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.

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