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The ultra-compact Nokia 700 is due to go on sale in the UK next month, but how does it stack up as an upgrade option to the much-loved Nokia 5230? Let’s look at the two side by side to find out. 

Nokia 700: 10 things you need to know

The Nokia 5230 has been a faithful part of Nokia’s smartphone lineup for two years now, and while it’s certainly slipped down the pecking order as newer, more advanced handsets have been introduced, it still has a fair following.

It was one of the names that featured most prominently when we asked you recently about your secret second Nokia, so it’s clearly been a long-standing favourite.

So the Nokia 700 clearly has big shoes to fill if it’s going to be a worthy upgrade, so how does this new Symbian Belle-powered smartphone compare to the Nokia 5230? Let’s look at the key specs to find out.

Dimensions|
The Nokia 5230 is by no means chunky, but the Nokia 700 is Nokia’s most compact smartphone ever, and so it’s no surprise to see that aside from being roughly the same size from the front, the Nokia 700 is significantly thinner – 9.7mm to 15.5mm – and weighs just 96g versus the Nokia 5230′s 115g.

Screen size
Both these pocketable handsets come with a 3.2-inch display, which is an ideal mix of portability and on-screen space for things like web browsing. The resolution is the same too at 360 x 640, but there’s one crucial difference: while the Nokia 5230 has a standard TFT panel, the Nokia 700 boasts a stunning AMOLED display, which delivers fantastic levels of quality and contrast. 

Power
One of the most notable details about Symbian Belle handsets like the Nokia 700 is that Nokia has gone for gigahertz-class processing power, which in terms of pure speed as more than twice as fast as the chip inside the Nokia 5230. That doesn’t quite mean twice the speed overall, but there’s no question that the Nokia 700 has more power under the hood. 

Storage
The Nokia 5230 has many strengths, but on-board storage isn’t one of them – in fact, its 70MB quota is practically unusable beyond storing basic settings and the like. The Nokia 700 gives you a far more respectable 2GB of space to play with, plus of course there’s the microSD card slot for upping that by anything up to a further 32GB. 

Camera
Considering its age and affordability, the Nokia 5230′s 2-megapixel camera with VGA recording abilities is nothing to be ashamed of. But the Nokia 700 raises things to a different level, upping the megapixel count to 5, and delivering 720p video recording at 30fps into the bargain. 

Operating system
Symbian S60 5^th Edition covers all the main bases in terms of touchscreen and app support, but Symbian Belle is a night and day difference in reality, with all those extra homescreens on offer, multitouch and NFC support, resizeable widgets and countless other advances. 

Other features
As we’ve just mentioned, NFC is a central part of the Nokia 700′s arsenal, allowing effortless sharing of pictures and the like between devices, and instant connection to accessories. Another vital advantage is Wi-Fi support, meaning you can enjoy online content over your home broadband network without cutting into your monthly mobile data allowance.

Nokia 5230 users – we’d love to hear from you: to us the Nokia 700 is a big advance but how do you reckon the Nokia 700 shapes up as a replacement for your Symbian S60 stalwart? Let us know in the Comments below!