The touch screen budget smartphone that is the Nokia 5230 has had a major bump in firmware, from v12 to v20. Adding in new applications, updating others, and bringing kinetic scrolling to the main menu, it shows that while the price of the unit is low, it’s getting the same support as more popular and expensive Nokia smartphones.

As is usual with these firmware updates, they do take some time to percolate around the world, and the All About Symbian unit seems to have been at the end of the queue. Given we like to see the new firmware before posting, that’s the little delay.

So what do we have new in v20? The 5230 was already pretty stable, but the under the hood changes have added more stability to they system, and the time required for the opening and closing of applications has been improved.

The Ovi Sync application icon has been added to the desktop, and the music player has been improved. Kinetic scrolling has been added to the main menu UI, and the GPS code has allowed for a faster fix on your location.

while the 5230 has User data Preservation and you should have all your data, information and applications still on the phone after the firmware update, there is always a danger to your data, and we recommend you back up your phone before starting the procedure, be it through the online update service, or the Over the Air facility.

-- Ewan Spence, April 2010.