Straight Talk, The Nokia 5233 Review

The Nokia 5233 is simply the best entry level touchscreen phone at the moment. There is no other phone that can challenge its usefulness, built quality and value.

Here is why:

1. The phone got a high end User Interface and Operating System, the Symbian^1 that can be found on expensive phones and do most of the stuffs it does differentiating only on few features like the Homescreen.

2. The phone is packed into a manageable built that can still withstand regular use with a little bit of caution. Cover it with a plastic jelly case that can be brought for a penny and you will be comfortable enough using it.

3. On technical side, the phone has a stable version of Symbian^1, it doesn’t hang like the early versions, it doesn’t have bugs and it got added perks like the flick scroll.

4. The phone Display is pretty neat, 3.2 inches with 360 by 640 pixel and supports 16Million color resolution. No other entry level phone has this, other competing phones has either reduce screen size that makes touch interface intricate, or reduce color resolution making it dull.

5. The phone is socially connected, throw every popular social networking application on it and it can deliver everything you want it to do, Tweet, Facebook Chat, Skype or even Foursquare. It doesn’t have GPS support but it can impressively point my location wherever I could be. It can even identify my location better than on my Nokia N82 on Foursquare. Gravity is awesome in the device with all the side swipe gestures just like the big leagues can.

6. As I mentioned on my First impression article, the phone doesn’t have 3G or WIFI but connectivity via EDGE is outstanding. It uploads web pages faster compare to my N82 given the fact that the phone has a wider screen.

7. It can capture fair images in well lit areas. (Sample image inset)

8. Battery was very good, it would hardly worn out of power for a day even on strenuous used. I have like EDGE connection all day long plus regular phone usage like Calls and SMS but I still get 2-3 bars left at the end of the day. The most with minimal use, 3 days I would say.

9. Entertainment support is very decent, it has the standard Symbian Music player that can play MP3, WMA, WAV, eAAC+ files, Video Player that can play MP4, H.264, files, FLV (youTube) with its flash support except DivX and Xvid which cannot be played smoothly even with the newly added Symbian^1 application DivX player. It lags and stutters making it unpleasant to watch, must have something to do with the CPU.

The best way to view this video codecs, convert them to Real Player videos which has by the way a free converter, just install Real Player to your PC and your ready to go.

10. Micro SD card slot is present that could support up to 4GB, most of the phones with this price doesn’t even have SD cards.

11. 3.5mm audio jack which is very rare on budget phones specially that most of them have reduce size and dimension that the manufacturers would rather squeeze in smaller connectors just to complement its size.

12. The phones price is dead cheap. At the moment, I can be brought for PhP6,000-6,400 and even lower on direct retailers.

Disadvantages of the phone:

1. No 3G
2. No WIFI
3. 2MP camera with No Flash
4. No GPS support
5. No Secondary camera for video call
6. Camcorder is bad (15 frames per second) but at least it can
7. Virtual QWERTY keyboard is not that good.

Must Buy for:

1. New adoptors of touchscreen devices
2. Students
3. Professionals with tight budget (like me!)
4. Individuals who want a plain decent phone.
5. Individuals who don’t want to charge phones often.
6. Individuals who are socially connected on a budget.

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