Nokia has introduced their smallest touch screen device today, the 5250. With a 2.8 inch screen it isn’t as tiny as the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini’s 2.55 inch display, but having played with one recently I’m quite confident in saying that it’s too tiny. Back to the 5250, it’s only 115 EUR (145 USD or 95 GBP) when it comes out this October and for that amount of change you get a 2 megapixel camera, quadband EDGE radio, FM radio … and that’s it. No 3G, no WiFi, no GPS. It’s fairly light at only 107 grams, but then again it’s also a bit chunky at 104 mm tall x 49 mm wide x 14 mm thick.
You’ve got to hand it to Nokia though, they admitted that they accidentally leaked this device themselves on their own Conversations blog. We reported that leak earlier this month, and the predictions I gave in terms of specifications and price point were way off. It’s less capable than I thought it would be, but also cheaper too.
No complaints here, but this device really isn’t for me. It’s to compete with Samsung and LG who are flooding the market with low end touch screen devices. LG espeically with their Cookie lineup that is doing phenomenally well. What say you, are you going to buy this as a second device, or something for your mom? Symbian^1 may not be the easiest thing to use, but poking at a piece of glass, in this case plastic, is all the craze these days. You also get a free game: Guitar Hero 5.
Nokia’s great at making low end devices, and it’s fantastic to see them stretching Symbian to such low end price points, but without a role model in the high end it feels like a bit of a waste. Now I’m not saying the 5250 has to compete with the iPhone, but what I’m implying is that Nokia needs a flagship that people can look up to and go “you know what, I can’t afford the N9, but this thing is made by the same company, so it’s got to be good”.