Nokia 5300

Nokia 5300 Review – Xpress Music Phone

When you want a good phone, why not check out the Nokia 5300 otherwise known as Xpress Music? This is one well featured phone that is full of surprises and is a delightful addition to the Nokia line. Nokia has been working hard on the XpressMusic lineups to compete against Sony Ericsson's Walkman series, today follow us and find out if the 5300 can really beat this responsibility.

Nokia 5300 measures 92.4 x 48.2 x 20.7mm and weights in at a respectable 106g. This dimension in fact makes it rather thick but we all know slimness is not the right point the 5300 relies on to attract your attention. The main colours used in the 5300 are chalk white, silver grey and scarlet red which match  well with its themes and make it a good looking music phone.

Nokia 5300 comes with a 2.1-inch, QVGA TFT screen which may display 256k colours and will surely give you a vivid and pleasant viewing experience. The 5300 is totally rated at an 8.0 by users that have rated the phone on performance, design and features. While there are some things missing from this particular phone, it is a well featured phone as far as price is concerned. As to communication, Nokia 5300 includes such features as instant messaging, MMS and SMS messaging so that you can stay in touch with your family, friends and other contacts while on the go. It also allows you to get email to your phone that includes SMTP, POP3 and IMAP4. The phone also contains a WAP2.0 HTML web browser.

Other connectivity features include an USB, Bluetooth and infrared port for all of your connection and data needs. Included is a 1.3 megapixel camera having a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. Graphic formats such as GIF, PNG, BMP and WBMP for photographs taken with this phone are included. For video, you have playback modes of MPEG-4, 3GPP, AVC and H.264. Video features include streaming, player, ringtones and recorder with a 176x144 recording resolution. For audio purposes, you have a music player included that will allow for both audio streaming and recording.

For your connection needs, you have HSCSD, EDGE and GPRS. Other connectivity features include an USB, Bluetooth and infrared port for all of your connection and data needs. Speaking to photographing, you are provided with a 1.3MP camera which can capture still images at 1280 x 1024 pixels. The image quality is decent and will surely satisfy your common use. You may also record videoes at QCIF with this camera. Graphic formats such as GIF, PNG, BMP and WBMP for photographs taken with this phone are included. For video, you have playback modes of MPEG-4, 3GPP, AVC and H.264. Video features include streaming, player, ringtones and recorder with a 176x144 recording resolution.

For audio purposes, you have a music player included that will allow for both audio streaming and recording. The music player can play a wide range of formats including WMA, MIDI tones, MP4, MP3, SP-MIDI, AAC, eAAC+, True tones, AAC and AMR-NB. There are extra features that include, Visual radio, POC, Stereo FM radio, Themes, SyncML, Presence and hands free speaker. Don't be afraid of lacking of memory to store your favourite music and videos as Nokia offers you a option to expand the memory up to 2GB.

Business features will include voice memo, T-9, stopwatch and reminders. Games are also included with this particular phone. Your phone book has a large 1000 limit for your phone. For those that want a music cell phone, this one is the tops. Not everyone can afford a smart phone with all its bells and whistles. This is a good phone in its price range and allows for having a high quality slider phone from Nokia. Powered by a standard Li-lon 860 mAh battery, the 5300 will provide you with up to 223h standby time and up to 3h 10min talk time.

The screen and user friendly controls also rank high on the scale. Nokia 5300 is one impressive phone for the asking price. The picture quality is decent and your personalization options are quite high such as wallpapers, animations, sounds, color themes and screen savers for example. There are several games on there that may attract attention but the list will vary. Some of the games that could be included are Music Guess, Pro Snowboard and Snake III. These cell phone games will vary by location.

Call quality is exceptional with no distortion and crystal clear clarity. The 5300 will only operate on a tri-band instead of the quad band networks. This is a bit of a drawback, but the rest of the phone makes up for it. The only other drawback, as far as the camera is concerned is that there is no flash present. The music quality is higher than that of other comparable phones and downloading music is also a breeze. All in all Nokia 5300 rates an 80 out of 100 for design, function and ease of use.

Specifications:

2G Network	GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
	GSM 850 / 1800 / 1900 - US version
Announced	2006, September
Status	Discontinued
Dimensions	92.4 x 48.2 x 20.7 mm, 85 cc
Weight	106 g
Display Type	TFT, 256K colors
Size	240 x 320 pixels, 2.1 inches, 31 x 42 mm
	- Downloadable themes
Alert types	Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone	Yes
Phonebook	Yes
Call records	Yes
Internal	5 MB
Card slot	microSD, up to 2GB, hotswap
GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G	No
WLAN	No
Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port	Yes
USB	Yes, miniUSB
Camera Primary	1.3 MP, 1280 x 1024 pixels
Video	Yes, QCIF
Secondary	No
Messaging	SMS, MMS, Instant Messaging
Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio	Stereo FM radio
Games	Yes
Colors	Red, Black
GPS	No
Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
	- MP3/SpMidi/AAC/AAC+ player - T9 - Reminders - Stopwatch - Voice memo/commands
Battery	Standard battery, Li-Ion 860 mAh (BL-5B)
Stand-by	Up to 223 h
Talk time	Up to 3 h 10 min