Following on from the recent releases and announcements of new handsets in the Xpress Music range, Nokia have again come out with even more models to fill out their portfolio. It would seem they are intent on chasing down the prominent brand in mobile music, the Sony Ericsson Walkman range. The 5730 Xpress Music is a fairly neat looking, compact handset. Just 15.4mm thick, the 5730 is going to feel comfortable in the hand. Weight wise the handset is a well balanced 135g, and at first glance appears to be just your average candy bar phone. The main screen is a standard TFT QVGA display supporting up to 16 million colours, as is standard on most Nokia devices on the market today. Underneath the display is a fairly normal looking Alpha numeric keypad with the traditional Nokia layout, of two soft option keys, send/end keys and cancel/clear and menu buttons. The menu button should give away the fact that the 5730 Xpress Music runs on the Symbian S60 smartphone platform. So far, normal enough. The surprise inclusion on this handset is the slide out QWERTY keyboard, seen most recently on the Nokia E71.
With music at its heart, we find the Nokia 5730 XM comes equipped with a top notch music player. A wide variety of formats are supported, including MP3, AAC and WMA. Like the recently announced 5630 Xpress Music, the 5730 supports the ‘Say it and Play it’ feature, which allows you to select music tracks just by saying the album, artist or track name. Included alongside the Nokia music player is the Podcasting application, to allow you to download and playback your favourite podcasts, a link to the Nokia music store, and being a S60 handset there is also support for the Nokia internet radio application. Add in the inclusion of an FM radio and your music needs are pretty much covered.
However, the entertainment doesn’t stop with just music. The Nokia 5730 Xpress Music will also support the Nokia N-Gage gaming package, so you can play high quality video games such as Fifa 09 and Monopoly directly on your handset. It seems that Nokia’s strategy is to focus the Xpress Music range as more of an entertainment device, and this means a blurring of lines across the range of Nseries smartphone multimedia devices.
The inclusion of the QWERTY keyboard on a music phone may seem a strange option initially, but once you start digging below the surface of this phone, it starts to make sense. Running on the popular Symbian S60 platform, the 5730 is a powerful smartphone in its own right. Slide the keyboard out and the screen automatically rotates into landscape view. From here, you can quickly and easily access the Nokia messaging client, and quickly start typing at an SMS or Email. With the S60 software onboard, keeping in touch is simple and easy, thanks to the Nokia Email client. This will basically offer you a push email service, from your ordinary email client. Once downloaded, enter in your username and password details for your email account and the phone will add the rest of the required details automatically. Within minutes your phone is set up to receive emails directly, as soon as they reach your inbox.
A full suite of connectivity options are also included on the 5730. The handset is quad band GSM compatible, offering coverage around the globe. Additionally there is support for 3G and HSDPA where available, meaning music downloads are done in seconds, not minutes. This is ably backed up by support for EDGE, GPRS and HSCSD. Also included is a WiFi option, so you can plug into your home network or take advantage of the many free hotspots provided at pubs, cafes and restaurants, and we also find Bluetooth 2.0 for stereo audio streaming. Connecting to a PC is done via the Micro USB cable connector.
One thing important on a music phone is memory, and the 5730 Xpress Music offers a generous internal memory capacity of 100MB, and will ship with an 8GB memory card, with compatibility for up to 16GB.
Unless you want to make sure you can carry all your music collection with you wherever you go, 16GB should offer more than enough for most users needs. Any leftover memory capacity can be allocated to imaging, videos, and maps. The 5730 Xpress Music is equipped with a 3.2 Megapixel camera, with autofocus, and uses a Carl Zeiss lens. Unless you want to print out your pictures, a 3.2 Megapixel camera is more than adequate for loading up to the web, and posting on your blog, and it would seem that for now, higher end imaging capabilities are reserved for the all round Nseries handsets.
The inclusion of a GPS receiver is also a welcome feature in this device. What Nokia are offering in the 5730 Xpress Music is a handset that focuses on its music credentials, but doesn’t slack in other areas, with gaming, messaging, navigation and imaging well catered for. Our sources report that Nokia have scheduled release for June 2009, we will announce more news as we get it.
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