For quite some time if you wanted a music orientated phone it was just a matter of choosing what Sony Ericsson Walkman mobile you liked the most. And for good reason, as most Walkman phones are brilliant, not only at the music bit but at everything else too. Nokia now are determined to change this, with their release of their new range of music orientated cell phones. The mobile that I used was the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music. This is their ultra slim candy bar variant of their Xpress music range, measuring only 9,9mm thick.
Nokia really put a lot of effort into the design of the 5310, the styling is funky yet not over exaggerated. I feel Nokia achieved a very good balance of matte and shiny finishes. With the casing being predominantly matte and the screen cover and keys being shiny. The red or blue plastic stripes down either side of the phone add a bit of excitement to the overall design. While the casing is predominately plastic, it does not look or feel cheep. In fact the overall feel of the mobile makes it feel like a much more expensive than it actually is. It is going for about R 2 300.
On the right hand side of the 5310 there are three buttons that are dedicated to controlling music playback. I really did not expect to use these as much as I did. The reason being is that I used the music player more than I expected. The 5310 has a 3.5mm audio jack so I could fit my own earphones. Which I did, and with spectacular results. The sound quality was crisp, sharp and surprisingly meaty. I would go so far as to say that the sound quality is as good as, if not a teeny bit better than your iPod. To round it off Nokia bundled the 5310 with a 2gig micro SD card. Now for the die-hard music nut that has filled their 80gig iPod this size is laughable, but for most of us it is ok, not spectacular but ok. I cant say that the music players functionality or quality of playback is better than the any of the new Sony Ericsson Walkmans, but it has certainly given Sony Ericsson something to worry about.
The guys at Nokia have really tried hard to make this phone as much fun as possible. This is clearly shown with the psychedelic themes and the funky ring tones that Nokia only loads on their Xpress Music phones. Now I am not one that normally plays the games on my cell phone but Citybloxx is bloody addictive man! (I think the psychedelic themes are finally getting to me) The overall impression that you get from the phones interface is really cool, you just don’t want to stop playing with it, like your favorite toy when your where eight. If I have one criticism of the 5310 and I do, it is that the camera is dreadfully average. It is only 2 mega pixels, barely enough for a decent e mail sized photo.
Even while listening to music and playing Citybloxx I still managed to get a solid three days out of the battery. Oh and I almost forgot it does everything else you expect from a Nokia. It synchronises with Windows perfectly and has a rather functional calendar and phonebook. It also handles voice commands better than a well trained German Shepherd and has a 16.7 million colour screen.
So this is a fantastic music phone that is pretty good at everything else too, and if I had not just spent all my money on the Sony Ericsson Walkman W890i I would definitely get one.
Brendon Ambrose
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