Nokia C5-03

NOKIA C5-03 REVIEW

The Nokia C5-03 is the successor to the highly popular Nokia 5230 and is a mid-range smartphone. Physically the phone looks and feels very much like the 5230. It's slightly smaller and lighter, but retains a 3.2 inch screen as well as 3 buttons below. The screen is exactly the same as in the 5230 and is the same size as the similarly-priced HTC Wildfire S. It's a small size for a phone of this price, and being resistive rather than capacitive it does take a bit of poking to make it respond sometimes. Now the 5230 was released a whole year before the C5-03, so we were anticipating some significant improvements in the C5-03. But it seems that time is standing still at Nokia. There's little improvement, and some things have actually gone backward. Most gobsmackingly awful is the fact that the C5-03 still uses Symbian Series 60. It's slow, it's unresponsive, it crashes if there's an "r" in the month or a "d" in the day and in combination with the cheap and nasty resistive screen makes for an unpleasant user experience. The camera has been upgraded to 5 megapixels, but there's still no flash or autofocus. Whilst the aGPS with Ovi Maps goes some way to redeeming the phone, the paltry 40MB of built-in memory and the lack of even video calling makes it look like Nokia are taking the micky with this phone. They're even quoting an extraordinary battery standby of 25 days. Considering that it's powered by a less-than-impressive 1000 mAh battery, we think it'll be more likely to average a few days in the real world. The C5-03 is another uninspired Nokia smartphone running the old Symbian operating system. With its unresponsive resistive touchscreen, poor camera with fixed focus, no flash and lack of adequate memory, it serves as a sad example of everything that's gone wrong with Nokia. Available in Graphite and Green. The Nokia C5-03 is an ill-advised combination of outdated software and underperforming hardware. There are much better midrange phones available, for less money.

SPECIFICATION & FEATURES

NOKIA C5-03 PRICE

Price in USA $132

Price in UK £97

Price in EURO €100

Price in PAK Rs.15,000

Price in INDIA Rs.7,990