Nokia 5310 Xpress Music review

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,946
1,138
126
I had Sprint for 5+ years, Verizon for 2 years, AT&T for about 6 months, Boost for a few months and now I have T-Mobile. Got a killer deal on a Nokia 5310 and wanted to try the Flexpay because I hate contracts, but I also hate the $$$ pre-paid cost if you use it much at all.

This phone is thin, maybe too thin, is very plasticly but feels decent in my hand, the tio back part wiggles a bit when I press on it, but it seems to be a well enough made phone. Screen is a nice 2" QVGA, images look pretty good, the specs are 16.7 million color. I love the candybar form factor, finding non slider or clam shell phones is becoming harder and harder unless you want a Blackberry or Smartphone.

The speaker on it is pretty good, not as loud as a Boost but it's clear and music sounds actually decent. As an MP3 player I like it more than my previous Ericsson w810i Walkman phone. The audio controls are great, easy to access and the perfect size. The keypad isn't too small, I have fat ass fingers and I don't find myself having a problem pressing the buttons.

The phone supports Flash Lite for menus but I haven't found any that really wow me, my w810i has tons that are really sweet. Maybe I need to look harder, but on a bright note I didn't have to hack it like I did my 810i to be able to load custom menus on it.

Video looks like crap, 2 inches isn't much anyways but the resolution is 177x152 @ 15fps so it really fails next to my Motorola Q's video playback.

I don't like the placement of the charger port on the side, it seems flimsy when plugged in, I'm worried it will snap off one day :( Also sucks that the PC port at the top doesn't charge thru USB, Nokia should have done this, so now when I hook it to my PC I gotta have 2 things plugged in if I want to charge it.

Uses MicroSD memory, Nokia doesn't give a # I can find for max size or if it supports SDHC, 2 sites I've seen say 2 gig max, another says 4. I would hope a phone this new supports SDHC, 8 gigs for $35 bucks would be nice. It comes standard with a 1 gig card.

battery life is good, the phone is small and light so it's impressive how long it lasts with such a thin battery.

I give the phone 8/10 it doesn't really have a lot of cool features, the UI is plain but you can spice it up with themes, but out of the box it sucks.


now the service, I LOVE the idea of Flexplay, the plan is 300 mins a month, unlimited n&w @ 7. And fav5 for $48 a month after taxes. No contract so I can jump ship whenever I want with no worries. You can get a non fav5 plan for $10 less a month. Coverage.... Well I'm in Chula Vista right now and I'm getting no signal in the condo I'm at. If I go upstairs and stand right by the window and tilt a little I am able to sometimes get a signal sometimes. EVERY other company I've had my signal was near full here. YAAAAH T-Mobile! Coverage is much better in Riverside, where I live. But I visit here a few weekends a month so the lack of coverage here is bothering me.

 

Mide

Golden Member
Mar 27, 2008
1,547
0
71
Thanks for that review. I was wondering how well that MP3 player function worked. Most other phones suck at music playing.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,946
1,138
126
the controls are good for mp3, but it supports playlists and you can search based off artist, albums & genres. It could be better but it's better than my Windows Mobile Smartphone by far, and even my w810i Walkman. I will also say max volume with headphones seems to be a little low, it's much better for my ears, but my w810i at max volume was deafening loud. I would estimate this is about 1/2 as loud at max. But it sounds pretty clear.

after about a week with it I will say the plastic they use on the screen SUCKS ASS. I am pretty careful with my phone and if it's in my pocket I make sure there's no keys or change or anything metal. It still has a lot of micro scratches already, indoors I don't notice them but outside they show up already. I can't find a belt clip for the phone either.

But as far as everything else, it's a nice phone. I like it better than the 2 overrated N seires phones I've used. I don't see what's the big deal about having an uber camera when besides that the phone is boring. S60 phones don't do much for me, this is an S40 I believe? It's a whole lot cheaper though.