Foreword
It is really hard to understand how some mobile phone manufacturers behave. Right now I just don’t know what to say about Nokia: the Finnish guys, seeing the huge success of iPhone, started the development of the touch-controlled version of their own Symbian Series 60 platform, the first result being 5800 XpressMusic, launched in November 2008. I won’t discuss the user interface right now, but let’s notice the fact that 5800 is a musical handset for youngsters, which can be seen on the materials used, the shape and the colors.
During the time that has passed since the phone’s launch, only a single touchsreen phone has been launched: this is the premium-category N97, which could be a rival of iPhone only in pricing, as its design, layout and structure make it a totally different kind of mobile device. Now the third touchscreen phone is here, which is nothing else than the dumber and smaller version of 5800 Tube, another musical model for the young. There is nothing wrong about launching such a handset, but I just can’t understand why do the Finnish designers are simply sitting on their asses while Apple and other manufacturers lure those customers who have been Nokia users, but now they want such a touchscreen phone that you can’t get from Finland.
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Samsung S5230, Nokia 5530 and 5800
So, it’s 5530 from XXL GSM: smaller size, more hype, smaller box, less accessories. Unfortunately we won’t get any carrying case, but there is a 4 GB microSD card inside and of course the usual trio is here too: the charger has the Nokia connector, the data cable is microUSB and it’s incredibly short (about 10 centimeters), while the headset is the new, in-ear type, looks very youngish and its cable is like a ribbon, but it has no volume control or skip track buttons.
Exterior
You can immediately notice that the phone is a brother of 5800, even though there are a lot of differences. The most important is the size, as 5530 is much smaller than its predecessor: their weight is about the same (this weighs 107 grams, while the other is 109), but the subject of our current review is only 104 x 49 x 13 mm large, while 5800 XpressMusic had a size of 111 x 51.7 x 15.5. Unfortunately the materials used didn’t change much, although this has been one of the most criticized spots of the previous musical phone. This one is better assembled, but there’s no huge difference: it won’t start screeching as soon as we take it into our hands, but there are a couple of parts that have some play. The plastics used for the front and the sides are somewhat better, but the back panel is terrible: it wobbles, it cracks and it’s mode of that horrible “gooey” plastic, that doesn’t only keep fingerprints, but it seems to multiply them. This quality wouldn’t be enough even for a low-end handset, but it’s irritating at this one.
The difference in size can be seen on the display as well, as it has a diagonal of 2.9” instead of 3.2; the resolution (360 x 640 pixels) and the technology (TFT panel) are the same, image quality and color fidelity are great, but there could be some readability problems in strong sunlight. We can see the manufacturer’s logo and the XpressMusic hotkey above the display, while below it there is a small gap – I’ve once pressed this with my nail and the crack is visible ever since; I just don’t know what to say about this, I have never in my life seen a phone that I can damage with my nail. The buttons below the display are also touch-sensitive, I have met only a single person who liked these (by the way, he has a 5800), but I didn’t: I have pressed the button on the display instead of the one under it and I also hate when I have to accept/end calls with the not so reliable softkeys instead of real ones. There is again a frame around the display and the buttons, this offers some protection for the otherwise very sensitive plexi (you still shouldn’t put it face down), but this is where we collect the grease when wiping the screen: after three days I had a massive layer of grease below the rim, and this can be cleaned only with small, soft sticks – of course we should watch out not to damage the screen.
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Click the image if you want to see how does the dirt look like!
I’ve already mentioned the back panel, it has a terrible quality and it’s even prone to damage and looks lame. I can already see some small scratches on the side, I think the situation would be very disappointing after a couple of months. The camera has a resolution of 3.2 megapixels, it has a flash, which now has only a single LED instead of two.
The power button is on top of the handset, the 3.5 mm headset jack has been moved to the bottom, so it is in the company of the slim Nokia charger connector and the microUSB connector, which has a lid that opens really hard. Unfortunately this Nokia phone is again one that cannot be charged from the USB port, no matter if we plug it in a computer or a microUSB charger – the stupid little machine asks us to choose Mass Storage, PC Suite or Multimedia mode even if we connect the USB charger.
