The Nokia C6-01 is available for £209.95 (€245) on Orange PAYG (pre-pay). This is the lowest price we've seen for a Symbian^3 handset. Just as notable is the C6-01's availability with Vodafone on a £15.32 per month contract (24 months). This pricing gives a total cost of ownership of £367.68 (€431). That's competitively priced given the hardware inside the C6-01 (same hardware family as the N8). Incidentally Carphone Warehouse are also the offering the C7-00 and N8-00 for free, on £20.42 and £25.53 per month contracts respectively.
The C6-01, with its 3.2 inch AMOLED Clear Black Display, HD 720p video capture, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, microSD card support, GPS, and penta-band 3G you get a lot of hardware for your money. While the price point clearly marks it as a mid tier handset, many of its specifications match or surpass some of its more expensive competitors. We think it represents excellent value for money.
Nokia C6-01
The Nokia UK online shop is often one of the most expensive places to buy a SIM-free Nokia phone. However a couple of recent price reductions are worth noting; the N8 is now available for £379 (down from £429) and the C7 is available for £319 (down from £389). You'll be able to find both handsets for less if you shop around, but the price differences between other online retailers and Nokia's own shop are much smaller than before.
At the low end of the market new price barriers are also being broken. A year or so ago £100 was the benchmark for the cheapest Symbian phones, but now the Nokia 5228 is available for £49.95 (€57), on Orange, Virgin and Vodafone PAYG (pre-pay). The 5228 is a variant of the Nokia 5230, with the key difference being the absence of 3G and GPS hardware. Shopping around it is possible to find the original 5230 for the same price (T-Mobile PAYG via Argos). Also good value is the Ovi Music Unlimited (previously Comes with Music) version of the Nokia 5230, which is available direct from T-Mobile for £89.99.
While we have concentrated on Symbian handsets here you'll find a similar story right across the industry. We expect this trend to continue through out 2011, as the smartphone market gets ever more competitive.
An important note for those looking to find a bargain handset is that PAYG handsets are usually locked to a network. However, as noted by World of Nokia, the handsets sold by Carphone Warehouse usually come from a different stock and are not SIM locked. However there are no guarantees of this.