Customer Reviews

Nokia Nuron 5230 Phone, Frost White (T-Mobile)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

A lot of reviews on the web have rated this phone pretty low (like Engadget) which I think is extremely unfair because they're comparing the capabilities of this phone to other high end Smart Phones like the iPhone, Droid or Nexus One. If you take the approach that this phone isn't meant to compete directly with the latest Android, iPhone, or Blackberry phones, you'll find that the Nokia Nuron fits in nicely and affordably between your basic call and text only phone and the high end phones mentioned above. There's a lot to like -

First, the price. The main appeal of the Nuron is that it's far cheaper on or off contract then other smart phones. From T-Mobile it's $69.99 or $179.99, and even better if you're buying from Amazon where the phone is only 1 penny. In addition, unlike your Blackberry, Android, or Windows Mobile data plans that run you $30, the Nuron is able to take advantage of the $10 web2go plan. Not only does this mean a lower cost of entry, but also a lower cost of total ownership. Over a 2 year contract, that's a savings of $240 which is pretty significant, for a phone that gives you much of the same capabilities as those other options.

All of the major capabilities of a smart phone are here, including internet access and real web browsing (including the ability to run Flash), receive email, a 3G connection, built in free GPS, and a number of applications available for free or purchase from Nokia and other sites online. Having used the phone for a few days, for a casual user that doesn't need constant email and web access or a gigantic touch screen display, the Nokia fits great and all of these features have worked as well as I expected.

There are some minor cons with the phone though. For one, the low price comes at a cost of a better camera and the lack of WiFi. The camera is disappointing, because Nokia has the model 5800 series that has a 3.2 MP camera with flash, while the 5230/Nuron only has a 2 MP camera and no flash. For those who are hoping for something better to take pictures with, this certainly won't replace your point and click digital camera. The lack of WiFi isn't a big deal for me, only because I don't really need regular data access and I live in an area where 3G is available readily. I don't have any complaints, but for those that want to sit in a coffee shop and connect wirelessly on their as the lounge around, it might be an issue.

The other minor quirks are probably due to the fairly old OS that the Nuron runs off. The Symbian S60 V5 is fairly old, and has seen numerous revisions as it adapted to touch screen displays, meaning it isn't quite as responsive as the operating systems built from the ground up like the iPhone or Android. Still, I had no issues using the touch screen, and it felt very responsive and dialing or texting was accurate. I have some small quirks with the accelerometer when tilting the phone for landscape view, but the complaints i've seen online about having a resistive touch screen versus capacitive haven't really been apparent to me. I've been able to navigate the phone with ease, having made calls and sent texts with very few mistakes due to the touch screen.

All in all, obviously an iPhone or Nexus One user wouldn't revert back to something like this, but for someone looking for a cheap phone for some basic web access, GPS for maps and directions, and checking email or IM's, this phone fits the need very well at a low cost. I really can't complain, especially given the big savings in data plans alone.

