The Nokia 5233 is a low cost more budget-er version of the Nokia 5230, without 3G or GPS capabilities.
It’s also probably the cheapest Symbian^1 smartphone right now.
With that in mind, here’s what we thought of it.
We’d recommend reading our First Impressions of the 5233 before reading this review, so you have a good idea of what we thought of the device initially, and whether/how our opinion has changed now.
The Nokia 5233 is positioned as a very basic budget device, with a pretty nice resistive 3.2″ screen, in a monoblock form factor. The device is basically a cheaper version of the Nokia 5230, without GPS or 3G, in the same package. Like the 5230 though, it doesnt have Wifi.
Also worth noting, is that the 5230 (and hence the 5233) run the same Symbian S60v5 OS as the 5800 and 5530 before it, with pretty much exactly the same UI (which is also exactly the same as the N97 variants, sans the Widgetised Homescreen).
Here are a couple of the features that the Nokia 5233 boasts :
And so on and so forth. You can take a look at the Official Nokia 5233 Product Page for a full list of Specs. As you might have noticed, the 5233 has no Wifi, no 3G and no GPS built in.
Admittedly, its not as impressive as a Flagship Device. But you gotta admit, its not too bad considering the amount of features you get, at the very budget price of this handset.
The 5233 measures 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm and weighs in at 115 g. This makes the device pretty tiny in our eyes.
We’ve compared it to the N97 Variants and it’s definitely a slightly smaller package.
The size makes it a perfect fit in your hands.
The Screen, like we mentioned earlier, is a 3.2 Inch resistive touchscreen. It’s not the most sensitive Touch screen we’ve used, but it’s pretty much in exactly the same league as the 5800 and 5530. Not quite as good as the N97 Variants though.
Even though the device is built of mainly hard plastic, the 5233 feels pretty solid. A kind of “Cheap Solid” if you will. There were no creaks or strange sounds from our device, although the sliding-locking key does seem to get a bit loose after a month of use. Its not too bad though.
The device comes in 2 main colors, one White with a Silver frame and back panel, and one Black with a Dark Grey frame and back panel.
You can see more of the differences in the two colors, over on our Nokia 5233 Color Comparison post.
Firmware :
The 5233 in this review is on the latest software at the time of writing, which is Firmware v12.1.089. Which I’m very glad to say, feels pretty solid and finished.
We very rarely had any crashes or hangs on this firmware, which partly adds to the charm of the 5233 and is a refreshing change from the initial firmware that was shipped on the N97 and 5800.
That being said, there’s Kinetic scrolling everywhere, except in the Main Menu (with the icons) which we hope will be implemented in an upcoming firmware update, as this makes the whole UI feel inconsistent. To add to this, there’s not too much Ram to work with (about 30-35Mb at start) which means the 5233 isnt really a multitasking monster at all.
On with the Pictures !
Front View :
At the front of the 5233 you can see the 3.2″ Resistive Touchscreen that prominently takes up most of the space.
Underneath the screen are 3 keys which are the Green Calling Key, Menu Key and Red Call End Key respectively.
These keys light up when they are used.
The Menu key pulsates or “breathes” to let you know the device is on, and to notify you of events such as a missed call, new text messages or new email. You can change this setting of course, in the Phone settings menu.
At the top of the Screen is a Proximity Sensor that shuts off the screen as you place the 5233 near your ear to make a call, etc. There’s no Front Facing VGA Camera though.
There’s also the “XpressMusic Key” which provides you with quick access to various media functions (just like on the 5800). Unfortch, this isnt lit though, so you might miss seeing this for the first couple times, when you first use your 5233.
There’s also the earpiece at the center. The Earpiece volume is fine and we’ve had no problems with it at all. We had no problems with Network reception either.
Like we said earlier in this review, the touchscreen on the Nokia 5233 is pretty much on par with the one on the 5800, if not better. The 3.2″ screen is displaying the same resolution as the 5800 and N97 screens. Things look “okay” on the 5800. A bit more crisper and less pixelated than the N97 (because it had a larger screen) but nothing new.
The screen is legible in direct sunlight. Not the best, but definitely not the worst.
Back View :
The back of the 5233 contains only the 2 Megapixel Standard Nokia Lens Camera.
There’s no Flash or Autofocus for the 5233′s camera.
The back cover is sort of flimsy. And the way you have to peel it off the back doesnt aspire much confidence in the wear-and-tear of the back panel. Still, 1 month on and no problems here.
