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The biggest shame with browsing on the C5 is the lack of Wi-Fi. As a fairly low-cost phone, we can understand it being missing from the feature list, but with both a web browser and the Ovi Store on board, it would be nice to have.
Would it really cost that much more to get a receiver chip with 802.11g built in?
Ah, well. We've got 3G mobile access, with the phone even going so far as to identify 3.5G super-even-faster broadband when it's available.
Adobe Flash is built into the main browser, but bear in mind this is a mobile out-of-date version of the plug-in, before you go lording it up over your iPhone-owning friends.
For example, BBC iPlayer is non-functional, requiring a new version, immediately taking most of the fun out of proceedings. There is a YouTube app for negotiating that particular pitfall.
The browser tends to load pages already in a zoomed-in view.
This wouldn't be so annoying if the scrolling didn't consist of going slowly… slowly… slowly… thenveryfaststraightpastthebityouwanted. If you want to see the page as a whole, you have to dig that choice out of the options menu.
It's not a terrible browser for a phone this size, but it's hardly doing the internet justice. But there is hope…
After deciding the default browser was a dud, we got our first taste of how handy this handset can be. We fired up the Ovi Store aiming to look for trusty Opera, and found Opera Mini right near the top of the lists.
You might recognise Opera Mini as the version of the browser that processes the web page for you server-side, then pushes you a lower-bandwidth version.
This can cause it to come up with some odd page formatting, but seeing as the C5 is sadly lacking Wi-Fi, it's actually pretty handy. It's less strain on your monthly data plan, and means quicker web access.
Ultimately, browsing using Opera Mini is perfectly suited to the 2.2-inch screen. This is no internet consumption device, let's face it. Nevertheless, having an option that makes that screen space work is very welcome, especially in the World Cup weeks.
To describe our browsing experience as transformed would be somewhat over the top – it's still a case of zooming right in to read anything – but it was snappier, worked more to our liking, and simply improved the handset for a cost of zero pounds and zero pence.