This is my first touch screen nokia phone and i've had it for 2 days. The screen is nice and bright although viewing it outside in sunlight is washed out. The touch screen is responsive and you have to put pressure when pressing for it to accept but you get a feedback buzz of sorts to let you know that you pressed a button. The screen only measures about 3.2 inches so it's a bit small for the gps function. The main selling point for this phone is the gps function. Unlike the telnav program which costs money, the ovi maps by nokia are free and free for the life of the phone. You can download the map updates and other countries too for free. If you didn't buy the unlimited web package, then turn the gps-internet connection off. The gps functions work without it since it is built to be a standalone gps that also happens to be a phone. At this moment the computer map transfer to the phone is not supported which is a pain since you need to then use the data connection to download and update maps. I'm sure they are working on it. The nokia ovi app store is small but nice. It's not as developed as apple or others since its new. There are many free apps as well as paid ones. With the nokia ovi site, you can back up your contacts, calendar and files. The user interface in the main menu might be confusing to someone who may not have used the symbian interface before. You could say it's not easily intuitive but it makes sense. Some functions require a double tap while other require a single tap to open things. Also some pages you can scroll by touching anywhere on the screen while some have to touch the scroll bar on the side to scroll which is annoying. There is an accelerometer in the phone so you can type qwerty in landscape which makes entering text easy. I have larger woman's hands and thicker fingers and I can 95% of the time type on the screen correctly. I've also never used a touch screen device until now too. The only page that won't go into the landscape mode is the home page. The voice and sound quality is very nice although when at the max volume on speaker it gets cracky and tinny. There is a media button atop the right side of the phone which gives quick access to the radio, music player and image gallery. The 2.0 mp camera is okay. It should be higher but for the price of the phone it's not bad. The pictures come out pretty decent and it also shoots video. The regular signal bars are almost at full and I live in 3G zones: boston. However having said that, the aquisition of the 3G is not as often as one would expect. In downloading something the other night, it ran with edge instead of 3G most of the time. That is much slower than 3G. So hopefully there would be some sort of update to the phone or network for this problem. The overall design of the phone is comfortable in the hand. Larger men's hands may find it too small. The phone angles back towards a v shape making very comfortable to hold. It's lightweight and fairly well constructed and fits in my jeans pocket. There is a lock screen button on the side to keep from butt-dailing. Overall this is a nice phone for someone looking for a touchscreen, music player, camera, international and gps for cheap. It is worth the few dollars to buy this phone.
Overview:
Pros:
1. Free gps maps for the life of the phone
2. touch screen with feedback touch
3. accelerometer for landscape and qwerty typing
4. use of gps independent of the carrier data line
5. price

Cons:
1. User interface learning curve
2. Inconsistent page interactions
3. Low megapixel camera
4. screen on the smaller size.
5. 3G signal is not consistent

Seems the opinions regarding this phone vary considerably, and I think I can see why. The Nokia Nuron sits in a very unique position, and depending on your needs and expectations, it either fits very well or very poorly. As a phone, it's basically fine - but then, aren't they all? As a semi-smartphone, it can runs various apps, download new ones, and do all sorts of things a "regular" phone can't. Maybe not as much as some smartphones, but not a huge difference - until one considers data access. That's where users will see a real difference - for better or for worse - between this and whatever other phone they might currently be using or considering.

If you're on a regular monthly fee plan and are already accustomed to paying for full time data access on a smartphone, the Nuron will probably be cheaper month to month - only $10 instead of $20-$30 for data (because it's not officially considered a smartphone). But you'll probably be aware of how much you're giving up compared to a more sophisticated phone, which other reviews have pointed out. No WiFi, Symbian is less familiar to most people in the US, some apps you might expect to be available aren't, etc. And if you're already paying for data access anyhow, the free Ovi Maps that doesn't require a data connection is not going to be a huge selling point, since Google Maps will work just as well for you. So it will be a tough call for most on a monthly fee plan as to whether this phone makes sense - pay a bit less, get a bit less.

However, it's a *very* different story on prepaid. Most prepaid customers are not accustomed to smartphone features in the first place, since no smartphones are normally offered on prepaid. And they are also not accustomed to having data access at all beyond the very limited "T-Zones" service (access to a small handful of pre-determined web sites). The "hourpass" that T-Mobile recently started offering for full Internet access ($0.99 for a continuous hour of service) does not work with most smartphones, so you are normally limited to the basic $40-$60 flip or slider phones sold for prepaid if you want Internet access. And those basic phones typically have very rudimentary web browsers with awkward user interfaces and small, low resolution screens. Paying a buck an hour for that level of pain hardly seems worth it. Overall, the Internet experience normally seems so limited, clumsy, and/or expensive with prepaid that most people probably seldom bother.

