Nokia’s 5230 is a blockbuster in Europe – due to its insanely low price, it sells like crazy. In the Americas, the 5230 goes by the name Nuron and is peddled by T-Mobile.
The folks at Engadget’s now got their hands onto a sample. Their final verdict is not too bad – if it weren’t for the insanely high asking price:
The 5230 is a phone that sells internationally for €149 unsubsidized, unlocked, and unbranded. That’s just $200! The Nuron, by contrast, is locked and branded, which immediately devalues the phone by a somewhat unquantifiable amount — but regardless of the dollar figure you want to put on that, it’s worth something less than $200. T-Mobile meanwhile charges you $70 to own this phone on top of a two-year contract with a $200 early-termination fee. Translated, that means that if you buy this phone, break your contract, and keep the phone, you’re out $270.
Coincidentally, we kept thinking to ourselves “this might be a decent phone if it were free on contract” as we played with it. But it’s not free, and it’s certainly not worth a dime more than that. In other words, it’s — drum roll, please — Unrecommendable at Any Price.
Further information can be had via the URL below:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/22/nokia-nuron-for-t-mobile-review/
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