Nokia C5
There are simply so few smartphones on the conventional candybar form factor these days that it becomes a welcome respite when you see one. The Nokia C5 is one and it’s not surprising it comes from the world’s number one handset maker as it has had a tradition of making Symbian smartphones in this form like the popular 6600 handset a few years back.
Sporting a rather tall-looking but elegant body measuring 112 x 46 x 12.3 mm with a lightweight 89.3 grams, the C5 is aimed at the social networking crowd wanting a full-featured smartphone but with a more wallet-friendly SIM-free price of €135 before taxes and subsidies. It even gets a 2 GB microSD card as part of its sales kit as well as free GPS navigation.
Upscale Features up Close
The social networking nod begins with a phonebook feature that lets you see your most SNS comrades together with other contacts and opens up your online SHS communication right from the phonebook.
It comes with a GPS receiver and Ovi maps that allow you to find and share your precise location with your Facebook pals. Its homescreen can show three of your most favorite SNS friends for quick calling, messaging and SNS updating. The handset also supports online media file sharing sites like Picasa, Flickr and YouTube and it’s Ovi Store lets you download the apps and media files you need
Under the hood, the C5 gets an ARM 11 engine clocked at 600 MHz running the Symbian S60 v3.2 platform. It’s a 3G phone on the dual band UMTS radio and a 2G phone on the quad band GSM. Data connectivity comes with class 32 GPRS/EDGE on 2G and high speed HSDPA at 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA at 2 Mbps that makes your surfing, downloading and social networking a no-wait online experience.
You just won’t be able to catch up with your SNS pals at the mall’s hotspots as it has no WiFi but you still benefit high speed local data transfers and syncing via Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 for wireless and wired options.
A slim and narrow body on the C5 only has room for a smallish 2.2 inch TFT LCD screen with the minimum QVGA resolution standard and 16 million colors typical of many Symbian candybars. It comes with an average 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera with LED flash, a modest VGA video recording at 15fps and a secondary front-facing video call camera.
Its entertainment features starts with the now mandatory FM stereo radio with RDS and capable media playback support for audio files in the MP3, WAV, eAAC+ and WMA format as well as video files in the MP4, H.264 and H.263 codecs.
You can listen to music with its built-in IHF stereo speakers; go with your favorite high fidelity headphones via a standard 3.5mm AV jack or go wireless with its Bluetooth A2DP support.
The Nokia C5 gets 50 MB with 128 MB RAM of onboard memory you can expand with its microSD support for up to 16GB. You get a very generous 12 hours of talk time and 26 days on standby using its standard 1050 mAh Li-Ion battery when fully charged. You can find the best Nokia C5 deals at Moby1. They are the best place to compare mobile phone deals in the UK and they can also help you to pick a phone by reading many informative mobile phone reviews.