The Nokia 5228, a variant of the Nokia 5230 was launched in Germany yesterday, reports Symbian World. The 5228 has the same styling and design as the Nokia 5230 and broadly similar specifications. However it lacks the 5230's 3G cellular radio and integrated GPS. It ships with a range of Ovi services including Ovi Store and Nokia Music Store. The Nokia 5228 will be available in July 2010 at a price of €139 including taxes.
Read on in the full article.
There is also a 5233 in the Australian market - GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 and no GPS or WiFi
the 5233 variant is available in all southeast asia too 😊 but I think it has a stylus though.
Hi Rafe, just a small correction. The one in India is 5233, not the 5232.
Great. Cut the two most useful features of the phone, then release it again. Am I the only one who fails to see the point in this phone?
Unregistered wrote:Great. Cut the two most useful features of the phone, then release it again. Am I the only one who fails to see the point in this phone?
Nope, you're not.
The 5230 is already ridiculously cheap, at least in the UK. I'm of the mind that it makes more sense to just slightly cut the costs of the one model, rather than effectively increase costs by having extra production lines producing a mind-numbingly stupid array of minor variations.
Even more stupid if you think about that the 5230 already is a rippoff of the 5800XM...
I hoped Nokia were serial about releasing less phones...
Thanks corrected 5232 to 5233. Gah numbers 😊
Unregistered wrote:Even more stupid if you think about that the 5230 already is a rippoff of the 5800XM...
I hoped Nokia were serial about releasing less phones...
The 5800 and 5230 are at very different price points though. Typically price for just the phone are �120 (�70-80 payg) and �200 (�170 payg). So the 5230 is typically half the price of the 5800. For not a lot of difference in hardware.
These other variants have a difference of a few quid here and there, but have the possibility of increased production costs due to retooling - all for a potentially very small market share.
Unregistered wrote:Great. Cut the two most useful features of the phone, then release it again. Am I the only one who fails to see the point in this phone?
You guys need to look outside of your countries. I mean it is great that the 5230 is already cheap to you but really to some people the $30 USD difference is a lot and to pay for things they never use like 3G and GPS (in some places 3G is not even affordable or even any internet access). It's good to have choices. There is at least a $100 USD difference from the 5800 and the 5230 from where I live.
This version will be sold to kids who don't care with GPS or 3G but only with music and SMS.
Neero wrote:You guys need to look outside of your countries. I mean it is great that the 5230 is already cheap to you but really to some people the $30 USD difference is a lot and to pay for things they never use like 3G and GPS (in some places 3G is not even affordable or even any internet access). It's good to have choices. There is at least a $100 USD difference from the 5800 and the 5230 from where I live.
The headline says "in Germany", but that could either mean it's for this particular market, or just that the event was held there.
If this is planned for Germany, I can't imagine it will sell well. The non-3G feature phones from Samsung and LG look a lot sexier than this device. And people who buy their phone based on specs will opt for the 5230.
If it was just announced in Germany and is sold worldwide, you might be right.
Neero wrote:You guys need to look outside of your countries. I mean it is great that the 5230 is already cheap to you but really to some people the $30 USD difference is a lot and to pay for things they never use like 3G and GPS (in some places 3G is not even affordable or even any internet access). It's good to have choices. There is at least a $100 USD difference from the 5800 and the 5230 from where I live.
But they're apparently touting it as a device for Ovi music and app services.
In which case its useless - how much patience will you need to download a 4 meg file over 2G (or edge, assuming its available)? Let alone attempting to fill a 1gig memory card - imagine trying to fill a 4 or 8gig card at GPRS speeds!
Yes, it is good to see a truly capable smartphone platform available at such ridiculously low prices, but the feature stripping is maybe going a little too far? I could understand the removal of GPS, but the component price difference between 2G and 3G chipsets must be minimal - virtually pennies on the quantities that Nokia buy.