Nokia C5-00 5MP

Expected Q3 2011 
28th June 2011

The original Nokia C5 was one of the best phones around for customers who didn't want a touchscreen device or BlackBerry-style messenger, but instead wanted a more traditional mobile phone without sacrificing too many features.

Time moves on, and Nokia have given the C5 a bit of a boost with the awkwardly named Nokia C5-00 5MP. The only significant difference between this C5 and the old one is that the new version now has a 5 megapixel camera, which seems to be the minimum you need these days.

This is a Symbian smartphone, running the old S60 3rd Edition version of the software rather than the latest Symbian "Anna". Most people probably won't care that the software is actually pretty sophisticated and will probably never add any applications to it, which is why Nokia are phasing out S60 in this market segment and are replacing it with Series 40 feature phonesinstead.

There's a 2.2" 240 x 320 pixel display, a well-laid out keypad, 3.5G support and VGA resolution video capture at 15 fps. The Nokia C5-00 5MP supports Bluetooth, microSD memory (with a 2GB card in the box), it has a media player, FM radio, 3.5mm audio socket and an inbuilt stereo speaker.

Included software on the C5-00 5MP includes Ovi Maps with free navigation, which turns the phone into a simple but handy navigation device if you get unexpectedly lost. There is also support for integrating with Facebook and most common webmail and instant messaging applications.

It's an attractive device to look at, and the C5-00 5MP is quoted as weighing 95 grams. Talktime is almost 5 hours and 28 days standby time on 3G.

Although the market for this type of device is dwindling, there are still a lot of people out there who might be replacing phones two years or more old who might be in the market for this. Nokia gave no guidance on price, but expect it to be a straight swap for the existing C5 which currently retails at about €140 SIM-free.