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Nokia C5-03: New design, running old software, hitting the market this holiday season for 170 EUR

Categories: Nokia, Symbian
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 5:08 AM
Nokia-C5-03

Nokia has just announced the C5-03, yet another member of the C5 family, and one more way to confuse consumers with product names that feature hyphens. What’s so special about it? Nothing. Really. It’s got a 3.2 inch resistive, yes, resistive, touch screen with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels, 5 megapixel with no flash and weird 640 x 352 pixel video recording at only 15 frames per second. You also get WiFi, GPS, a compass, quadband GSM/EDGE support and triband 3G (900/1900/2100 Mhz) support. Standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, microUSB port and Bluetooth 2.0 all included. The C5-03 measures 105.8 mm x 51 mm x 13.8 mm and weighs only 93 grams. It has a 1000 mAh battery rated at 11.5 hours of talk time, and 25 days of standby time, assuming you turn off the 3G.

Other than that … it’s pretty? The two tone design is interesting, but under the hood is Symbian^1. When you’ve got Symbian^3 devices shipping, albeit only the N8 and C7, why would you release something like this to the market? Say hello to the typical Nokia attitude of “let’s make a 2 year plan and then bury our heads in the sand so as to ignore all outside factors and get this device out, regardless of the needs of our customers”.

Check out the video above. The first feature Nokia chooses to highlight is the fact that this thing has WiFi and 3G. Is the calendar on my laptop set wrong, or are we really in 2004? Oh and look, when you turn the device on there are icons for your favorite contacts and Nokia’s own map application, which makes walking around the city really easy! Hate to sound like a cynical jaded bastard, even though I am one, but is it any surprise why Nokia’s market share is in free fall in places like India where the brand was once loved by many?

Come on Stephen, make things happen faster!

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • http://twitter.com/chilko chilko

    according to forum nokia c5-03 have 600 mhz cpu

  • Jb6789

    While your report appears more like a biased rant, did you happen to analyze this smartphone’s features relative to its price point? I’m sure , unlike you, Nokia did!

  • Anonymous

    Stefan, the only reason why they would choose S^1 is for keeping price down and compete with Huawei and other Asian mfr. for lower price smartphone segment. Also, the reason they have lost ground in India, is not because of S^1, but mainly because of dual-sim touchscreen phones and quite low prices. But again, if you ask the Indian users of those non-Nokia phones, you will realize that they will not stick to the same (non-Nokia) brand when it comes next time to buy their phone.
    This market share loss is temporary, but that doesn’t mean Nokia doesn’t need to do anything. If they introduce dual-sim phones with touchscreen in India, they will win back atleast half of the lost share. And i sense that dual-sim touchscreen phones are on the horizon.

  • Deneme

    propaply 5800 killer