Review Nokia 5310 XpressMusic cell phone
Review Nokia 5310 XpressMusic cell phone
Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Specifications :
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Introduction :
Nokia 5310 is a good music phone from Nokia that can rival Sony Ericsson's Walkman range. We love the ultraslim, lightweight design, the practical keypad and the hot looks (choice of red or blue). The Nokia 5310 has a fully loaded music player and FM radio, up to 4 Gbytes of memory for storing songs, a 2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth connectivity. The battery life is below average, and some users have reported a problem with freezing, but this phone is definitely worth a look.
Design and Feel :
Impressively thin and light, the Nokia 5310 offers users a smooth plastic finish with aluminium trim (available in red or blue) and the front fascia boasts three dedicated music keys, unusually found vertically parallel to the screen. The keypad is refreshingly basic and the raised keys offer great tactile response.
The build quality is rather high, there's no play between the parts and the body doesn't screech even if squeezed hard. The quality of the plastic is quite sufficient, the most part of the phone's surface sports a matte texture resistant to fingerprints. The back panel is made of durable dark grey plastic with a dotted texture and a subtle relief which help to conceal the scratches and worn spots, and also gives the device some intriguing and original looks.
To wrap up inspecting the phone's hardware, we have to say that we are generally very pleased with its build quality. High-quality materials have been used and that contributes to both the handset's looks and sturdiness. The phone feels nice in hand but due to its extremely light weight it sometimes stands a little too toy-like. Still, if you don't have the largest of hands, this isn't a major concern at all.
Keypad , Display and User interface :
The keypad of Nokia 5310 has ample terraced buttons. It is easy to distinguish between keys on different rows but virtually impossible to do so for buttons within the same row. This renders some problems to orientation if you rely on touch solely. However, the size of the keys does help here so probably some training will greatly improve the situation.
Screen
The screen is of a standart type common for the latest generation of Nokia phones, effectively being a two-inch QVGA matrix powered by the TFT technology, with a pallete of up to 16M colors. The matrix quality is very high, being one of the best found in its class. Comparing the screen to that of SonyEricsson W880i, it becomes evident that both feature almost the same high level of quality, but the advantage (because of a larger diagonal) still belongs to Nokia 5310. The brightness levels are automatically adjusted by the integrated luminance sensor (located near the speaker), this element is increasingly becoming a common feature of all the Nokia casual phones (earlier found mainly with smartphones, but things seem to have changed). The mirror backing of the screen matrix eliminates the inconveniences potentially posed by the direct sunlight, the latest Nokia phones are the evident leaders in this aspect. Even while exposed to direct sunlight, the screen remains perfectly legible no matter how hard the light is.
User Interface
Nokia 5310 Xpress Music, in a manner similar to the rest of the latest Nokia phones, is based off the fifth revision of the Series 40 hardware platform. A series of previous articles contained detailed explanations of the features found with S40v5, and the Nokia 5610 is not an exeption. The only thing that differs is the graphical representation of the application interfaces, and for the rest all the features are virtually the same. In order to keep a consistent theme linking the exterior design with the menu graphics, the Nokia designers did their best at picking a style and a color scheme for the menus, the player and the radio skins that would complement the exterior, for instance the black-and-blue version of the handset has the black and blue colors dominating in all the preinstalled menu themes and player skins, and this is perfectly true for the black-and-red version as well. The themes look quite harmonical and aren't to flashy. Each theme comes with a unique screensaver.
Features :
The Nokia 5310 may not be the most feature-packed cellular in the XpressMusic series, but not many handsets out there can claim to offer a more complete music-phone package. In addition to the 3.5mm audio jack, the Nokia 5310 also offers A2DP Bluetooth stereo for wireless connectivity to compatible stereo speakers and headsets.
An onboard microSD card slot accepts up to 4GB capacities, ensuring you won't run out of storage space for your music, videos and photos. (Nokia bundles a 512MB card with the 5310.) Even if you run out of songs to listen, there's always the FM stereo radio.
The onboard music player supports various song formats and can display album art, too. It synchronizes with Windows Media Player 10 and 11. The presence of Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WMDRM) encryption means users can play songs purchased from the Nokia Music Store when it is launched here next year.
Performance And Battery Life :
This is a music phone first and foremost and, in this capacity, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic dazzles. Although the lack of 3G makes track downloads a little slower. It's a shame that the two-megapixel camera offers no flash and the 4x digital zoom is a little weak. Yet with its svelte build, the 5310 looks great.
If there's one thing wrong with the Nokia 5310. it's the battery life. Nokia quote 300 hours standby - that's 12.5 days. Forget it! You'll get 1-2 days use from this phone, depending on how much you use the features. Since it's a music phone, you'll probably use it a lot and will need to charge it most days. Get over it - this is an ultrathin phone with a large LCD screen and tons of features. This is what the battery life is like in this kind of phone. If a longer battery life is essential for you, then buy a different phone
Conclusion:
The Nokia 5310 is an attractive, ultra-slim phone from Nokia. Although not particularly basic, neither is it hugely feature-rich when compared to other phones on the market. Instead, it excels at the task it was designed for - being a very pocketable phone that plays music well.
The camera could have been better, but those who are looking for a superior camera need look no further than the Nokia 5310's elder brother, the Nokia 5610 - which is in a sliding form factor. The memory card slot offers expandability and the versatility of being able to switch between different music libraries stored upon different microSD cards. The best feature of the Nokia 5310, which isn't found on the Nokia 5610, is the 3.5mm audio jack. To me, that alone makes the Nokia 5310 a winner.
Pros & Cons :
+ Minimal dimensions and weight
+ Convenient player and radio controls
+ High audio quality
+ 3,5 headset jack
- Low-volume speaker
- Lack of bundled remote control