The single Stylus you get with the 5233, is housed in the back too, and securely fits back into the device. Be careful with the stylus, because you only get one.
Not that you’ll need to use it, really. Just that you need it to take your SIM card out of the device.
Top View :
The top of the 5233 contains the power button. There’s also the charging port, 3.5mm Audio Jack and the microUSB port (with a hard plastic cover).
Unfortch the microUSB port cant be used to charge the device. It’s only for data transfer. Disappointing, because we figured that would be a standard feature by now.
Bottom View :
The bottom of the 5233 is pretty minimal, containing only a tiny hole for the voice mic.
The slot you see is just a groove to help you take off the back panel.
Left View :
The left side of the 5233 has two large plastic covers. One for the contained SIM card slot, and the other for the microSD slot.
Its basically one large plastic cover that you have to open, to put in or take out the microSD or the SIM card. Whomever designed this method of putting-a-simcard-in must be pure evil, but if you’re a single SIM card kind of guy, it shouldnt bother you. You’ll still need that stylus to remove the SIM card though.
There’s also the 5233′s single Mono speaker here.
This is the 5233′s main drawback, in our opinion, as the single mono speaker is very tiny, and pretty quiet compared to most devices out today. To add to that, the loudspeaker quality (as you’d expect) isnt that great either, which means you probably wont want to use the 5233 as your Music Boom Box at all.
Right View :
The right side of the 5233 contains the Camera button, sliding keypad lock switch, and the Zoom in/out (aka Volume increase/decrease) rocker key at the extreme right side. The keys have pretty okay feedback to them.
No complaints here, but as we mentioned earlier, the sliding keypad lock switch does tend to get a bit loose over time. The Dedicated Camera key is just a normal button (ie: it’s not 2 stage like most other Nokia devices) since the 5233 doesnt have Auto-Focus.
The Battery :
The 5233 runs on a 1320 mAh Bl-5J battery which powers it to about a day and a couple hours worth of heavy usage. While this wouldnt be enough to run Nokia’s Flagship devices, this suits the 5233 pretty well.
That being said, that figure can stretch out to two days of mild usage easily. You’ll probably want to charge this device every night though.
The Box :
The 5233 doesnt ship with much in the retail package.
There’s no microUSB-to-USB cable, no microSD card. There is a plectrum lanyard cable though. The White-Silver 5233 comes with White Headphones, while the Black 5233 comes with Black Headphones. A minor, but nice, touch.
For more about what comes with the retail package, do check out our Nokia 5233 Unboxing Post.
The S60 V5 Touch UI, Menu and HomeScreen :
The Nokia 5233 runs on S60V5 or Symbian^1 as its main Operating System. You can read through our Introducing S60 V5 series to get a more detailed look at the OS and its various features.
The UI feels more stable and “finished” compared to the 5800 (before v40 firmware) and N97 (before v20 firmware). There’s Kinetic scrolling in all lists and apps, except the main Menu application. No doubt this will be added in, in a future firmware update. Hopefully.
The 5233 has a built in accelerometer which is used to automatically switch the screen from portrait to landscape mode and vice-versa, among other functions.
The UI is basically the same as the N97, although the Homescreen is the one area where it differs.
The 5233 doesnt have the cool Widget-ised Homescreen of the N97 (which i suspect is an Nseries Exclusive), but it does have an improved version of the Homescreen on the 5800 XM (before v40 firmware).
You can now store up to 20 Contacts in the Contacts Bar, while still having 4 Application Shortcuts, along with an Email plugin so show you, your last email.
To know more about this, do check out our Nokia 5233 Homescreen and Contacts post.
The 5233 also has a “Software update” app that alerts you to new updates for apps or software features on your device (if you start the app up and let it check for updates). Not quite sure why this is present, since you can only download data using GPRS (since the 5233 doesnt have 3G or Wifi), but hey, it’s there. This is also used to alert you if there is new firmware available for the device.
The rest of the OS is pretty much identical to the Nokia 5800, with a couple more transition effects here and there. We very rarely had any restarts, or applications hanging on the 5233, which is a totally different story to the initial firmware of the flagship N97.
Memory :
The 5233 comes with 70MB of Internal Memory out if which about 54 Mb is available. There’s no microSD included in the retail package, but according to the specs the 5233 can support one, upto 16Gb. The phone memory isnt too much, but we didnt have a problem with it (seeing how we didnt install Ovi Maps since it was pre-installed, N-Gage or any such apps on the 5233′s phone memory).
