Now, when we look at phones we are not so facetious as to dismiss a phone just because of its looks. Far more important for a phone user is what’s underneath the shell, yet a bit of classy design doesn’t hurt. The simple and basic design of the Nokia 5330 Xpress Music is certainly not classy. However, despite the rather plain styling, the 5330 does deliver where it counts. The Nokia 5330 Xpress Music runs on the tried and tested S40 software platform, offering good performance and reliability. Measuring just 14mm thick and weighing in at a lightweight 113g, the 5330 is a rather compact slide design handset.
The display is a standard Nokia QVGA TFT screen, measuring 2.4 inches from point to point. The main navigation buttons on the outside of the phone, located under the screen, are all part of one large plastic section. The two soft option keys, and send/end keys are not separated, in a design much like the Nokia N85. The whole section is only broken by the 5-way navigation D-Pad. Sliding the handset open reveals the standard 12 key alpha numeric keypad. When using the music player, there are dedicated music controls keys, which are touch sensitive, located down the side of the handset.
The music player itself is well designed, and stored music can be sorted via album, artist, composer and genre. Setting up your own playlist is straight forward, and there is support for most digital music formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC and eAAC+. On board memory capacity is 70MB which can be expanded via Micro SD memory cards. A 2GB card should ship with the phone, with the handset able to take cards up to 16GB. Complimenting the onboard music player is the inclusion of a stereo FM radio on the device, for those moments when your own music collection just isn’t enough.
Other features away from music include the offering of a built in GPS receiver, supported by aGPS. With Nokia Maps, this turns the 5330 Xpress Music phone into a compact mobile navigation device, perfect for those moments when you need a quick bearing on your location. Think of it as an added extra to an existing setup, rather than an attempt to replace a bespoke SatNav device.
There is a built in digital camera with the handset, but to be honest it is no good for anything other than a point n shoot fun camera. As a fixed focus camera, even though it offers resolution up to 3.0 megapixels, picture results are likely to be average at best. The 5330 may excel at music, but this is clearly not a handset for those who care about image quality.
There are a few things you can count on most mid range Nokia’s, and that is a good suite of connectivity options for data. Although the lack of WiFi is disappointing, we find quad band GSM, 3G support and Tri Band HSDPA Mobile Broadband, with GPRS, HSCSD and EDGE too. Bluetooth 2.1 for stereo audio is included, and connection to PC is via the micro USB cable.
Clearly, the Nokia 5330 Xpress Music is designed to a budget, and with that in mind it is sure to sell well to low contract customers and prepay users. Although the lack of WiFi and a poor camera are disappointing, the inclusion of a GPS option is a welcome bonus and despite the looks, the 5330 is sure to leave its mark on the market.
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