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There were no huge surprises for internet browsing, other than a nicely configured home screen when you start the browser initially.
It shows links to several popular services, including Yahoo Mail, Facebook, news channels and Mapquest. Large icons for making bookmarks, typing in a URL and accessing browser settings make it easy to surf.
The only real gripe here is that the phone screen, at 640 x 360 pixels (about the size of two fingers side by side), is a bit small for reading text on a web page.
The screen quality – while bright and clear – does not match the sheer crispness and quality of the Google Nexus One, which uses OLED technology.
Of course, the lack of Wi-Fi rears its ugly visage here as well. Sites loaded slowly over a typical 3G connection, and not nearly as fast as they do over Wi-Fi.
And, while web page rendering worked fine for sites like ESPN.com and Gmail, there is a long lag on rich sites – like IGN.com – as they load in the background.
Combined with the slow processor, lack of Wi-Fi makes the Nokia 5230 a poor choice as a web device.
