| Nokia 5300 Expert Reviews |
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Nokia 5300 -- by Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter--March 16th 2007 |
| Full Review |
| If you’ve been searching for a cell phone that does double duty as a portable music player, the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic may be just the ticket. Besides sporting an MP3 player and an FM radio, the Nokia 5300 also comes with a 1GB MicroSD card for storing hundreds of songs. Of all the cell phones trying to be that perfect blend of two popular gadgets (a cell phone and a music player), Nokia’s XpressMusic does the best job we’ve seen to date. In short, if you want a music phone now, this is the one to get. We just wish it had better battery life. |
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| Call Quality |
Calls and speakerphone: The one thing we can boast about on this cell phone is how clear callers sound. Thankfully, they said the same of us. When indoors, calls are quite loud, and the connection is really clear. Unfortunately, when you step outside on a noisy street or walk around during a windy day, call quality tends to degrade, in the sense that callers can be difficult to hear no matter how high we set the volume. The speakerphone (Nokia calls it a Loudspeaker) was clear and sufficiently loud; however, to get the best results you should turn over the cell phone so that the screen faces down.
Audio playback: Audio playback for MP3s and FM radio through the Nokia 5300's speakers is impressive: loud and clear, with minimal interference. The included headset also provides decent playback of both MP3s and the FM radio. (Note: You can’t use the FM radio without attaching the headset.) Better yet, if you want to use your own 'phones, no worries; Nokia includes an adapter for a 2.5mm jack in the box – a nice touch. |
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| Ease of Use |
Menu/phone book: Like many Nokia cell phones, the Nokia 5300 is outfitted with a straightforward interface. If you’re a longtime Nokia user, acclimating yourself to the menu will be a breeze. Maneuvering through the cell phone’s menu system is simple, and once you become accustomed to what each icon represents, it should take no time at all to use with ease. The big addition here is the inclusion of the music player tab (see Music to learn more about this feature). Additionally, since there is a MicroSD memory card slot and an included 1GB card, we should note that you don’t have to look for the memory card to find items such as music, pictures, and videos stored on it; those items will automatically appear in the appropriate menu option.
We particularly enjoyed customizing the Go To menu to list favorite or most-used features/apps first.  Entering and finding numbers takes just a couple of button taps. You can enter five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a Web address, a company name, a job title, a nickname, and even a street address.
Camera/video: The Nokia 5300 isn’t just about the music; it also sports a 1.3-megapixel camera but no flash (you won’t miss it). If you want to snap self-portraits, that’s no problem; on the back of the cell phone there’s a tiny mirror next to the camera lens. There’s also a self-timer feature if you need time to strike a pose. We particularly like the way the display reorients itself to horizontal mode, thereby mimicking the experience you get with a typical digital camera. Unfortunately, the image quality could be better. We found images to be dull and grainy on the cell phone screen, and it only goes downhill from there. Video quality wasn’t much of an improvement either. But again, this really is a music phone that happens to have a camera.
Music: No wonder the 5300 has XpressMusic in its name--music really is the heart of this Nokia cell phone. Of course, there’s the MP3 player portion of the cell phone, but there’s also a built-in FM radio, which can be accessed so long as you have the headphones plugged into the cell phone. As noted earlier, MP3 playback quality is impressive on this music phone. The music player will play MP3s, unprotected AAC files (sorry, no purchased iTunes music), and unprotected Microsoft WMA files (Note: If you have Windows Media Player 10, you should be able to transfer and play protected WMA files on the Nokia 5300). We should note that you’ll be able to store protected music onto the MicroSD card, but you won’t be able to play those songs on the Nokia 5300. Instead, they’ll appear in the list of all music with a little lock icon. Although the cell phone has only about 5MB of internal memory, it’s really not a problem since it includes a 1GB MicroSD memory card on which you can easily store hundreds of songs.
There is a plethora of ways to get music onto this cell phone. You can download it, or you can move tunes from your computer onto this cell phone either via the included mini-USB-to-USB cable or by first inserting the MicroSD card into an SD card reader, then into the computer. You can even send music via IR, though we do not recommend this painfully slow route – it takes about 3 minutes to transfer an average song. The easiest way is to treat the cell phone’s memory card as a storage device; just drag and drop the music files into the My Music folder. As far as the player’s features go, there’s Random, Repeat, and an equalizer (that doesn’t do much). There’s also a Favorites option that lets you add your preferred song to a list – but this isn’t a playlist. The real gems are the three (rewind/forward/play) buttons on the side of the cell phone that you use to access the music features (see Look and Feel for more details). Another bonus is that you can save any song stored on your cell phone as a ringtone.
Connectivity/Bluetooth: We had no problem with Bluetooth connectivity on the Nokia 5300. We were able to pair it with the LG HBM-730 Bluetooth headset and are happy to report we didn’t experience any degradation in call quality. However, we should note that it takes longer to disconnect than to connect. Bluetooth isn’t the only connectivity option. As noted earlier, the cell phone comes with a mini-USB-to-USB cable, so you can sync up with your computer, and an IR port for exchanging small bits of information, such as vCards, with other IR-enabled devices (such as Palms). |
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| Design |
Look and Feel: It’s clear that when Nokia set out to design this cell phone, first and foremost on its list was making a highly usable music phone – especially on the outside. First, the middle of the cell phone is marked with a rubberized band, giving the impression of durability. Don’t get us wrong; the Nokia 5300 is quite durable (we dropped it plenty). It’s just that the cell phone didn’t need the rubberized band to convince us. Back to the music phone details: volume adjustment keys are on the right, while play, rewind, and fast-forward buttons are on the other side. You can use the buttons to start/stop the music player, similar to how it works on an MP3 player. You don’t have to go into the cell phone to activate the player.
This is a slider cell phone, so we should note that the screen (which is bright but not vibrant) tends to attract a lot of face grease, so you’ll likely find yourself wiping it off a lot. But that is the case with many cell phones these days. As far as sliders go, the Nokia 5300 was extremely durable – meaning it didn’t accidentally slide open at will.
Keypad: We’re big fans of all the buttons on the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic. We particularly like how receptive to the touch the four-way rocker key can be. It always went where we wanted it to go. Sometimes with rocker keys, you can press the right-side button and end up getting the option for the lower key – not the case here. The keypad is nice as well. Keys are raised and spread out enough that users with either larger or smaller fingers will have no problem with it. Read: we didn’t experience any accidental misdials. |
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| Battery Life |
| One area where the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic could use some improvement is in battery life. The good news is that you won't drain the battery faster by playing music than you would with typical use. The bad news is that the battery doesn’t last nearly as long as we would like, and you can’t use the included mini-USB-to-USB cable to charge the cell phone’s battery while it’s connected to a computer. If you’re a light cell phone user and plan on listening to a few songs and send/receive a few text messages, the Nokia 5300 will likely last 3 to 4 days before needing a recharge. Heavier callers, texters, and music listeners will likely have to recharge the Nokia cell phone every 2 days. |
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Nokia 5300 Expert Rating
