This is a detailed review of Nokia 5233. I hope it will help you decide whether to buy this phone or not:)
I’ll comment on different aspects and features of this phone.
1.Looks and build quality(6/10):The phone looks okay though it is a bit heavy and and it is wider than other touchscreen phones in the market(for same price). The build quality is okay and it can handle drops .
2.Screen(8/10):The Screen is a big plus for this phone! Better than the competition and it has a resolution of 640X360 which makes it look very crisp.Unfortunately the display washes out and it is barely visible under direct sunlight(but I can live with that).
3.User Interface(7/10):The Symbian s60 interface on touch screen phones is not very user friendly.:(You have to single tap in menus and double tap in lists which is bothersome(Its fine for non-touch phones but you really need to change that in touch phones)The interface in not very fast but not slow either. I would say it is acceptably fast.
4.Touch sensitivity(7/10):It is good for a resisitive type touch screen and definitely better than Corby pro/plus or cookie:)I think it is durable too but that only time can tell:)
5.Music quality(9/10):It is simply Awesome through the earphones:) Better than Corby Pro(which itself has great audio quality but 5233 outperforms it!)And yea. Throw the stock earphones that come with the phone. They are terrible and don’t do any justice to the phone. Grab Sony MDR-EX35lp earphones(Rs990) and you’ll be amazed with the quality:)
6.Video player(8/10):It can run Mp4 videos upto resolution of 640X480 and videos look awesome on its display. They are very crisp and clear.
7.Camera(7/10):It has a 2MP camera but the cam is one of the best 2MP camera(I can upload sample pics if needed)It is very fast and response times are great.The videos quality is also good. It can shoot videos at 30FPS which is not common with phones with this price range.Most of the phones shoot at 15fps which ain;t as smooth as 30fps:)
8.Battery life(9/10): This phone has very good battery life. On default settings it comfortably lasts 2 days. With some modified settings it gives me a battery backup of 3-3.5 days which is simply amazing!
9.LoudSpeaker(5/10):Loudspeaker of 5233 is not so loud and quality is bad. This is one drawback of this phone. You’ll are likely to miss some calls as it doesn’t rings so loudly:(But since you are getting so many good features for this price we can live with low volume loudspeaker.
10.Connectivity:The phone has good connectivity to the network and most of the time you’ll see full 7 bars of signal. Call quality is also good.
11.Web Access(6/10):Since this phone is not 3G, make sure accessing web is not your high priority. It takes some time to open webpages(though they look stunning on the big display!)But the in-built Facebook app is fast enough.
12.Multi-Tasking(7/10):This feature is a big-big plus point of Nokia 5233! I Surf facebook, Reply to smses, Listen to music all at the same time!(Calculator is also running 24X7 in the background.) It lets you switch over apps without actually closing them. Instead they run in the background just like a PC!
- Texting(8/10):The on-screen alphanumeric keypad has very big buttons and it is a pleasure to use. You can type very fast(With tT9 and in english). When you tilt the phone you can see the QWERTY keypad which is very useful jab aapko hindi mai messages type karne ho!But if you have big/fat fingers you might not type so accurately on the qwerty as you might press adjacent buttons. If you have big nails then it is fine;) You can also use stylus for typing in qwerty mode which makes typing faster and easier.But Don’t expect to get the same speed you can get with a physical qwerty keypad with the on screen qwerty.
Other thoughts:
-UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE OF THE PHONE SOON AS YOU BUY IT!(v21 available through nokia software updater is much more stable and faster than the default v12 firmware that comes pre-installed with the phone)
-Haptic feedback(small vibration everytime you press the screen) and the Screen itself are the power hog! If you are a heavy texter like me then disabling haptic feedback(or using silent or Meeting profile mode) will help battery run longer.
-Set Lights turn off time to 15 sec will help you save battery life significantly!(default is 45 seconds)
-Pletrum stylus is useless. But you can give it to your gf. She will surely like it;)