As the baby brother of the 5800 XpressMusic, the Nokia 5230 is surprisingly well-equipped to perform as a multimedia phone for music, video and internet access whilst you are out and about. The software on the phone itself has been honed over several years to give you a listening and viewing experience that is able to rival standalone portable media players. One aspect you may not have considered is the software suite that allows you to organise your music on your PC and then transfer it onto your phone, which in this case Nokia has called Ovi Player in order to link it into its range of Ovi-branded services.

The Nokia 5230 Ovi Player software is something you will want to install as soon as you have a few minutes. It usually comes in the retail package that accompanies the 5230, but can also be downloaded from Nokia's official website if you would prefer it, or indeed if your computer does not have an optical drive and so cannot read the disc. When you first load up the Ovi Player it will automatically initiate a scan of your PC in search of compatible music files that are ready to load onto your 5230. Once your library has been compiled, you can arrange your tracks to view them by recording artist, album name, genre or by the date upon which they were added. It is perhaps easiest to describe the Nokia 5230 Ovi Player as an alternative to iTunes for those who are happier with a Nokia device in their pockets and you will see why in a moment.

There will usually be some discrepancy between the music that you have stored on your PC and that which you have transferred over to your 5230. The Ovi Player works around this by showing you separate libraries relating to each one so you can get a good idea of how full your 5230 is and what new tracks you have yet to transfer over. You can also see any audio CDs that you have inserted into your computer and playing a CD back via the Ovi Player is just as easy as you would expect. The Ovi Player also allows you to rip CDs onto your hard drive, or directly to your phone, so that when you pick up a new disk you can have it available on your 5230 library quickly.

As well as allowing you to organise your music, rip songs from CD and transfer them to your phone, the Nokia 5230 Ovi Player gives you access to a fully featured music download service. Here you can browse the latest tracks, find your favourite artist and download their song quickly via your internet connection. Although the Nokia 5230 is capable of downloading and purchasing music directly from the phone,you could use the Ovi Player on your PC to perform this action if you were concerned about eating into your monthly data tariff. You can take the pain out of purchasing music using the Ovi Player as you can register your own payment card in a few minutes and then have access to instant download using your stored details. When you do purchase a music track on your phone, you can transfer that track to your computer, which is excellent news as some alternative devices will keep the track tethered to the device that downloaded it. You are then free to listen to it both on your phone and on your PC, which makes paying for your music a sensible choice to make.

The Nokia 5230 Ovi Player software is excellent overall, as it performs in exactly the way that you would want, whether you are buying songs, transferring them to your phone or making a playlist from your existing library.