Ovi Store :
The 5233 ships with the Ovi Store client onboard. Again, since the 5233 doesnt have Wifi or 3G you’re stuck with using the Ovi Store via GPRS which can be a really, really sloooow experience.
Internet Browsing :
The 5233 uses the same Symbian S60 Browser as the 5800, and can handle flash. However, it did not have the automatic Fullscreen mode that was on the N97. Browsing is decent enough. Just type an address and press go, and you’ll see the website load.
The browser seems to be able to handle Mobile versions of Websites with no problem at all. Some non-mobile websites though wont always work. For example, I tried to view the PC version of Facebook and the browser just gave up and crashed. However, most websites should load fine provided they arnt too full of flash or videos, I guess.
Calendar :
The 5230’s S60 v5 OS uses a version of the Eseries Calendar app thats been optimised for touch. All the usual bells and whistles that you’re used to in the Calendar app in S60v3 are in there.
And of course you can change the default Calendar month view to by week, Make new entries for Meetings, ToDo lists and change the main Calendar options.
Music :
The Music Player application on the 5530 XM is your standard Nokia S60 affair. Nothing new in the software aspect. There’s even an FM radio, Podcasting Client and Sound Recorder if anyone was wondering.
Noticable absent is the Nokia Internet Radio client. For more on this, do check out our Music on the Nokia 5233 post.
The Gallery :
The Gallery lists all the Images, Songs and other media on your device.
Images are sorted by date (by default) with their thumbnails in a grid pattern. This is okay if you have a few images. But anything over 30 Images can be a headache to search through. Also, videos are also shown in this Gallery.
The Songs section takes you to the Music player. Sounds and other Media, have their own small sections.
Camera :
The 5233 has a 2 Megapixel Standard Nokia Lens Camera, with no autofocus or Flash.
This means the 5233 doesnt really take the best pictures. At all
Video, though, is recorded at a nice 30 FPS @ VGA resolution. You can also record in a widescreen QVGA res.
For more on this, along with a couple camera samples, do check out our Camera on the Nokia 5233 post.
Connectivity :
The 5233 has a couple Connectivity options from Bluetooth to USB. Infra-red is absent, but isnt really a major factor in this day and age. There’s no Wifi, 3G or GPS though, which might not matter to the 5233′s intended market share.
Messaging and Touch Text Input :
The 5233 comes with a variety of Text Input methods. From a Fullscreen QWERTY keyboard, to T9 alphanumeric keypad, to Handwriting, it’s all in here. Not to mention, Text Copy-Paste is a standard feature on S60.
Since its so similar to the 5800 XM, you can read our Typing and Text Input on the Nokia 5800 Post to know more about this section.
One key difference is that in the 5233, the messaging app automatically switches to the virtual on-screen Qwerty Keyboard in landscape mode, using the built-in accelerometer.
Apart from the above :
The 5233 has all the Symbian Goodness that we’ve come to know and love. You can install a whole bunch of programs and apps to make your experience better on the device.
And its remarkable close to the 5800 XM, in terms of features, missing out only on Wifi, GPS and 3G.
You also get a 10 Track voucher for the Nokia Music Store free with the 5233 in India.
Conclusion :
Rating: 
So what do we think ?
Okay here’s the thing. The 5233 is a very very basic device. It’s still a smartphone (running S60v5 and all), and it’s a Touch device, which seems to be the rage these days. It also has basics like the 3.5mm Audio Jack, Bluetooth, microUSB and support for microSD cards
For those facts alone, the 5233 might be worth the price in certain markets where 3G might not be a huge deal. No GPS isnt really a big deal (atleast in the section that its launched in). No Wifi though, does hurt.
The camera isnt too great either, which is my main problem with the 5233. It’s good enough for everyday random pictures though. The 3.2 Inch screen is nice and large too.
The 5233 isnt trying to be any sort of feature phone. Nokia’s basically saying “Here’s a touch device that’s very affordable, and can handle most basic tasks out there, along with being a smartphone, which means you have access to quite a bundle of apps“. Uhh…. or something.
So, do we recommend it ?
I wouldnt buy the 5233. I’d save up and buy the Nokia 5530 because it has Wifi. Granted, it doesnt have 3G or GPS.It also does look a lot better compared to the 5800 and 5230 in my opinion.
