Introduction:



The Nokia 5250 is the most budget-friendly smartphone released with the 5xxx branding so far. Without any doubt, this handset is targeting first time smartphone users with its attractive price ($146/€115 without contract), so it doesn't come as a shocking surprise that some compromises were made - for example, it sports a 2.8-inch resistive screen and only 51MB built-in memory, while the lack of some vital features like 3G connection and Wi-Fi can make anyone wonder what's better - to purchase the affordable Nokia 5250 or sacrifice a few more bucks and buy an all-around better low-end smartphone. In all honesty, it's a matter of personal choice, but please read on for our opinion on the matter.


Design:

As can be expected from a handset in this price range, the Nokia 5250's body is made of plastic, but somehow surprisingly it looks reasonably well and feels good in the hand for what it is. Its dimensions (4.09 x 1.93 x 0.55 inches) mean that you can put the Nokia 5250 in your pocket and forget it's there, while the phone feels comfortable to hold in both portrait and landscape mode.




The Nokia 5250's body is made of plastic, but looks reasonably well and feels good in the hand




You can compare the Nokia 5250 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

As we mentioned above, the Nokia 5250 has a 2.8-inch resistive screen, which isn't that great, but its 360x640 resolution and 16 million colors mean that you'll get vivid color reproduction and face no problems to distinguish text. However, the Nokia 5250's viewing angles are a bit rubbish and the screen is practically unusable in direct sunlight.



The Nokia 5250 has a 2.8-inch resistive screen


On the front side, this phone has three physical buttons - call, menu and end, while on the right side of the handset you'll find (from top to bottom) the volume rocker, the lock/unlock slider and the dedicated camera button. You can find the 3.5mm headphone jack, the charging port and the microUSB located on the top side of the phone, while on the back side a 2MP camera resides.




The sides of the Nokia 5250



Nokia 5250 360-degree View: