Overview:
In today’s financial climate, ‘cheap’ is the all important keyword that catches everyone’s eye. We’re not saying that the new Nokia 5530 is bargain basement, but it’s Nokia’s most affordable touchscreen handset and is aimed at the Kanye West crowd. We popped along to the press launch this morning to get hands on with the phone. So do you get what you pay for? Let’s find out.
Review:
Nokia’s third touchscreen phone is a noticeable step-down from the 5800 and the N97. There are benefits to the simple life though, as you end up with a more compact handset that still manages to pack in the features.
We’ve already mentioned that one of the most attractive selling-points of this phone is the price. At £129 on prepaid, or £15 per month on an 18 month contract from the Carphone Warehouse, you’re not going to be taking out another high-interest mortgage to furnish yourself with one of these.
In fact, the 5530 is affordable for anyone holding down a Mc Job around high school or uni and to capitalise on this, Nokia has jam-packed this handset with media and social networking functions to keep even the most avid status-updater happy.
The 5530 has direct links to Twitter, Facebook and MySpace so accessing these sites is as easy as a tap on the screen.
There is also the added option of being able to select 20 friends as ‘favourites’. They really will need to be your favourite people though, as you will receive all of their Facebook/ MySpace updates, photos and any other recent communication history constantly updated and displayed on the Contacts Bar.
Communication-wise, on top of the expected ability to call home to say you’ll be late, or text your boyfriend a line of poetry, you also have access to something called the Media Bar.
The Media Bar pops up on the home screen to give you the option of using direct messaging services such as Windows Live Messenger, and will also provide access to sharing sites including Ovi Share, Flickr and VOX.
A downfall of the 5530 is a lack of GPS, UTMS/HSDPA support, and no 3G access. We asked about this lack of connectivity and were told that Nokia were looking to cut down on price while boosting battery life at the same time for important things to the younger generation, like game play.
With XpressMusic in its name, the 5530 is media-packed as expected. The phone itself has dedicated keys for quick access to your tunes and out of the box, provides 27 hours of playback, which is enough to drive any siblings mad.
We listened to the built-in stereo speakers which are located at the base of the phone. Volume was a bit on the low-side but this isn’t unexpected. The sound quality was decent but again, nothing to rave about.
The phone comes with a 4GB memory card which will hold a pretty decent playlist of 12,000 tracks. You can upgrade the memory to 32GB if you have more CDs than Universal Music though.
There is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and inside the box you even get a set of Nokia Stero Headset WH-205 headphones which we tried out and were quite impressed with. The headphones limited outside noise and are a nice bonus with a music phone.
The 5530 comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, which is good for taking some fun pics of random friends to upload onto your Facebook wall, but isn’t really good for much else. Again though, for the price and the target market it’s an entirely reasonable happy snapper.
The 2.9 inch touch screen displays at 640×360 pixels which is the same resolution as its big brother the Nokia 5800.
Compared to the 5800, the 5530 isn’t as feature-rich or high-tech, but then it doesn’t come with the price tag or boring exterior either.
The Nokia 5530 with be in stores at the Carphone Warehouse next Tuesday,
August 11.
The Gaj-It Verdict:
Design: 7/10
Usability: 8/10
Features: 8/10
Value: 9/10
We Say:
Nokia has done well with its first low-end touchscreen phone, and we’re pretty sure that the 5530 will be seen in low-slung jeans pockets all around town before long. What Nokia has skimped on feature-wise, it has given back to the customer in keeping the price tag reasonable and still packing the phone with enough bits and pieces to keep even the shortest attention span interested.
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8 thoughts on “Review: Nokia 5530 Xpress Music Touchscreen Phone”
I prefer Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. This phone is good but compared to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic it’s still not good enough.
Its a good looking handset from nokia, I just think nokia have done the Xpress Music range to death now!
After weeks of deciding which nokia phone to buy i bought the nokia music express 5530, i loved the phone. but then the problems started after 4 weeks screen started freezing lost all my contacts. All carphone warehouse wud do is send it to be repaired this as happened 4 times now and eAch time it as to be repaired stay away from this phone
Its a good looking handset from nokia, No Wi-fi
Little bit behind in competition
It does have WiFi.
what a geat phone has everything a 18year old would need.
The camera could be alot better tho.
The wifi is easy to use and the phone is very loud. Internet not the fastest but not the slowest.
Youtube video watching has been my big issue. I think it is a must have for the teen age range
can anyone help me out!!its something like light yellowish color getting appeared in my phone when the screen is black(eg.camera at night without flash)wat is tht?!is tht manufracturers defect?.ive never dropped my phone and comitted no other mistakes 4 sure..does anyone hab same kinda problem??will tht damage other pixels too???
I bought this phone and after 4 days it wont turn on. had it repaired, it took 2 weeks for me to get it back. after getting it back, the same thing happened , i had it repaired three times now , same problem wont turn on. this phone is so disgustingЕ.itТs giving me a headache. Hey people, think before buying this.