On the right we can see the volume control buttons, the very loose slide of the screen lock and the camera’s shoot key. In the bottom left corner we can find a stylus that is very hard to put back in its place, and the cover of the microSD and SIM slots is also here. We can insert and remove the cards only by using the pen, so elderly people could easily suffer permanent brain damage from this process. Otherwise we can replace the SIM card only after removing the battery, as there is a gap on the green plaque where we have to tamper with the stylus to get the card out. Seriously, I get freaked out by these solutions.
Operating system, software
According to unofficial information, 5530 has a 434 MHz ARM11 CPU, while 5800 has the same chip, but in that case clock speed is 369 MHz. I have felt the speed difference, the scrolling routine has improved a lot, the system is more dynamic, but of course we have the same 5th generation Symbian Series 60 (v 9.4). To tell the truth, this system has been pretty new for me, as the two other handset that use this have been reviewed by our chief editor, and I only had a prototype of Samsung i8910 before. My opinion about the user interface is absolutely subjective: my first impressions weren’t very good, the reason is that the touch-controlled Series 60 works on a completely different principle that other touchscreen systems. Of course I’m a long-time user of the classical S60, so I had no problem finding specific software or settings, but it was strange that I had to double-tap and a scrollbar on the side of lists, even though this proved to be very easy to use. After a day I was completely used to the system, I had no problems controlling it and I made use of the advantages of Symbian. There still are some things, no matter the years long of tradition that should be redesigned: there could be a scrolling wheel at the alarm clock setup for example. Anyway, I like the system very much.
At the 5800 review we have taken a close look at the basic functions, so I’ll just mention the new features and the differences. There are some changes on the standby screen already: the speed dial row with images can be scrolled horizontally, the virtual key that takes us to the menu is now gone, so we can get there only by pressing the touchkey in the middle. In turn the links in the two bottom corners can be freely configured, the left opens the dialer by default, while the other takes us to the contact list. Typing has changed as well: we have a numerical keypad in portrait mode and a QWERTY keyboard in landscape, but this one is now somewhat harder to use, as due to the smaller screen the programmers crammed up the keys, there is no border zone amongst them. The layout didn’t change, I haven’t been completely satisfied by it, as entering special characters is a real pain.
The list of software is not bad at all, every basic app is included on the phone by default. There is no Office and PDF-reader, however, and the N-Gage platform is also missing. The organizer functions are still okay for anyone and gamers don’t have to be sad either, as the good old Bounce and car racing game Raging Thunder can be found on the phone.
Phone calls, messaging, Internet
I had no problems during calls, I think sound quality was perfect. There is one small new feature over here, we cannot accept or deny calls only by pressing the buttons, but also by stroking the virtual stripes that appear on the screen.
Poor 5530 has been striped of almost every data transfer method: it although has a quad-band GSM module (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), but it doesn’t support 3G networks, so we can only use GPRS or EDGE. The handset is saved by the built-in WiFi, so we can do some real web browsing, as the browser is a good one, even though we might have problems reading texts in a small font on this display. The scrolling is cool over here as well, the intelligent zoom feature (accessed by double-tapping) works fine, YouTube videos are also okay – of course we can use the browser in portrait and landscape modes as well. Bluetooth is version 2.0, it supports stereo sound transfer and it has quite a long range. The microUSB connector I’ve mentioned is at version 2.0, so it’s great for transferring data, but as I have already mentioned, we can’t charge the phone here.
The contact list has an unlimited capacity, we can add contacts until they fill up the 70 MB of internal memory – we can also edit the extra fields, of which there are a lot, and we can even create our own labels. There will be no problem with messaging either, as SMS, MMS and emailing are all support, authenticated IMAP servers and file attachments being no problem either.
Multimedia
The camera’s resolution is 3.2 megapixels, it has autofocus and we can take images at 2048 x 1536 pixels and videos at 640 x 352 pixels, these having a speed of 30 frames/second. The camera’s software has tons of settings, the only thing we can’t alter is light metering, although this would have been useful. You can check video recording quality clicking here - as you can see, the video has been recorded in artificial light, so this could be why the noise level is so high.
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Image quality is like on most Nokia phones: so-so. We can take superb photos in sunlight, but the white balance misses in shadowy places, while we only get a huge spot of noise during the night, this getting even blurry if we turn on night mode. The flash is quite powerful, in spite of its size, but pictures taken in poor lighting conditions will be really “digital”.