The Nokia Nuron is arguably the only affordable device that improves on this situation to the point of offering prepaid customers anything even remotely like the full smartphone experience. Not even considering the data situation, it's a touchscreen phone with plenty of bells and whistles that runs a large variety of apps. This automatically makes it a step up from virtually everything else offered on prepaid. There are quite a few useful apps preloaded - featuring, of course, Ovi Maps, which absolutely *does* work on prepaid. Completely free maps, verbal turn-by-turn driving directions, restaurant listings, and so forth - no access fee of any kind, and it doesn't even require a data connection. Plus of course there are many more apps available for download, greatly expanding on the capabilities of the Nuron over the typical prepaid phone. But just as importantly, the Web browser on the phone is perfectly usable (with Opera Mobile and others freely available as well), making it more worth one's while to explore the data options available than it might seem with most prepaid phones. And it turns out these data options aren't necessarily all that limiting, clumsy, or expensive after all.

First, the free T-Zones service that you can access on prepaid currently offers full time and completely free access to Yahoo. You have to enter the address (m.yahoo.com) manually, but then you can save it as a bookmark, or else install the Yahoo "app" (really just a glorified bookmark). And Yahoo access means email, weather, news, sports, movie listings, and so forth - all completely free. Painful to access on more basic phones, but perfectly usable on the Nuron. Between that and Ovi Maps, that's full time access to a heck of a lot of information - probably most of what most prepaid customers would want most of the time - for free.

Second, the hourpass *does* work with the Nuron to provide full Internet access when desired. That's access to the entire Web for an hour at a time, and it seems to work from the web browser as well as other apps. No, it's not full time data access, so it's expensive for extended use, and sure, WiFi would be nice to get free access in coffeeshops, hotels and so forth. Still, when home or at work, I've got my laptop. And when casually going about town, I've got Yahoo and Ovi Maps for free on my Nuron. I see the hourpass option mostly being useful when traveling, where I might go online only once a day even with my laptop. If my job required constant communication and heavy data use, this might not cut it, but that's not my world. So instead of thinking of the data option as $1/hour that would add up quickly, I really think of this as $1/day and only on the days when I'm traveling sans laptop or are going to be away from my laptop long enough to "need" data access beyond Yahoo and Ovi Maps. People comfortable with paying $60/month or more in order to be constantly plugged in might find that unacceptable, but that's not the typical prepaid customer.

Bottom line numbers here: getting a "smarter" phone and the associated $60/month plan will cost over $700 per year. You'll get full time Internet access and a somewhat nicer phone in other respects, and if that works for you, great. But most prepaid customers are not heavy users at all and are completely unwilling to pay those kind of prices for unlimited access. With the Nuron on prepaid, I estimate I will spend *under $100 per year* operating this phone. Pay as much or as little at a time as you like, but once you've paid $100 into the system, your minutes are good for an entire year, and paying at least $50 at a time gets you rates approaching $0.10/minute. I don't normally spend more than $75 or so per year on minutes, and if I use the hourpass twice a month, that's still under $100 for the year.

If I become someone who uses my mobile phone more, then sure, I expect to pay more, but still, even three times more usage comes out to less than half of what another smartphone on a monthly plan would cost. Worst case scenario is I eventually begin to use the phone as much as others do and switch to a regular monthly fee plan - but even this would cost less with the Nuron than with a "real" (according to T-Mobile) smartphone. And I'd have saved enough along the way to upgrade if I really felt like it.

Note this particular Amazon listing presumably is not valid for prepaid. But the phone is available for $99.99 at Costco, and it can usually be purchased online even if you are not a member, from what I hear. The listing has apparently been appearing and disappearing all year long, so if you look one day and don't see it, try again the next.

Anyhow, if you're a prepaid customer, the Nokia Nuron ends up being an absolutely amazing deal. It's just mind-boggling how much more this phone can do than the basic $40-$60 flip or slider phones, all without costing a cent more month to month, and just $50 more or so up front for the phone itself. And yet, stepping up to another smartphone, and paying the associated monthly fee to use it, means spending many hundreds of dollars more each year. It's up to you of course to decide if full time Internet, a somewhat nicer interface, and with a few more more apps are worth that much to you. But if you're the type of person to whom prepaid appeals in the first place, chances are pretty good you'll answer "no" to that. Free Ovi Maps, Yahoo, and the hourpass option should be enough for an awful lot of people.