If you can save up, i’d even recommend the Nokia 5800 itself since it does have quite a couple more/better features than the 5230 and 5233, even though they might look very similar.
But if you really honestly cant afford anything better, then by all means, the 5233 should keep you happy enough with it’s very basic features.
Here’s a video of our Final Verdict on the Nokia 5233 :
Dont forget, we have a full Nokia 5233 Review Picture Album on Flickr, as well as a Nokia 5233 YouTube Review Playlist if you’d like to check them out.
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
Hello sir i just wanted to confirm whether the nokia 5233 can be connected to a TV via an additional AV jack! In ur post, u have mentioned that it is not possible to connect the nokia 5233 to a TV, but have u checked it in person?Since the hardware of 5800 and 5233 are mostly alike, i wanted to confirm this thing! i would like to buy it as a gaming device(like for playing motion sensor games on TV)... Please reply awaiting ur response kaushik
Hey there Kaushik. Unfortunately, no it is not possible since the 5233 doesnt have TV-OUT :(
thanks for ur reply sir!!!
i hve a question n tht is in the VIDEO didn't showed the KEYPAD of NOKIA 5233?...
I brought this model on 18 august 2010 exactly one month back. In the last one month the phone hanged 8 times. If you use the screen continuously for about 1 -2 hours the battery runs out so fast. It is not having play back time as claimed in the specs. It plays radio/music only for few hours. If you use only for occasional phone calls then it is ok. IF you plan for multipurpose usage then this is not the one for you
Hey, You said the RAM is around 30-35Mb. forum.nokia device details says it got 128Mb RAM and 256 Mb NAND memory? Please put some light into it? And what does this NAND memory mean?
Heya Ebin! It has 128Mb of ram totally, but only about 40-30Mb of it is available to the user to use with Apps, etc. The rest is taken up with the OS (i assume).
Hey its Waqas from Pakistan i really like this mobile set and from past many days i am thinking to buy this set currently i am using nokia 6303 classic but i like this one and yes sure i am gonna purschase nokia 5233 you guys rock thanks for the info about 5233 :)
Glad to have helped Waqas :)
i hav a nokia 5235 .... in my mobile i dont receive any smileys wen they r sent to me .... how do i activate it
Its having symbian software and absolutely no complaint.
can any 1 say how to use gps in nokia 5233.Wen i login to gps it say (enable satalite satellite based positioning system)how to activate them plz reply me. :(
I think you kind of misjudged the phones capabilities by saying "it is a very very basic device"It can run all the apps that other s60 smartphones (n97,5800,5530..etc) can runI mean it has everything a smartphone should have...except wifi and GPS...so how come its still very basic? And look at the price man! :D
Can any body got the answer of expired certificate problem in 5233.seriously dont buy this phone.do reply
I was thinking 2 buy this phone , but now i'm confused .either i've 2 buy or not. Plz tell me on my mail.
Although a well known fact,5233 does have a GPS but a network dependent one and its solely dependent on ur service provider's performance...although it has EDGE CLASS 32.its gps works enough for me...but nokia 5230- 1000rs xtra 4 just A-GPS,3G(more than Rs 750(15USD)/month 4 a decent service)...in that price u can get a decent broadband net which is almost 1000x faster...so u see it suits india really well...mine edge works at 220-240kbps(30kB/s)...@RS 49(1USD) monthly...so u see gps(network based in nokia 5233) isn't a big problem..n it lock/locates ur position within seconds(<5)..
None that I've heard of so far :)
Is there any common complaint reported??
can we change the front view look in 5233 like lg cookie and others
Retailers here say that 5233 doesn’t have GPS, could you please verify?Also any official spec/webpage/announcement for 5233?Web Design Kent
Heh I thought so too, but it really is at 30fps. Not bad for a budget phone eh lol.
Yeah it seems to be an Indian variant of the 5230.
Never heard of this one
Sweet. One thing though, i THINK the video is VGA @ 15FPS.
GPRS is very different from 3G really. even though budget, wonder how this model is position. I thought it is possible to play with the 3G, Wifi, GPS options, but without all three? quite interesting.
[...] here in India. It’s basically identical to the Nokia 5230 and Nokia 5233 variants (Read the 5233 Review Here) except that it comes with the Ovi Music Unlimited Service (Read our Overview of OMU [...]