Nokia C5-03 has arrived on UK shores, but unlike Nokia’s recent touchscreen efforts, it’s running good ol’ Symbian S60, rather than the newer, more polished Symbian 3, now officially renamed as Symbian.

Nokia C5-03 is a delightfully sturdy, slim phone. It feels smaller than its 105.8×51x13.8mm dimensions, thanks in part to the smooth curve of its plastic backing – which somehow doesn’t feel remotely tacky. The front is all screen, while the sides are unsullied by ports, and the physical buttons below the screen sit so low as to be invisible when looked on from the side, but are still easy to press.

But! Just as we thought we’d laid that ghost to rest, we discover it’s resistive. Resistive touchscreens are typically cheaper to produce than capacitive ones found on most smartphones, and accurate to exact touches.

The problem is of course, that you don’t get exact touches with a fingertip, and since there’s no stylus included with the Nokia C5-03, you soon encounter problem number one. Never mind the lack of pinch to zoom gestures: it’s almost impossible to type.

Nokia C5-03 might be doomed before it even shipped courtesy of its operating system, Symbian S60 5th edition. It’s here complete with all the frustrations you had with on the Nokia 5800 more than two years ago. Obnoxious screen pop ups when you try and turn the Wi-Fi on, screen whiteouts that last seconds when you tilt the phone or leave an app – it’s all here, and it feels like Nokia has done nothing over the course of two years to correct it. One of our rants from last year can be read here, and still very much applies.

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