A couple of disclaimers. While hourpass definitely does work on the Costco T-Mobile-branded Nuron on prepaid, T-Mobile has been reluctant to say that it is officially supported, and it is known have issues (eg, probably not work) with unlocked versions of the phone. Also, T-Mobile makes no promises regarding which sites are included with the free T-Zones on prepaid. So one cannot be absolutely certain that the hourpass and free Yahoo will continue to be available forever. If those should both be shut down, and no viable alternative appear in their place, that might also prompt one to eventually consider signing up for a regular monthly fee plan - which, again, would be cheaper than with other smartphones. But on the other hand, even sticking with prepaid, I'd still have an extremely nice phone with free Ovi Maps for barely more than the $40-$60 models.

I recently joined T-Mobile, and was looking for a good phone for (1) actual phone calls (with a bluetooth headset); (2) texting; and (3) music. This fit the bill. The free gps/nav system is a nice plus.

This is a basic smartphone using Nokia's symbian operating system. Using the internet or a PC, you can connect to Nokia's "OVI Store" to download apps, update map files, etc. It's no I-phone, but the longer I use it, the more I like it. I basically just wanted a phone, but the non-smart phones seem to be falling behind. Small touches like a hidden off-screen touch point to launch the media player, smooth switching between portrait mode and landscape mode, and other nice interface design add up, and I have ended up really liking this.

There are a few minor annoyances, but I can live with them. In particular, it's a pain that Nokia has a proprietary charging point instead of charging through the micro-USB port that Nokia uses for data connections. The contact book seems limited - you can only store 2 phone numbers per contact, which is a pain when someone has work, mobile and home numbers, and there is no way to assign personalized ring tones. Since it's a smart phone, those issues may be resolvable by getting the right apps, though. The biggest drawback is that there are nowhere NEAR the number of apps for this that you can get for an Android phone or i-phone, but you have to figure you get what you pay for. The phone is thicker than an i-phone and feels a little plasticy, but still fits fine in my pocket. (I invested in a screen protector to cut down on scratches).

As a phone, it's great. Reception and call quality are as good as anything else I've used, and it works well with my Jawbone Icon bluetooth headpiece. Texting is also good - it only took me a day or so to get used to using the virtual qwerty keyboard with my fat fingers, and at this point I can type quickly with few or no misses. The phone defaults included vibration feedback when you type keys, but that was easy to turn off, and also has handwriting recognition. The music and video player is fine but hasn't blown me away. Like most phones, the camera is adequate for spur of the moment shots, but has no flash or optical focus, so I still carry my point and shoot if I think I may need photos.

The nicest surprise is that this phone comes with OVI maps - a decent gps and routing program that is completely free. At least until 60 days go by and I'm eligible to unlock this baby, I'm stuck with T-mobile's map program on the home screen and OVI maps two levels down, but I'll take it. (I am still bitter about Verizon shutting off access to the GPS unit on my last phone, a Blackberry - if the phone has a GPS in it, let me use it!) You can download maps over the USB cable from your PC, so the map program works fine for a cheapskate like me who won't pay for data.

This phone is eligible for T-Mobile's $10 data plan, but I'm cheaper than that, so I just have a phone plan plus texting. There is no wifi, so I use the PC connection to load songs, maps, apps, and videos. Unfortunately, Nokia's OVI store will only download directly to phones over a data connection, so if I want apps, I need to get them from the non-nokia sites. (Grrr! Nokia could at least allow me to download the friken FREEWARE to my PC!)

The screen is not as responsive as an i-phone, but is fine. Instead of a stylus, Nokia included a "plectrum" - a guitar pick thing that you can attach by a lanyard. I've left mine off and just use my fingers or the back of a pen. The scroll bars are occasionally hard to work with my fingers, but I usually get them by the second try.

