Nokia 5530

Nokia 5530 Review – A Touch Screen Music Phone

If you want something more than XpressMusic phones, but still don’t want to shell out several hundreds of dollars, the Nokia 5530 is right for you. It has everything that you expect from a Nokia XpressMusic phones and apart from the features, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard are present. You can bet that the Nokia 5530 provides the best value for money because it has several specifications that are lacking in its competitors. The Nokia 5530 is undeniably slim with dimensions in the range of 104 x 49 x 13 mm. The weight is also 107g which is a pretty decent weight for a touch screen mobile phone. Nokia has planned very well to increase the customer base for the S60 touch screen interface by selling affordable, yet juicy Nokia 5530.

A 2.9-inch TFT resistive touch screen is an interesting addition to the regular XpressMusic mobile phones from Nokia. The pixel resolution is 360 x 640 and it can display 16M colours. The sensitivity of the screen is good even though you have to get used to hard pressing thumbs. As the screen is touch resistive, you can use a stylus to access the menus. The only problem with the screen is that the display during a sunny day is very difficult to use. A media key is used to select media and web based menus. A proximity sensor also has its place in the front design.

The Symbian S60 user interface is much better in the Nokia 5530 with significant improvements. Kinetic scrolling can be used along the user interface to browse everything you have in your 5530. To get the QWERTY keyboard, you have to use the mobile phone in text input mode. However, not much of touch screen user friendly features are available. More experiments could have been done in the interface to give a real touch screen user experience. Even though it is understandable that Nokia 5530 is a package that brings cozy features together for an affordable price, it can be said that touch screen is not fully utilized in the 5530.

The phone book is just a default phonebook used in other Nokia mobile phones. With high end features, it is absolutely normal to expect smart dialing feature, but it is still lacking in the Nokia 5530. Messaging is possible using the touch screen interface. Handwriting recognition is an interesting feature available in the Nokia 5530. The 3.15 megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash takes good photos in various lighting conditions. The Video recording available is also decent with the camera.

The music player is convenient to use though no significant changes were made compared to the 3rd edition XpressMusic phones. Various formats are supported and no flaws are noted with the music player in terms of functionality. Aside from internal memory, you can make use of memory slots to store files externally. The audio quality of the Nokia 5530 is also good as expected. The FM radio is a common inclusion in all of the XpressMusic mobile phones from Nokia. The video player available with the 5530 is not very good. There is no support to play DivX or XviD files. Without 3G support, internet connectivity is good for the price of the phone. A number of modern features including support for flash have been incorporated in the web browser. Standard Li-Ion 1000 mAh battery provides 336 hours of standby time and 4 hours 54 minutes of talk time.

Considering the fact that it is a touch screen phone, more features are expected. The camera functionalities could have been better because noise is found in several outdoor images. The absence of TV out functionality is undesirable. Still, the Nokia 5530 is a good package for the price.