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Nokia’s latest music phone is a small slider that's compact but packs a punch
Now that slide-operated phones make up around one in five mobile sales, it’s no surprise that Nokia is taking the form factor seriously.
It has already made use of the shape for its top-drawer glamour phone, the shiny stainless steel 8800. And its Nokia N80 smartphone is as small as it is because of the slide mechanism.
Now it’s moving into the world of music mobiles with the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic, which comes in either red-and-white or black-and-white liveries, both of which seem are very stylish. The 5300 is a smaller handset than the Nokia’s earlier music maestro, the 4GB hard drive-toting N91, but still has space for up to 1,500 tracks, providing you have the right memory card.
The 5300 saves its music to microSD memory card. It’s supplied with a 256MB-capacity card but you can choose cards with up to 2GB of space. The music software supplied, Nokia Audio Manager, is efficient and easy to use, and automatically synchronises the phone’s music with those on your computer. You’re not limited to one music format, either – the software supports mp3, AAC and Wma tracks.
Music mobiles stand and fall on their aural capabilities. The external speakers are not exactly high-fidelity, but playback through headphones was excellent. What’s more, while some handsets force you to stick to the original headphones, by using a USB connector that only the in-ear buds supplied will fit, the 5300 has an adapter allowing any headphones to work.
External buttons make playing tracks easier. Once you’re in the Music Player program, the dedicated Play/Pause, Next and Previous Track raised buttons are simple to use, even by feeling your way around when the phone’s in your pocket. The same buttons scroll through the radio station presets when you’re in FM mode. The other navigation keys on the handset aren’t quite as easy to use, however.
Of course, you may want to make the odd phone call as well, and the backlit keypad is reassuringly conventional and accessible. It’s a tri-band phone, so you can listen to music in the US, too, and Bluetooth means you can connect a wireless headset.
The camera, perhaps the weakest part of the equation, is only 1.3 megapixels. Still, if it’s music you’re after, this is a convenient, easy and impressive phone.
Also consider:
Samsung D900
The D900 is that rare treat - a catwalk model with brains
Virgin Mobile Lobster 700TV
The Virgin Lobster 700TV is a fun mobile phone with effective TV and DAB radio
functions.
Our verdict
Good Points • Neat, compact styling • Strong music software • Excellent FM radio Bad Points • Average 1.3 megapixel camera • Navigation keys fiddly Overall The Nokia 5300 XpressMusic is a neat and accessible handset that’s small but powerful
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Nokia 5300 poor quality
Warning to potential Nokia 5300 purchasers. Lets get beyond what the Nokia 5300 looks like and what look like "COOL" or "Sexy" features. Just about everybody offers a wide array of cool stuff on their phones today. How does the Nokia 5300 stand up under normal, easy usage? Well unfortunately IT DOESN"T. So all those "COOL" features just added to your wastage of hard earned money. I bought a brand new Nokia 5300 in mid June 2007 from Rogers to upgrade my 3 year old Nokia 3220 which was a personal use phone. This was to be the 6th Nokia phone that our family has had in the last few years. The Nokia 5300 stopped working by July 7th. So the phone lasted 3 whole weeks. The Nokia 5300 was carried in a leather pouch on my belt right beside my Blackberry 8703E which is my work phone. It was acquired 3 months ago to replace a Palm Treo 600 which was 2.5 years old and starting to act up. To make a long story short the Nokia 5300 phone apparently became "water damaged". But the only water this phone was ever exposed to was humidity in the air which is difficult for most of us to control. I work in an office environment but have been known to venture outside the air conditioned office, house and car. Since I live in Western Canada, we are not talking excessive humidity levels. This might be a good phone if you were working in an arid climate like Saudia Arabia or Death Valley. This same "humidity" has not bothered my 3 month old Blackberry 8703e, the Palm Treo 600 I had for 2.5 years nor the Motorola V330, T720 and StarTac phones nor the Nokia 3220. All of these phones were used in the exactly the same conditions and in the same environment and somehow none of them became water damaged from humidity. Lets face it this slider case is not well enough sealed. So my recommendation to anyone who reads this is quite simple. Nokia quality has seriously slipped downhill. It is obvious that their new 5300 phones are not adequately sealed against humidity and they of course refuse to stand behind their inferior, defective product. Spend your hard earned money and buy something of quality like a Motorola, Sony Ericsson 810i, Samsung, LG or Sanyo. If you do make a mistake and buy a Nokia 5300 for its cool features, well don't say I didn't warn you. ...
Posted by Fitz Dickson, 26 Jul 2007