The phone can take up to 16 GB of memory, and includes a 4 GB chip, which is nice of Nokia and has been adequate so far. (Of course, if you want the street maps for the whole US, that costs 1.4 GB right there, so I may be upgrading my memory soon).

All in all, I'm very pleased. The phone does what I want - makes calls, sends texts with a qwerty keyboard, and does a lot more. A great value for the price.

ETA: More than a year later, I'm still delighted with this phone. It's no iphone, but it's an awesome phone, texting device, mp3 player, and gps, and that's enough.

Also, my favorite accessories so far have been:

- Jawbone ERA Headset: A pricey bluetooth earpiece, but awesome for those who aren't bothered by the fit issues.
- SanDisk 16 GB microSDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDQ-016G (Bulk Packaging): So that I can carry tons of music, video, and maps.
- Accessory Combo For Nokia Nuron 5230: Screen protector, belt case, car charger, and silicone skin.
- Rapid Travel Home Wall Charger (CLA) for Nokia Nuron 5230: The proprietary charging port is enough of a pain that I wanted a second charger for the office.
- Arkon Universal Mount: Good when using this as a car GPS or speakerphone.
- Black Mesh Gym Armband Case Cover for Apple iPhone: Originally bought for an iphone, but great for using this phone as an mp3 player/radio/etc while working out or mowing the lawn.

First things first: If you decide to buy this phone for T-Mobile without a contract, buy it from Costco's online wireless store for $100. Search for it under "prepaid". Of course, the phone works with any plan, it's just being sold as a prepaid. Costco includes a free car charger and a carrying case. Plus the 90 day return policy and 2 year warranty free from Costco are very important.

OK, on to the phone. No, it's no Android, and no, it doesn't have Wi-fi. And if you're on, or intend to be on T-Mobile's pay as you go plan, there's no data plan for this 3G phone! Weird, huh? However, that doesn't mean you can't access the internet - when you try to do so, you'll be informed that you have to "subscribe" for 24 hours at a time for $1.49 total. For me, it's fine. I use this phone for calls and texting, and if I need the 'net on those rare occasions that I don't have my netbook, I'll pay the $1.49. I'm on the unlimited text and pictures plan for $15/month. Talk calls are 10 cents a minute and if I need the internet, that $1.49/day I just wrote about covers it. All in all, it's a very cheap plan for my particular needs.

There's no need for me to go over every feature - you can get the specs elsewhere. So I'll comment on the features I have used.

MP3 player - sound is good through the speaker, sound over headphones/earbuds is very good. I like my music fairly loud, and there really isn't quite enough volume for my Bose headphones, but neither my laptop, netbook, or Creative MP3 player have enough power to drive them either, so no knock there. I just use a cheap little AA battery powered headphone amplifier. I feel no need to carry an MP3 player anymore. There's also an FM radio and a voice recorder.

GPS - yes, it's great and it's free! A genuine GPS receiver is inside, and maps for just about the whole world are available free to install on the SD micro card. You can set the GPS to be assisted by cell towers if you have a data plan, otherwise T-Mobile is strictly uninvolved! Your tax dollars are at work keeping the satellites up there, and this phone lets you use them. This is a major selling point. It is a very nice feature with turn by turn voice navigation.

Touch screen is nice, I never had one before, so I can't compare this one to anything. The Symbian operating system takes some getting used to. My son tells me it's huge in Europe and Asia, and the most commonly used OS in the world for cell phones. Who knew? That said, it is not very intuitive, and the menus seem inexplicably inconsistent. It really takes some time to learn where all the apps are and how to customize them.

