Monthly Archives: June 2010

Nokia is aiming at every segment of the mobile phone market currently and you can buy a Nokia branded phone for less than £5 or more than £500. From budget models to high-end smartphones and everything in between, it has every angle covered, but it doesn’t succeed with every phone. Some of the smartphone are lacklustre at best and some of the budget phones are too simplistic or poorly made for even the lightest of users. If you are prepared to spend a measly £60 on the Nokia 7230 you start to realise that budget does not necessarily mean bad and that’s what I did.

My wife decided that she has had enough of smartphones and wanted something simple that she could throw in a bad and use for voice, texts and navigation. She did not want a touch screen device again and was rather taken with the 7230’s design and so we picked one up to see how it performed.

Specs wise the 7230 does well for the price point; 3G support, 3.2 Megapixel camera, social networking portals built-in, GPS capable, 395 hours standby, FM radio and everything else you would expect from an S40 powered phone. It’s not a smartphone of course, but like every other mobile phone of today, it can do what your PDA did a few years back with ease.

The 7230 looks a lot more expensive than its price, but a quick hold suggests that the materials are not the best available. However, the design makes it pleasing to hold and the cheaper materials help deliver a phone that is very light at only 100 grams.

The use of a sliding mechanism also means that you get a largish screen (2.4” at 240×320 pixels) and a bigger keyboard. It reminds me of some of the Nokia fashion phones from a couple of years ago, but with a sense of more seriousness in the presentation. Needless to say my wife chose not to buy the pink version…

All in all the design of the 7230 is pretty smart and practical and the price means that even the lower quality materials are not a huge concern because you can actually use it without having to worry about damage too much.

The screen is surprisingly viewable in bright conditions and this adds to the practicality. It isn’t Super AMOLED of course, but being non touch means that it is easy to use on the sunniest of days. Throw in great call quality and a speaker phone that is loud and clear enough to use in noisy conditions and we are left with a phone that is practical enough for the vast majority of people.

On the software side there is the usual S40 bundle which includes basic calendar and contacts apps and a selection of social networking apps plus a few trial games to get you started. The Ovi Store is of course included alongside Nokia Maps and there is now quite a varied selection of apps available which will suit those not looking for a top class gaming experience or multiple apps to do multiple things. On a phone like the 7230, the convoluted S40 menu system is strangely a bonus because it hides a lot of the apps behind folders. Most people will use this phone as a phone (how strange?) and thus having the apps hidden makes quick use feel more natural.

Data entry is not too bad considering you are limited to T9 and standard number keys. There is a lot to be said for this older form factor and my wife is proof of that. Give her a standard keyboard and she will fly through text messaging much quicker than she ever could with a touch screen smartphone. I would like the keys to be more pronounced because they are slightly too flush for people with large fingers, but she manages well with long nails so maybe there is method in the madness.

On the navigation side, Nokia lists the phone as GPS capable which is somewhat misleading. You need to use a GPS receiver with it to enable full navigation and this is not something that most 7230 users would even consider. Nokia Maps is pre-installed and ‘appears’ to be free. At first we received a 3 day trial offer and are waiting to see what follows- I have no way to activate the full setup and it is not clear from the Nokia sites as to if it is free or not. You could argue that I should know if I am writing a review of the phone, but I would argue that I have checked multiple sites and that the average user will also be confused by this. I will update this part when I find out.

Fortunately I had a key ring Bluetooth GPS receiver handy and this works very well with the 7230. Nokia Maps is also much better than I remember it and feels like a capable navigator these days. The fact that it is free on many phones can make some of the lower priced Nokia phones value for money for that alone.  Using a separate GPS receiver is not ideal and feels like a backward step, but you can buy these key ring ones for under £20 now and they last forever on one charge. I don’t see this setup as restrictive and the navigation side has been one of the highlights of the 7230 so far.

The small battery in the 7230 was an immediate cause for concern, but it has performed very well so far and I would expect 2-3 days of normal usage (at least) from one charge. This is the final practical benefit that the 7230 offers and so we are left with a phone that doesn’t pretend to deliver the world, but which does deliver in almost every area a feature phone should. The camera is decidedly average, as you may expect, and many of the bundled titles feel out of place compared to the core apps, but I am left liking the 7230 a lot. It does not stand out at all and will sell in limited numbers, but I can think of few phones that offer so much for such a small amount of money. This is Nokia’s area and long may it continue to push the boundaries of what is possible at such a low price point.