Nokia 3230 Smartphone

The Nokia 3230 is powered by Symbian OS v8.0 (Series 60), and is a combined mobile phone and PDA.

Tri-band handset with a megapixel camera and FM radio (plus support for Nokia's Visual Radio). Supplied with a 32Mb MMC card.


For full details, take a look at InfoSync's review, or go to Nokia.com

Availability: Became available in April 2005. No longer available.

• Take a look on eBay.co.uk or Amazon Marketplace.
• Take a look at a newer handset - See other Series 60 handsets in the range

The 3230 can connect to a PC via a cable, or over Bluetooth. Here is a summary of how to connect your 3230 to your PC.

• Bluetooth connection. From the 3230, select 'Connect | Bluetooth'. Turn Bluetooth 'On', then move to the second tab by moving the joystick to the right. This should show you all Bluetooth devices in range. If your PC isn't shown, select 'Options | New paired device' and let the 3230 search for the PC connection. When the phone and PC are paired, use the Nokia Connectivity package to select the file you want to send to the 3230.
  If your PC doesn't support Bluetooth, then you can add it cheaply and easily using a USB Bluetooth adapter. We recommend the Belkin USB Bluetooth adapter available for around £15 from amazon.co.uk.
  For details of Bluetooth, see our Bluetooth page, and for help connecting, see our PC connectivity page
• USB cable - This phone can be connected to a PC using a USB cable known as the Nokia DKU-2 Connectivity cable. This can be purchased online at MobileShop or Dial-a-phone. To use this, you will need a dedicated driver available from Nokia site. Once connected, you can use the Nokia PC Suite to transfer data and back up the phone.
• Memory card reader. If you don't want to beam files from your PC to the phone, another option is to make use of the MMC card slot in the 3230. Get hold of a Memory card reader for around £20 and copy files onto an MMC card plugged into your PC. Find out more on our Memory card page.

Files beamed to the 3230 can be found in the Messaging application, in the Inbox folder

Software for Symbian OS phones is normally supplied using a Symbian installation file (with a .sis extension). This is a single file that contains the components needed to get a piece of software installed and ready to run. A SIS file can be run on a Symbian phone (e.g. from the Inbox or via a file manager. It can also be run via the PC connectivity solution that was supplied on the CD with the handset. Assuming you have a SIS file on your PC/Mac (either downloaded from the Internet or on a CD), the ways to install a SIS file onto your handset are as follows:

• Beaming - Beam the file to your handset from your PC using Bluetooth. If you don't currently have the ability to beam files to the handset via Bluetooth (either from another handheld device or from a PC), then you may wish to purchase an adapter for your PC (this means you'll be able to install software, backup and synchronise data between phone and PC) - See our Series 60 PC connectivity page for more.
• USB cable - Your can connect your 3230 to your PC via a USB cable - See our Series 60 PC connectivity page for more.
• By email - The alternative, is to email the file that you're trying to install, typically a SIS (Symbian installation file) to your own email account, and then use your phone to logon to your email (details) and download the SIS file as an attachment into your phone's Messaging Inbox.
• Via memory card - There is another alternative for users of phones that take memory cards (such as the 3230) by transferring the SIS file to the handset via the card slot and a PC MMC Memory card reader. Copy files onto an MMC from your PC, and then insert the MMC card into your handset. You'll need to have a file manager on your 3230 to access the file from the memory card.

Hotmail and AOL use proprietary email systems, as opposed to the more common POP email systems - this makes it tricky to access mail on a Series 60 device. For email on the move, consider using a standard POP3 provider such as BT Yahoo (see setup details) that offers free email accounts that can be configured on a Series 60 phone.

If you really want to use Hotmail or AOL, see our Series 60 FAQ on this subject.

Rather than the software that came as standard with the phone, there's a rather useful third-party application called Oxygen II - This application supports Contacts, Calendar, Messaging and file management.

For details of how this works, take a look at our Oxygen page