Nokia Nuron 5230 Phone, Frost White
- Fun, stylish, and affordable 3G-enabled touchscreen with 3.2-inch display; download apps, games and music from Nokia’s Ovi Store
- Runs on T-Mobile’s fast 3G network; GPS with free Ovi Maps navigation application for turn-by-turn directions
- 2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music; microSD memory expansion to 16 GB; access to personal/work e-mail and instant messaging services
- Up to 4.5 hours of 3G talk time (7 hours on non-3G), up to 438 hours (18.25 days) of standby time
- What’s in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, charger, 4 GB microSD card, quick start guide, user manual
Amazon.com Product Description
A stylish and affordable 3G-enabled touchscreen phone, the Nokia Nuron 5230 for T-Mobile is packed with applications, maps with turn-by-turn directions, access to downloadable music and games, and more. Enable… More >>
Nokia Nuron 5230 Phone, Frost White
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Purchased this phone last week when my Behold fell and broke. Have been with T-Mobile since 1998 and have never had problems with upgrades, but this one was not quite ready for the public. I have had it 4 days and am sending it back. First off, all the downloads that I purchased, even the recent ones, could not transfer and after 3 hours on the phone with T-Mobile technicians, they were stumped as to why. After resetting the phone no less than 3 times and reconfiguring it to plain ringtones for my mother and sisters, it still would only ring with the T-mobile default. And as one customer review said, outside in the light, say good-bye to trying to read or see anything on the screen.
The very first day that I used it outside of the house, the battery (which is slated to last up to 4 hours) died within 1 hour and I had not spoken to anyone nor sent any text messages on it. I have yet to have a smartphone in my possession and have only dealt with T-Mobile all these years, but this phone is certainly not worth the .01 if it is not going to perform in the manner that it should. And lastly, the screen disappears for no reason and will not stay illuminated for longer than 10 seconds and I have to power it back on each time. And when I do that, it vacillates through so many screens before it finds one it wants to stay on. While the Behold had a 5.0 megapixel camera and this only has 2, the pictures were not bad, although they were all taken outside and not in. But because you cannot see the screen outside, it is very hard to take a picture when the sun is out because you cannot see the screen.
Rating: 1 / 5
edited on April 27, 2010. Replacement Nuron purchased from different vendor.
Died on the third day. Not purchased from Amazon, instead, directly from T-Mob, April 2010. T-Mob does not allow drop off of defective product at TMO company stores. No return label included. Was told to ship back on my own dime. TMob would not issue a UPS call tag or replace until they received defective phone back, a two week wait with no phone.
Number of continuous years on T-Mobile: eleven years. Contact was completed long ago. I contacted TMob because my old phone died. The TMob rep in customer retention suggested Nuron and touted it as the only phone that “qualified for $10/month unlimited web on the 3G high speed data service”. There was to be no contract extension or changes to my grandfathered service plan, nor limits on web usage as long as I paid the full retail price for Nuron ($180). The Nuron was promised to arrive with the 3G service already activated. Unfortunately, when the phone arrived, there was no internet access.
Spent five frustrating days on the phone with TMob “tech support” before TMO concluded: i) my phone was defective, and later on, ii) that I “had been”mis-informed by T-Mob regarding “the existence of any web plan for $10/mo”. Furthermore, I would have to “upgrade” to a new plan AND sign a new two year contract to get my new phone to work with net/data.
Occasionally you get a lemon whether it is the hardware or the representative. You expect the vendor to make things right. The last thing you want is an endless time sucking experience. Bizarre “tech support” ideas included: “Oh, the white screen is normal, it just needs to charge it overnight”!!! Strong arming a loyal customer to buy a new service plan and sign a contract after 11 years when that is not what was ordered is unconscionable. At one point, when the issue was believed to be “just a defective phone”, I even offered to buy a replacement (again for full price) just to expedite the order. Apparently that is against TMOb policy.
In the event that you have an old rate plan grandfathered in, beware of these tactics. Even if you buy your Nuron un-locked, from another source, you still may not be allowed to add the $10/mo Web 2 Go”. To see if it is possible, log in to your TMob account on line and go to “add features”. If the $10 web ad on is NOT listed as a service option, then you probably won”t be able to add $10 unlimited web to your existing plan.
Other considerations:
– Nuron has an old style barrel power port with a hair thin center pin. These ports are prone to failure when the center pin gets loose. This prevents you from charging the phone and was the reason that I was replacing my old Nokia in the first place.
- The re-boot procedures described on the web require that you can at least get the touch screen to boot in to the numeric pad. Nuron has no hard reset button, a major flaw for a touch screen device. Many times you will be able to re-boot by simply removing the battery, but if that fails…
First day:
Pros:
First impressions were positive. Good voice quality, decent finish, many features not found in a 3G phone at this price point. The built in GPS did work w/o the web connection, but only briefly. Right away I began loosing GPS sat signal and getting errors.
