In the old age of cellphones, nokia dominated the market with phones like 3300, 3310, 2100, 6600 and many phones. But when sonyericsson made their first hit phones the T610, T630, k700i and the “uncrowned first cybershot†phone 750i, Nokia is trying to keep their cellphone domination by releasing plethora of models while Sonyericsson is doing well with their “No hype necessary†attitude. While Sony made models codenamed “walkman†and “cybershotâ€, Nokia released the multi-talented “n-series†and the xpress music edition phones. Though, I am a SE fanboi, I review the first nokia review-nokia 5310 xpress music cellphone.
[BREAK=The Packaging and slimness comparison]
These are the requirements that a box should fulfill:
This phone is literally a Nokia version of SE 880i in terms of size.
[BREAK=Ergonomics and other short stories]
By The looks of it, nokia has learnt the art of “not using tiny buttons†from the SE’S slimmest model-w880i. The buttons do need a firm push but there are easy to use. Certain number pads with no gaps between the buttons do have a tendency to make typo mistakes while writing sms but this isn’t the fact on this phone all thanks to the curved buttons. However, for people with fat thumbs will find it difficult to navigate using the direction buttons.
Now if you really want to compare the ergonomics of both the phones, the xpress music takes the crown, but no dedicated “media†button which goes to the mp3 player, it is a serious turnoff for a phone which is considering itself as a music phone. The rewind, play/pause and fast forward buttons are placed on a good position on the phone and enough space to press buttons in a better manner compared to w880i, but they could have used the empty space on the right hand side to connect to folders for pictures or the nokia’s mp3 player. If such thing was done, it would have been a strong catalyst to gun 880i down as the slimmest mp3 player phone.
Connectivity and other controls
On the top, there is a direct 2.5 MM jack, the usb port and the power buttons, all conveniently placed. This would be great for people who have good headphones like creative ep630, but Inorder to use the radio; you have to use half of the nokia default headset.
Also the xpressmusic antenna has a button on it but behind it, there’s a clip-on, which sonyericsson has, but not behind the antenna.
On the left of the phone, it has a convenient charger, unlike what we see in Sony Ericsson. I don’t know if my fellow SE users found this as a problem, but after certain time the phone gets charged after some firm push here and there. This does indeed eliminate the issue. However, in sonyericsson’s case- it transfers data, gives access to music and radio & charges all at the same time on the same port-killing 3 birds with one stone…as I would stay.
As usual there is a volume control button on the left or on the right hand side. However, while using this phone with music on the idle screen, it doesn’t seem to display the volume indicator on the screen on the default screen-like how sonyericsson does. In my opinion, a music phone should fulfill that need as well.
At the back panel, there are two signs of the early times which reminded me of 6600- my last nokia phone I owned. The Micro SD card they provided with is 512 MB, although I should say that for the company which claims the max capacity is 4 GB should atleast bundle it with 1 GB especially for a music phone. The phone uses a 3.7v battery and a good one, but then again I saw cases when the camera uses majority of the battery power easily. The camera didn’t seem to have good quality lens at all. This is a 2mega pixel camera which shoots worse then the old age vga phones. And the speakers are a different deal. I know these speakers don’t necessarily woo the crowd, but there should be a good amount of clarity atleast in a quiet room. I wished they bundled atleast the stereo speakers. This phone is more sad and a failure, even compared to the former worst cell-w610i.
If you see the picture, you will be amazed. The trees are having the red fizzles, etc. I have no idea why on earth they are giving a bad name to a 2 mega pixel camera. This 2 mega pixel camera gives worse quality of a vga camera
[BREAK=Conclusions]
Conclusions:
This phone has mixed reactions. No dedicated buttons but good buttons. Good battery life, but camera uses so much power to give out a bad picture. The max compatibility is 4 GB but bundled with 512MB. Even if I keep my priority as music and write this review, it will still have scrathes and dents on the score card. This phone retails for approx Rs. 10k at subhiksha, Mumbai which happens to be slighty cheaper with alfa- but not all phones. I will give this phone 2 out of 5 purely because if one thing was good, another was bad.
[BREAK=The Packaging and slimness comparison]
These are the requirements that a box should fulfill:
- The phone’s picture (and it should be of same colour as the phone inside the package.
- Special Functions
- The contents of the package
- 5. Good protection of the product
This phone is literally a Nokia version of SE 880i in terms of size.
[BREAK=Ergonomics and other short stories]
By The looks of it, nokia has learnt the art of “not using tiny buttons†from the SE’S slimmest model-w880i. The buttons do need a firm push but there are easy to use. Certain number pads with no gaps between the buttons do have a tendency to make typo mistakes while writing sms but this isn’t the fact on this phone all thanks to the curved buttons. However, for people with fat thumbs will find it difficult to navigate using the direction buttons.
Now if you really want to compare the ergonomics of both the phones, the xpress music takes the crown, but no dedicated “media†button which goes to the mp3 player, it is a serious turnoff for a phone which is considering itself as a music phone. The rewind, play/pause and fast forward buttons are placed on a good position on the phone and enough space to press buttons in a better manner compared to w880i, but they could have used the empty space on the right hand side to connect to folders for pictures or the nokia’s mp3 player. If such thing was done, it would have been a strong catalyst to gun 880i down as the slimmest mp3 player phone.
Connectivity and other controls
On the top, there is a direct 2.5 MM jack, the usb port and the power buttons, all conveniently placed. This would be great for people who have good headphones like creative ep630, but Inorder to use the radio; you have to use half of the nokia default headset.
Also the xpressmusic antenna has a button on it but behind it, there’s a clip-on, which sonyericsson has, but not behind the antenna.
On the left of the phone, it has a convenient charger, unlike what we see in Sony Ericsson. I don’t know if my fellow SE users found this as a problem, but after certain time the phone gets charged after some firm push here and there. This does indeed eliminate the issue. However, in sonyericsson’s case- it transfers data, gives access to music and radio & charges all at the same time on the same port-killing 3 birds with one stone…as I would stay.
As usual there is a volume control button on the left or on the right hand side. However, while using this phone with music on the idle screen, it doesn’t seem to display the volume indicator on the screen on the default screen-like how sonyericsson does. In my opinion, a music phone should fulfill that need as well.
At the back panel, there are two signs of the early times which reminded me of 6600- my last nokia phone I owned. The Micro SD card they provided with is 512 MB, although I should say that for the company which claims the max capacity is 4 GB should atleast bundle it with 1 GB especially for a music phone. The phone uses a 3.7v battery and a good one, but then again I saw cases when the camera uses majority of the battery power easily. The camera didn’t seem to have good quality lens at all. This is a 2mega pixel camera which shoots worse then the old age vga phones. And the speakers are a different deal. I know these speakers don’t necessarily woo the crowd, but there should be a good amount of clarity atleast in a quiet room. I wished they bundled atleast the stereo speakers. This phone is more sad and a failure, even compared to the former worst cell-w610i.
If you see the picture, you will be amazed. The trees are having the red fizzles, etc. I have no idea why on earth they are giving a bad name to a 2 mega pixel camera. This 2 mega pixel camera gives worse quality of a vga camera
[BREAK=Conclusions]
Conclusions:
This phone has mixed reactions. No dedicated buttons but good buttons. Good battery life, but camera uses so much power to give out a bad picture. The max compatibility is 4 GB but bundled with 512MB. Even if I keep my priority as music and write this review, it will still have scrathes and dents on the score card. This phone retails for approx Rs. 10k at subhiksha, Mumbai which happens to be slighty cheaper with alfa- but not all phones. I will give this phone 2 out of 5 purely because if one thing was good, another was bad.