The picture viewer works well, allows you to zoom in and out of pix and edit them. The camera at 2MP and a plastic lens cannot be expected to be great. I know this sounds weird, but I think it has to be broken in. The first pictures I took were pretty bad, but they seem to have gotten better and better. There's no flash. The video camera is adequate, esp. with the ability to go 30 FPS. The zoom doesn't seem all that good. For best pictures, using no zoom works well. For taking snapshots and videos, the camera is fine and is a heck of a lot better than nothing. If I need to take excellent pictures, I'll take my Panasonic Lumix along.

There is a virtual QWERTY keyboard that I use my fingernails on and it works quite well. There's also handwriting recognition (which can be trained by the user) which also works well. Requires a little training if you've never used it before.

Battery life is very good, but once the meter starts to show less than a full charge, it goes fast. The GPS runs it down by constantly pinging the satellites, so make sure the GPS is off if you're not using it. Or make sure the phone is plugged in to your car charger (included). The battery recharges in about an hour and a half to two hours.

Voice quality on the phone is very good.

Oh, there is currently a free car navigation mounting kit offer from Nokia - you can find it on Nokia's website. There is also Nokia's OVI app store, where you can download free apps without an internet connection and for no charge (no minutes used).

This is my first smartphone and I'm kind of dazzled by it. But to be sure, it is clearly not a power user's phone since wi-fi is missing. But for a phone with good sound, touch screen, 3G, free GPS, image/video viewer, MP3 player, FM radio, still/video camera, voice recorder, car charger, mounting kit, carrying case, 4 GB SD micro card, and no contract, this is a rather shockingly good bargain for $100 (and free shipping).

Also consider the 5800 xpressmusic with wi-fi, 3.2 MP camera with flash. It's $120 more (sold here on Amazon, not Costco), but it might be worth it if wi-fi is necessary. But beware - it's only 2G and this phone is 3G.

Ask yourself, are you a person who would brag about how great their phone is, or how cheap their plan is? The Nuron is designed and marketed solely for the latter set. It does not have the features of state of the art smartphone like the iPhone or an Android phone, but it costs a whole lot less to operate. This is because T-Mobile classifies the Nuron as a phone-first device rather than a smartphone. Phone-first devices get 3G data service for $10 (the web2go plan, formerly T-zones), while smartphone users must pay $25 per month. That's a huge savings over the life of a two-year contract. Being the type of person who brags about how much they save, I cut costs further by using google voice for my texting, eliminating the need for a text plan.

A second argument for this phone: even if you don't buy a data plan at all, you can still use the Ovi maps feature. This gives you free worldwide maps with turn-by-turn navigation even when "offline." You just need to connect the phone to your computer to download and save maps. No data service required. There is no device, phone or gps, that offers a worldwide gps service that good for the price.

After buying and checking out the Nokia Nuron 5230, I feel it was a worthy purchase. One must judge the Nuron by it's own merits and it's not to be compared with an advanced, "android" cell phone like the iPhone or the HTC HD phone.

The Nuron is more in the category of "quick messaging phone" like the Samsung Impression (AT&T) or the Samsung Highlight (TMobile). But the Nuron is much better than other basic touch screen phones: The Nuron is a great buy due to the FREE preloaded GPS maps capability that other quick messaging phones do NOT have (at least at the time that I wrote this review). One must buy the GPS app on those other quick messaging phones for an extra fee but it is free on the Nuron and again, pre-loaded! Another positive is that you can download lots of apps from Nokia's app store called, Ovi. With many of the other quick messaging phones, you just have a few pre-loaded ones to choose from usually. Also, the Nuron's display has very brilliant, crisp colors and the call quality is very good. Still another BIG plus: TMobile offers a wonderful CHEAP data plan at only $10 per month of unlimited web browsing for the Nuron, & a very low-cost messaging plan option: 300 min's @ $4.99 month!

There are only a few negatives: As others have stated there is a lag between the two visual display modes (either vertical or horizontal). A second negative is that one must single tap on some icons but double tap on others - they should all be opened the same way! A third is the lack of a "capacitative" touch screen that would make it easy to get into an app by a quick touch of ones finger. Instead, one must FIRMLY hit the icon with either one's finger nail or with the "pick" that Nokia provides with the phone. Another slight annoyance is that the encasement is slippery to hold; but getting a rubber gel skin and placing it over the Nuron case will alleviate that problem.