+ multi-event alarm and other features are attractive.
+ handwriting recognition is a bonus
+ 4GB CL 6 micro SD included, but hard to remove, requires a fast CL 6 card according to many.
Cons:
– No hard re-set button! If the virtual number pad won’t load, then you can’t enter the re-boot code.
– Very weak, obsolete barrel power jack with hair thin center pin.
– Lacks grip points, hard to hold
– Clunky, clumsy operating interface. Hard to close apps or tell what is open.
– Requires a stylus for me to use.
– Tedious to set personal preferences and to navigate to essential apps Could not find built in calendar.
– Worthless operating manual.
– Screen completely useless when viewing out of doors even on cloudy day.
Second day:
– GPS no longer acquiring sat signals!!! No navigation (nothing to do with cell signal).
Third day:
– TMO still had not activated internet access. Made the dreaded call to TMO tech support again. Hit or miss, a few of the csr’s are very good, but most… don’t ask.
– TMO service hallmarks: misleading and contradictory information, inconsistency, delays. “I’ve never heard of any $10 internet plan” Still later: “You can use use free internet at TMO hotspots” (uhmm NO you can’t!!! there is no wifi on this device, besides, that is not what I ordered.
Hours later: “This is a smart phone and we require you to have the $30 data plan or you can’t use Nuron at all”. (actually untrue, the $10 data service MAY be available on your existing plan. As above, log on to you account online to see if the option is there.) Nuron- depends on your contract,check your account on-line to see if you can add the $10 unlimited internet plan).
>>> “We’re sorry that you were misled”. To emphasize, I never asked for this phone, it was suggested to me by TMob who sold it to me for full price then refused to activate the web plan that it promised.
Fourth day: More features fail:
– I called back the next morning and was told bring it in “for a re-set”. Got to a store but tech could not find a reset button.
Purchased second Nuron from private vendor
-Finally I purchased another Nuron after a T-Mob rep promised that the data plan had finally been activated. BUT…When I logged on to My T-Mobile from a DSL desktop I learned that I did NOT have unlimited web for $10 as promised but only 50-MB per month for $10 + $1.99/MB for “overages”.
-Second phone is not locating position on GPS. Web access is very limited and essentially worthless to me. 3G signal is strong in my urban location. Phone still switches to slower Edge connection. If tethering can be accomplished I may keep the phone, otherwise it is not worth the hassle. Second phone cost was half the price of TMO and still no contract. May be a deal at that price if I can get it to work.
Summary:
In theory Nuron is a feature packed, value conscious, entry level smart phone. However you may want to prepare your brain for the TMO experience. Some users report success getting the $10/unlimited 3G web added to existing accounts, others do not. Clearly the intent is to knock you off a grandfathered plan and in to a new contract at a higher cost. While Nuron has many features at a good price point, be sure to check on line before you buy to verify that the $10 3G data plan can be added to your existing account. There seems to be little reason to buy Nuron if you can not get the $10 3G data plan to go with it.
Rating: 1 / 5
I have had many cell phones and through just about every cell phone provider. I have had phones with Cingular which the monthly service was way to costly and never what was expceted as was the case with verizon, and sprint. I also have had many prepaid phones through trac-phone which service is not the greatest and is the most expenisve priced pre-paid phone I ever had, I tried virgin mobile, boost mobile, cricket and even Net 10. Though Net 10 and Cricket seemed to be the best priced per month they did not have a good selection of phones to choose from, they all seemed to never really stay charged and all seemed to get really poor service reception even in major cities. This phone is my third t-mobile phone I started with a t-mobile pre-paid phone which really had the best call quality, I never had any problem with droped calls, poor reception or the phone keeping a charge. The only issue I had was that the cost can really add up as the pre-paid re-fill cards t-mobile offers do not come with a lot of minuets on them. I decided that the best solution to this was to get a t-mobile flex pay phone free on a two-year contract after which would go to month to month. I liked the idea and I got the nokia express music 5310 I had that phone for a year. My husband and I shared this phone and he being an auto body tech carrying the phone in his pocket caused a crack in the screen which started out small then grew. I had no insurance on this phone and you can’t just replace the screen so I had to replace the whole phone as well as the 5310 express music phone I had been discontinued by a newer model the express music 5130 and the 5800. I called t-mobile and asked was there a way I could get a replacement phone on a monthly payment plan. I was told I could depending on the plan I had and my credit class. My plan the Even More Plus Plan and my credit class allowed me a line of credit of up to 200.00. The t-mobile sales rep explained as t-mobile customer care did that the 200.00 would be broken down into 10 month payments of 10.00 a month. So I bought this phone the Nokia Neuron and put 100.00 down which decreased my monthly payments to 4.00 a month. I like this phone because it is basically a smartphone and is campatiable with my unlimited text plan I pay 10.00 for and my unlimited web