. I.M. services are great and you can operate all of them at the same time.
6. Email services are great on this device.
7. Text messaging is a breeze on this phone.
8. the device is 100% customizable (wallpaper, ring-tones and themes)
9. Camera and video recorder. the camera is the best 2 mega-pixel camera i have ever saw at this point and the video recorder is in HD and there is no limited space (it all depends on the size of the card!!!)
and finally THE PRICE!!! It's only 179.99 and with it being pretty top notch, it's a steal!!!
Cons: i really don't have anything bad to say about the device except for the fact that the device feels a bit light!!! but it feels pretty good in hand!!!
I would definitely recommend this device to everyone!!! t-mobile and nokia is on a run!!!
Not worth it
Had this for 2 months now. Its software has failed twice, once frying the micro SD card as well. I owned a Nokia 6820 before this, and find the Symbian menu structure of this Nuron cumbersome and annoying. Cannot brighten or dim the screen without going through the menu, which is useless when you can't see the screen in the first place. Response time to touching is slow, so I have to wait a second to even dial a number. I tried to download apps to use it as a smartphone, but with the software problems, I don't trust it to perform. Now I can't even use basic internet to check email, since it started malfunctioning. I don't care much about the maps function, but even using that did not compete with a dedicated GPS...it loses signal even in a car, let alone indoors. I do like the FM radio, but it's hardly worth it just for that. The touch screen sometimes doesn't respond. To dial a contact from your list, you have to select each letter individually instead of having the QWERTY keyboard available, which is super annoying. Texting even takes longer because selecting the contact is time-consuming. If you want a smartphone, I guess you could try this, although again the software is not stable. If you want a PHONE that happens to allow you to check email and Facebook, don't get this one. Yuck...I hate it.
Almost like a SMARTPHONE
So I almost bought the G2 over this phone. I am weary of touch screens but this one was sensitive and you dont have to peck on it! It has APPS and all these great programs like my blackberry with out the 29.99 data package! I LOVE THIS PHONE! I am so satisfied with it and I bought it out right. It is slinder and light weight. SOund is excellent! It is about time Nokia came back out into the light!
Enjoying the Nuron
I've had this phone for 2 weeks, and the more I use it, the more I enjoy it. The size is comfortable, the battery life is better than any other phones I've had, it is easy to access and change between camera and video recorder, setting calendar entries is easy, the alarms are easy to set up, and as someone that previously struggled with texting, this phone has been real easy for me to use. The only thing I don't like is that the standard ringtones are not to my taste. That is a minor complaint, compared with how easy this phone is to use. This one is definitely a keeper!
Excellent Phone!
This phone rocks! I was little apprehensive about buying this phone at first. Everywhere I read "professional reviews" of this phone it was dogged as not being an iphone or a droid. And it isn't, but that does not make it bad phone. Reception is excellent, call quality awesome. I live in the Dallas area and have never had less than all 7 bars of 3G except once, in the most interior room of my house. Videos and pictures are super sharp, the extras pixels really show themselves here! The touch screen is super sensitive and easy to use. I have big hands and fat fingers and in landscape mode with the full Qwerty I have no problem finding the right keys. Of course it took me a few days messing around with it to be accurate, but what touchscreen isn't that way? I have had no problem with any bugs, slow downs, or crashes. Battery life is awesome! With moderate internet usage, including downloads and email I am still able to get 2 full days of use on 1 charge. No iphone can touch that! I have noticed that occasionally when switching from portrait to landscape the phone does take a second or two to flip. To me it is a non-issue, some may be annoyed by it. If you are switching from an iphone or droid this phone is not for you. If you are new to the smartphone/touchscreen market and don't need all the heavy lifting it's competitors offer this phone is for you. I would recommend this to anyone, and have already. Great phone Nokia!
I love this phone. Nokia does it again...
I've been a fan of Nokia since the late 90's. My first was a basic Nokia bar phone that was the best phone I've ever had! The call quality was amazing, it sounded like I was on my landline. Also, I dropped it several times and it worked better than before I damaged it! (NOKIA MAKES DURABLE PRODUCTS) I did switch to a motorola razor, which I've had for almost 2 yrs until I seen the Nokia Nuron. Me being a big fan of Nokia products, I did a lot of research on this phone, also read many customer reviews of this device and they were all positive! $(SOLD)$ I've upgraded to the Nuron and couldn't sleep the first night, I tossed & turned all night long thinking about this phone. This phone is amazing! I read somewhere that having to press certain buttons twice is annoying, I happen to disagree! It's SO easy to press the wrong button with this phone, I think Nokia did a great job making some features require double presses! I'd have to say this phone is amazing for me, wanted something more up to date, and this phone had brought me up with the times. Now my friends can stop making fun of my phone! I love it!
Cons:
-Alarm ringers aren't loud enough
-Contact's Photos are small like *myfave* thumbnails.
-The lag in the physical menu screen
-NOT ENOUGH INFO IN THE OWNER'S MANUAL
I'd still give this phone 5 Stars! Love it!
~ChanelPhone
yes... a smartphone without a plan
although there are alot of smartphones out there. the majority of people do not want to pay $30 for data. the best feature about this phone is that tmobile will allow you to get the data plan for $10 a month (highly recommended). which gives you access to anything that you would have access to on a smartphone.
unfourtunalty the functionality of the phone is a little sluggish and sometimes weird and confusing in the messaging area but like all nokia's it takes a little time to learn and after the learning curve nothing is annoying
great phone
