Nokia 5310 Xpressmusic

release date: October 2007
colours:
 
red
 
blue
Nokia 5310 Xpressmusic

RATING

3.5 stars

Pros

  • Thin and light
  • 3.5 mm jack

Cons

  • No 3G
  • Camera

SUMMARY

Decent-enough music phone, nothing spectacular. Music player is fine, as is the radio and basic features. No 3G, and a small 2-inch screen.

Review

The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a low mid-range priced quad-band EDGE music phone. Key features include a music player, dedicated music player controls, Push-To-Talk (PTT), 2 MP camera (no flash) with video capture, FM radio, Opera Web browser and microSD card slot.

Design

Plastic casing with aluminium side panels, and available in 2 colours - red and blue.

Overview:

Front: Earpiece above the screen, music player keys to the left of the screen (forward, rewind, pause), navigation keys, keypad, 2-inch screen.

Left: Charger connector.

Right: Strap eyelet, volume keys.

Back: Loudspeaker (as opposed to a quiet speaker), 2 MP camera lens (top).

Top: Power key, micro USB cable connector, Nokia AV connector (3.5 mm).

Remove the back cover to insert/remove the SIM. You also have to remove the cover to insert the microSD memory card. A 2 GB card is provided in the box. Supports up to 4 GB.

Features

Music Player

Play music, watch video. Playlists, artists, albums, genres, equalizer. You can plug your own headphones into the top 3.5 mm socket. Use the dedicated music keys to the left of the screen, or the navigation keys. You can also change music player themes.

Earphones - yeah, they're OK.

FM Radio

RDS FM visual radio. Visual radio is where radio stations can send text and/or images to the screen.

Push-To-Talk

2-way radio service over GPRS. You can use PTT to have a conversation with one person or with a group of people.

Organiser

All the usual stuff - alarm, calendar, to-do list (who the heck uses a "to-do" list on a mobile phone?), notes (again, never used this on tiny screen phones), calculator , timers, stopwatch.

Web Browser

Opera Web Browser using EDGE. 2-inch screen and EDGE - not very good. Opera Mini Web browser is fine though.

2 MP Camera

The 2 MP camera has 4x digital zoom and you've got all the basic options, white balance, quality, self-timer, gallery etc. It's a low-end 2 MP camera with tiny lens - no prizes for guessing the quality. No flash, no auto-focus.

Video capture: QCIF at 15 fps.

Here's the deal with mobile phone cameras:

If it's marketed as a "camera phone" and it has 3.2 MP +, then it's "quite good/good" for a camera phone. Newer camera phones are more likely to have better image quality than previous models.

If there's no flash (piddly little LED light - rubbish) or a Xenon flash (better), then taking shots in the dark/low light is naff. No autofocus? Rubbish for close up shots, detailed photos and so on - the lens can't focus.

The camera lens are so small, many photos are dark compared to proper dedicated digital cameras. Quality-wise, the photos aren't great, but that's to be expected - it's a cheap mobile phone. If you want quality, buy a dedicated digital camera.

Games

Snake II, Music Guess, Towerbloxx.

Summary

Decent-enough music phone, nothing spectacular. Music player is fine, as is the radio and basic features. The camera is basic, and Web browsing isn't great because there's no 3G, and it's a small 2-inch screen.

For the price, £99.95 on PAYG, it's fine. See MobileSift's home page for information on the latest music phones.

Features / Specifications

* confirm features at manufacturer's Web site.

Release Date
October 2007
Size
103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 mm
4.1 x 1.8 x 0.4 inches
Weight
71 g
2.5 oz
Colours
 
red
 
blue
Screen
  • 2.0-inch TFT
  • 240x320 pixels
  • 16700000 colours
Memory
  • 30 MB phone memory
  • microSD memory card (4 GB max)
Networks
  • Tri-band (GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)
  • EDGE
Battery Life
  • Talk time: 4.5 hours
  • Standby time: 300 hours
OS
3rd Edition Series 40 user interface

In The Box

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic phone, battery, charger, micro USB cable, 2 GB microSD memory card, software CD, user manual, HS-45 stereo headset, music flyer.

Connectivity

  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • USB 2.0
  • 3.5 mm jack

Camera

  • 2.0 MP Camera

  • features: White balance, quality, self-timer, gallery. No flash. No auto-focus.

  • QCIF video resolution
  • 15 FPS video capture

Messaging

  • SMS, MMS, Email

Entertainment

  • Games: Music Guess, Snake III, Citybloxx

  • FM radio
  • Visual Radio
  • RDS Radio
  • Music Player
  • Video Player

Internet

  • Opera Web browser

Installed Applications

  • Nokia sensor, Yahoo Go!
  • PIM: Converter II, Calculator II, World Clock II, alarm, calendar, to-do list, notes, calculator , timers, stopwatch
  • Voice recorder, voice commands

Prices

Prices coming soon.

TAGS: music, bar phones