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	Nokia 5320 Crescent Electronics £174.99
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RATING:

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SUMMARY:

Quad-band 3G HSDPA candybar music phone. Dedicated N-Gage gaming keys, music keys, Nokia Say and Play (control the music player with your voice), 24 hour music playback time, Symbian OS 9.3 and microSD memory card slot (up to 8 GB).

Nokia 5320 Xpressmusic Review

Expected Launch: September 2008. SIM free approx price: £170

The Nokia 5320 xpressMusic is a music and N-Gage gaming focussed handset. 3G, HSDPA, Nokia Say and Play (voice activated song playing), 24 hour music playback, dedicated music keys (left side) and gaming keys (front top right and rewind button (left)). It's quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G HSDPA.

Design

Glossy black plastic, red or blue sides and navigation key. Dimpled effect on back, at top and bottom, and on the sides. Dedicated keys for N-Gage gaming - the "My Own Key" - top right above the screen and the rewind key (on left side of phone).

There's an 8-way Navi key and the usual array of navigation keys - selection keys, end key, call key, menu key and cancel key. The keypad has nice big keys.

Quick tour:

Front: Video call camera, earpiece, My Own Key, 2-inch display, selection keys, call keys, end keys, Navi Key, keypad.

Bottom: Microphone, 3.5 mm connector, miniUSB, charger connector.

Top: Power button.

Left: Rewind key, play/pause key, forward key, microSD card slot (Nokia say up to 8 GB microSDHC card).

My Own Key

Top right above the XpressMusic logo is the "My Own Key". You can customise this to open your chosen application. By default, it opens the Nokia Say and Play application. This button is also used as a dedicated N-Gage gaming key, when you've got N-Gage installed and activated. The rewind key (left side of phone) is also used as a dedicated gaming key. Play games in landscape mode.

2 MP camera

Nothing special. The camera isn't the focus of this phone. S60 camera features. LED flash on the back.

Features

Nokia Say and Play

Press the top right button to enter the Nokia Say and Play application. Say either:

1. Artist name
2. Artist name, then song title
3. Artist name, then album title
4. Playlist title

Say the words, and the song/playsist/artist will start playing. If you've ever used voice dialling and commands, you know this isn't perfect. It can require multiple attempts to get the darn thing to play the song. The quieter the better. We find it easier to just navigate to the song.

24 Hours Music Playback

Excellent, if true. The Apple iPhone 3G also has 24 hours music playback. The Nokia N96 has a measly 14 hours music playback time. Music playback = how long you can play music before you need to recharge the battery.

The music player supports MP3, M4A, eAAC+, WMA files. Stereo headset included - it's fine. 3.5 mm audio jack. FM radio with RDS included. This phone has an "audio chip for hi-fi sound quality".

Quoted battery life is just 4 hours 2G, 2.5 hours 3G. Not great. 4.5 hours gaming time on a full battery. The 5320 XpressMusic has a 890 mAh battery.

Nokia Maps

Not included, but you could download Nokia Maps. Buy a Bluetooth GPS receiver and you have a GPS-capable Nokia phone.

Symbian OS 9.3

Download applications, information management tools. Series 60 interface and feature pack 2. Document viewer: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe, Zip. QuickOffice.

Video calling

Front-facing 284 x 320 pixel video call camera.

Web browsing

S60 browser. Fast downloads with 3G and HSDPA. 2-inch screen - so not great for browsing. You can browse and download songs at the Nokia Music Store.

Summary

Good featured music phone. 3G, HSDPA, music keys, N-Gage gaming, expandable memory (8 GB) all for under £170 SIM free at launch. A good value alternative to the more expensive NSeries phones.

TAGS: 3g, hsdpa, music, smartphone, bar phones

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