plan I also pay 10.00 a month for. Naviagtion GPS service on this phone is free. The phone takes really great pictures, is easy to naviagte, and is a 3G phone. It comes with headphones for the built in radio, stores tons of music and photos as well as videos. This phone has a qwerty keyboard as well making texting very easy keypad for letters is practially the same size as that on a computer keyboard. Colors on this phone are vivid and bright has ovi store which offers free downloadable games, videos, music, themes, ect. I love t-mobile because their plans are flexable and at reasonable prices. They have a lot of cool phones to choose from as well but most of all I love t-mobile service because I am never surprised when it comes to the cost of my bill. My bill each month is always the same price with no hidden charges and fees. I would highly recommend t-mobile flex pay either on a two year contract or month to month with no service contract. My phone plan was swicthed to a month to month no contract when I decided to upgrade to a diferent plan. My bill each month for Unlimited Talk+Text+Web is 55.00 and never any higher. I would recommend if you are looking for a touch screen phone that you don’t have to pay 30.00 extra for because the phone has a different internet service provider different from the one t-mobile uses, and an extra 10.00 for texting on such as phones like the G1, the Behold, and the Cliq. Then my recommendations are to go with this phone, the Samsung Highlight or the Tap. If you just want a phone to use for texting and don’t need internet access than I recommend the Gravity,or the Comeback which also have qwerty keyboards and still have the options of internet if you so choose later on.
Rating: 5 / 5
I got a pair of these phones with the T Mobile promotion in early/mid June.
I immediately started having problems with it being able to access the internet. And if I couldn’t access the internet; no email.
I spent hour upon hour with T Mobile’s techies and came close to hanging myself due to frustration.
After a week of this, I told them to send me two new Nurons. My expectations were low because both phones had the same problem.
The phones arrived yesterday and BAM! …same old problems with connectivity. I spent half the day on the phone again and the techies were useless and couldn’t fix the problems.
This is mainly a phone with some smart components. It is not a Blackberry or IPhone.
And now I know why they are giving them away. They deny that anyone else was having problems. Just my wife and I.
Another frustration was making phone calls. It kept telling us after we dialed that the phone was for emergency use only. Huh?
And it isn’t our location because the problems happen everywhere.
I gave in and took advantage of the promotion they have on the T Mobile Dash 3G. I had this phone once before because it was my work phone and I know it’s reliable and a good phone…
June 21, 2010 Amendment: I got the Dash 3G and it’s a dream compared to the Nuron. And T Mobile is giving them away just like the Nurons. No glitches, no waiting long periods for it to think through something..Bang! It’s done with the Dash. But don’t wait…the Dash won’t be free for long.
Don’t buy this phone…even if it’s free.
Rating: 1 / 5
I bought this phone with the data package in April. I bought it solely for the fact it has GPS which I need Monday through Saturday for my work.
The touch screen was almost impossible to set a good sensitivity setting, it never seemed to work as it should. The apps tended to freeze up and take way to long to load compared to my old AT&T phone as well as Boost Mobile phone, which was pretty slow. The phone is also not very user friendly and takes time to learn and adapt to its features and glitches.
The GPS which is the reason I went with the Nuron was a pain to set an address as it would never find the address on the 1st try, I would always have to retry the address 1 or 2 more times before it found the location. The only good thing is you wouldn’t have to reenter the address just click on search again. When the GPS found the location it worked great. The automated voice was very easy to understand and the instructions were right on, there was no reason to look at the screen just set it on the dash and follow the instructions.
Nothing works perfectly and even with all the glitches I was satisfied just because how easy it was follow the GPS instructions which made my job 100X’s more easy.
About three weeks after I bought the phone the data package in the phone began to fail. The GPS stopped locating any addresses that I entered. The 3G Internet also began to fail and the coverage eventually would be lost. I thought it might have been due to issues with T Mobiles services. The next day after everything began to fail the touch screen went as well. I could no longer use the keys without them sticking and continuously entering the number or letter. I would have to back out or reset the phone to get it to work again. When I made or received calls I would not be able to disconnect from them and would have to shut down to end the call.
I went into a T-mobile store to receive a loner phone while I waited for my replacement. I thought I had just received a lemon which happens, its an inconvenience but a reality with the complex products that are on the markets now a days. When I went into the store I was amazed to see there were 3 customers with the same phone with the same problems. I quickly realized the odds on that happening are slim to none, my product was not a lemon but a phone with a serious glitch.
I would avoid buying this phone, go with a different model as this model has internal issues.
Rating: 1 / 5