Other than that, the Nuron is everything I was looking for in a reasonably priced touch screen/app friendly/web browsing/& messaging cell phone! I love it!

I bought mine or I should say ours, on a buy one get one free at $70 and then received another $70 worth of accessories, so stayed with that original t-mobile in store deal equivalent of Amazon's 1c that I believe they started March 26.

We just got these, and I haven't had as much time to play with them as these two previous EXCELLENT reviewers have. What I can add at this time is a little perspective as a long time Motorola to Nokia fan. These phones WILL seem a little quirky if you are not used to Nokia, and they ARE, but they are fantastic feature packed phones that are an amazing deal at this price. So I recommend actually READING through the little 20 page booklet first for once, because these will NOT be intuitive in the same way a lot of Motorola and Motorola clones phones run, but you will get it quickly and then you may become somebody like me who knows what they can do.

If Nokia had a better high end unlocked Nokia that ran on T-mobile I would be going that way, but for a penny, I can still toss this in the drawer as a FANTASTIC smart enough phone that doesn't require a data plan. Depending on your usage that is going to save you anywhere from $240 to $360 a year. However, I don't believe that you would be able to fully use the maps or all downloadable features without at least a pay as you go data plan, or more likely the still very reasonable $10 a month plan. If you think that a wi-fi enabled phone is really critical for you then this is NOT your phone, but watch out for those $30 a month data plans FOREVER. The camera takes very good basic pictures, particularly based on its average specs, but if you are looking for a super camera this is NOT your phone.

I was previously a long time Motorola (excellent phones) fan, but 7 years ago picked up a Nokia 3650, first World GSM phone, for fun on a try it for 30 days exchange plan, figuring I would hate the rotary dial and take it back, but play for 30 days with everything else new in 2003 that Motorola was late on, bluetooth, infrared, camera and video. Well I LOVED the phone, kept it, and in fact have three of them that run on this SAME symbian 60 platform. People can call it old, but I would suggest solid and reliable as a better term, and perhaps there are newer and faster systems but I don't know that they are better if you aren't into social networking blur etc etc.

I am so far impressed with the build quality (China) and although I am not expecting 7 years out of these, if you put a good case on them IMMEDIATELY, trust me a good Nokia bounces and holds up. My only real dislike so far is how much the screen washes out (noted above) in bright sunlight. This is easily managed by the way you can cup it in your hand, but here again WE start adapting to the phone. I find it a little small myself, my partner loves it, but it is really growing on me. I like to be able to run a phone one-handed and shove it in my pocket and so far this phone rocks. One of the excellent reviewers above notes a "buzz" or something when you make an entry, and I totally get that but it is actually a little soundless bump or vibrate, and as you can see pretty difficult to describe here but I LIKE it.

I wanted a Nokia X6 but I also wanted to switch from At&T, and T-mobile's G3 won't run on the X6. T-mobile had better get their act together FAST on this one or they will lose even me. The n900 will run on t-mobile's G3 but looks like an early adopter techy trainwreck and I have long ago lost any interest in talking to techs in call centers that know less about a new phone than I do. If you are looking for just a solid phone for a parent for example, the Nokia 3711 just works and has a huge keypad and display numbers on the screen. I got one for my dad free on a $10 extra line, and he LOVES it (and HE is a really hard sell:) I believe they may be at end of life on this overlooked solid flip phone and suddenly hard to find, go figure.

Try it, I am pretty sure that T-mobile STILL gives you the same easy out at 30 days. I am guessing they would certainly switch the phones out but I imagine you could always get out of the entire 30 day contract. So far T-mobile has been great.

