Nokia Launches 5230 ..Possibly the first Sub Rs.10K Touch handset?

Nokia has just popped open its paint pot and pulled out the new Nokia 5230 in a range of custom colours. The latest handset to join the touchscreen fold, the Nokia 5230 has been designed to serve up slick on-the-go entertainment, location-based services and act as an easy pocket portal for social networking at low cost.

Brandishing a 3.2-inch widescreen touch display with full-screen QWERTY keyboard and handwriting recognition, the Nokia 5230 is geared up to enable you to rattle out messages at speed. Paired with speedy HSDPA connectivity, this means staying in the loop and keeping your Facebook and Twitter streams promises to be a no-wait affair. Ovi Store is nestled neatly on the homescreen from the moment you switch on the device, ensuring you can get instant anywhere access to quality bite-size apps.

Music is its first love though, with the 5230 bringing 33 hours of playback time (long battery life was recently voted the most important feature in a music phone by you guys – so we’re stoked to see that), a 3.5mm headphone jack and memory expandable up to 16GB via a microSD card. Two versions of the phone will launch – a standard device costing 149 Euros, and in some select areas a Comes With Music version will be available for 259 Euros for those keen on all-you-can-eat downloads.

Jo Harlow is Vice President at Nokia, and had this to say about today’s news of the upcoming 5230:

“Competitively priced at 149 Euros, we believe the Nokia 5230 is an unbeatable offer for many new customers who aspire a device that stars in music, mingles with social networks from Facebook to MySpace, navigates you to where it happens, when it happens, and comes in array of dazzling colors”

Other features include assisted-GPS with Ovi Maps, Nokia’s new Contacts bar on the homescreen, a 2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth 2.0.