The Nokia 5230 and the Nokia 5530 are music-oriented devices, and being Nokia handsets they’ve inevitably take some influence from the 8 million selling Nokia 5800. The Nokia 5530 has been around for a couple of months now and is proving a popular handset for anyone with just £100 (inc. VAT) to spend. We're expecting the Nokai 5230 in the New Year and may cost even less. But how to they stack up? Find out with Nokia 5230 versus Nokia 5530 sta clash...
Both the Nokia 5230 and the Nokia 5530 are more “entry-level” than the Nokia 5800, and therefore designed to offer the same great smartphone capabilities to users, just without the same price tag. In essence, these devices are ideally suited to first-time smartphone users looking to combine music and social networking. However for your money, which device is the best, as both have their strong points. In order to settle this matter, it calls for a stat clash: Nokia 5230 versus Nokia 5530:
Check out the Nokia 5230 Hands-on
Display
Both devices are remarkably similar in this respect, as both feature TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors, 360 x 640 pixels, proximity sensor for auto turn-off, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, and handwriting recognition. In terms of the devices displays, the only thing that separates them is size - the 5530 is 2.9-inches and the 5230 is 3.2-inches. So, in this sense it is entirely up to the user: do you prefer a slightly larger screen, or not? Unfortunately for the 5530, we do prefer a larger a screen, so in this sense the Nokia 5230 is the winner, but only just.
Storage
Obviously on a music-oriented device storage is important - how else are you expected to transport your music and videos around? And thankfully both devices feature ample storage, which means whether to go with the 5530 or the 5230, you can rest-assured that you’ll always have ample space for quite an extensive media collection. However, in a stat-clash, there can only be one winner, and this time it has to be the Nokia 5530, which has 70MB of internal storage and 128MB SDRAM, as well as a card slot which can handle up to 16GB, with 4GB included. Compare this to the 70MB of internal storage on the 5230 and 16GB card slot and it’s a close, but unanimous, victory for the Nokia 5530
Battery Life
If your using your phone quite a lot, you’ll want it to have a good battery life as there’s nothing worse than your battery dying - and it always seems to happen just when you need it the most! However, both the Nokia 5230 and the Nokia 5530 feature very impressive battery life meaning you’ll never be caught short with either device. However, overall the Nokia 5230 does have significantly longer talk-time of 7 hours compared to the 5530’s 4 hours, as well as longer music play back of up to 33 hours, compared to 27 hours on the 5530
Camera
When it comes to cameras, unfortunately there’s only ever one device in it, and that device is the Nokia 5530, which boasts a 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, as well as LED flash. Compare this to the Nokia 5230 and its 2-Megapixel camera (1600 x 1200 pixels) and there really is no competition.
Features
Both devices are absolutely loaded with features, such as Document Viewer (Word/Excel/PowerPoint) as well as T9, and Photo editor. However, the Nokia 5530 does have the option for a TV out-mode, which means you can hook it up to your television set, and this is something we quite like, so features wise, it has to be another Nokia 5530 victory.
Overall, the Nokia 5530 is the better phone, in terms of stats, as it has more memory, a better camera, and better features. However, both devices are essentially very similar - so which ever one you decide to go for, there won’t be much difference between the experience one affords you over the other. But in the cruel world of stat-clashes there can only be one winner, and this time it is the Nokia 5530.