This is a GREAT phone... it's compact and yet fully featured. It comes with a GPS which doesn't need a plan, and worldwide maps are free.

pro:
- s60v5 has plenty of useful apps available.. windows live messenger, skype, google maps, fring, etc. dayhand allows you to get an on-screen keyboard just like the iphone that's a lot more accurate and much better than the built in keyboard.
- gps locks on fast
- supports mail for exchange
- you can easily install unicode fonts on the memory card for non-english characters (russian, chinese, etc).

con:
- no wifi -- no UMA.
- loaded with demo-ware.
- default IM application is made by Oz. This app uses SMS, not data, for windows messenger, yahoo, etc. if you don't have an unlimited text plan, you'll get a surprise bill at the end of the month.
- 3G signal isn't consistent... switches to Edge even when sitting at the same location.
- no built-in SIP client like the E series... although fring works just as well.

It's a very fancy phone for the price, but it doesn't work very well if you actually need all of its features. If you mostly just make calls and sometimes browse the Internet, it's a very cool phone.


Here's some really good stuff:

1. The touchscreen is pretty large and has a high resolution for the size.

2. The home screen has 4 permanent shortcut icons, and another 4 which you can change. The
custom shortcuts can be set to any application installed, most menu functions, or any Internet shortcut.

3. The menu system is completely customizable. By default it has a fairly standard arrangement, but you can arrange it any way you want. Not only can the icons be arranged in any order, but you can move icons in and out of different "folder" levels in the menu. I dumped a bunch of stuff I don't need from the main menu into a single folder, and then I moved some item which were buried in the "office" menu up to the top level.

4. It includes a mapping program, and it has real satellite-based GPS (not clumsy tower triangulation). The included browser from Nokia works pretty well with real HTML pages, even though it is still not as good as Opera. The GPS function works with Google Maps as well if you want to use that.

5. This is one of T-Mobile's least-restricted handsets. It can actually run non-T-Mobile applications, so you mostly do own the phone you bought, unlike most of their handsets.


Now for the problems:

1. It runs out of memory easily if multiple applications are used, and sometimes even just 1 application will crash. Applications sometimes just vanish and die when the phone's display auto-rotates, so it's best to just turn off that otherwise-handy feature. Another common theme is crashing if an email notification is played when another application is running.

2. The "menu" on this phone is actually just another application, and the menu is what you need to open in order to switch to another running application, or to close a crashed application. The problem here is that if you are using multiple applications (like Opera or Google maps, with email running in the background) and the phone says it ran out of memory, you don't get an option to choose which application to close. The phone can't open the "menu" (which contains the lame application manager function) without killing one of your applications at random.

3. Especially bad is that the Nuron itself can freeze up entirely when an application crashes, requiring either a power-button reboot, or sometimes removing the battery when the power button doesn't work.

4. There is no consistency in whether an application closes or minimizes. There is no option to choose. Sometimes the end button kills stuff, sometimes it minimizes. Sometimes the phone will kill stuff if you press the menu button.

5. The email client is a strange mix of power and incompetence. Even if you use IMAP, the phone has no setting to tell it that it is supposed to stay connected. This can be mostly overcome by setting it to connect every 5 minutes, and it usually stays connected for a couple minutes until the phone's mysterious application-killing impulse strikes it, so functionally you can sometimes get emails immediately, or it might take up to 5 minutes. It's just a ghetto system. But on the other hand, you can use the IMAP system to connect to multiple email accounts as well as multiple folders within an account. I really have a hard time imagining the person who wants to synchronize 4 different email folders, but also doesn't particularly care whether or not the email system is working at any given time.



One final annoyance, which is not unique to this model but is more of a problem here. T-Mobile has cleverly decided to include a phonebook backup application on most of their phones, which (without asking for your permission) will save your phonebook contacts to the T-Mobile website. It connects automatically. When checking the running applications list, I notice on this particular phone that the "contacts" application will sometimes start up on its own. With this phone being so touchy about running more than one application, the last thing I want is to have T-Mobile's marketing team installing permanent creepy applications which turn on at random.