The music player performs well, the only problem is that it somehow didn’t display the album covers for my tracks, although it should do it. Otherwise we have every imaginable feature: using the XpressMusic button above the display, we can access the image browser, the video player, the browser, sharing and the music player anytime. Of course this last one can run in the background and it can be controlled from the standby screen. We can filter tracks by ID3 tags, there is a graphic equalizer, we can skip and seek tracks, and we don’t need anything else – only an FM radio with RDS, but there is one on 5530.
There are no problems with sound quality, volume is shockingly high on handsfree, but the WH-205 headset is also okay, the only problem being that it has no buttons, only the one for answering calls, so we can’t even stop the music (although we can start the voice dialer).
The image viewer didn’t change, but it got much faster, it really changes pictures quickly and zooming speed is also fine. Unfortunately the video player hasn’t been improved, there’s still no DivX support.
Battery, summary
As there is no GPS receiver on the phone (so no Nokia Maps either), I can only write about the battery before the conclusion. Unfortunately this is also smaller, it has a performance of 1,000 mAh, so even the official uptime is shorter: nearly 5 hours of talk or 27 hours of music playback. This means in practice two days of uptime (or maybe three if we don’t really use the phone), but then we have to charge it.
I’m not content with Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. Based on its feature it is a direct rival of Samsung S5230 and LG KP500, but those cost nearly 100 euros less, and they are better assembled. Currently we have to pay about 260 euro for a 5530, which is even more then 5800 was, even though these change soon, so let’s talk about the facts. The materials used, the design and assembly are terrible, they are characterized by a really low quality. The display is beautiful, but it could be a bit too small, we’ll feel this mostly when entering texts. It performs great in music, the lack of 3G is a bad thing (although WiFi support kind of compensates for it), and there could be some who would have liked GPS too. The terrible outside, even in spite of all the problems and lacks, has a great entry-level model inside, which will have its price drop very soon to a level where it should already be: around 150 euros. And then it can be a real alternative for the Samsung and LG handsets I’ve mentioned, which are no quality-champions either, and they even have a closed operating system. Anyway I’m a bit stressed about giving and award at this price, but I have a heart of gold.
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| Nokia 5530 XpressMusic |
Bocha
Translated by Szaszati
Nokia 5530 has been provided by XXL GSM. The handset can be purchased at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Budapest VI. Teréz körút 18.
On-line at www.xxlgsm.hu.
Specifications
| Nokia 5530 XpressMusic | ||
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General | |
| Technology | GSM | |
| Size | 104 x 49 x 13 mm | |
| Weight | 107 grams | |
| Available colors | Red on black, blue on white, grey on black, pink on white, yellow on white | |
| Display | ||
| Display diagonal | 2.9” | |
| Display resolution | 360 x 640 pixels | |
| Display type | resistive TFT touchscreen | |
| Number of colors | 16.7 million | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | dynamic | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | dynamic / 300 kB | |
| Internal memory | 70 MB | |
| Memory expandability | microSDHC (4 GB card in box) | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | Class 32 / Class 32 | |
| UMTS / HSDPA / HSUPA | no / no / no | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | no / 2.0 (A2DP too) | |
| WiFi | 802.11 b/g | |
| USB | microUSB 2.0 | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | yes / yes | |
| GPS receiver | no | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | yes | |
| Vibra function | yes | |
| Built-in handsfree | yes | |
| Voice dialing / voice commands | yes / yes | |
| Sound recorder | yes (max. 1 hour) | |
| Alarm clock | yes, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | T9 | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | Symbian OS 9.4 Series 60 5th edition | |
| WAP / HTML browser | yes / yes | |
| E-mail client | yes (POP3, IMAP4, authenticated) | |
| Java | yes, MIDP 2.0 | |
| Games | Bounce, Raging Thunder | |
| Currency converter | yes | |
| Extra software | dictionary | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | 3.2 megapixels, autofocus, LED flash | |
| Secondary camera | no | |
| Video recording | 640 x 352 pixels, 30 fps | |
| Music player | yes, can run in background | |
| Equalizer | yes | |
| FM radio | yes - RDS | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 1000 mAh Li-Ion (BL-4U) | |
| Standby time | 336 hours | |
| Talk time | 4 hours 54 minutes | |
| Music playback time | 27 hours | |
| Other | ||
| Touchscreen, gyroscope | ||
