Nokia 5310 is part of the Xpress music collection that joins together all the handsets from the Finnish manufacturer that are equipped with dedicated keys for music control and especially armed on the technical side. The phone also boasts record physical characteristics – it is a 9.9mm thick candy bar with only 70g of weigh, a device that will fit in any pocket with ease and will also impress with its appealing size. Color choices are reduced to only two options: red and blue. The model shares a lot of common parts with Nokia 5610 including the design. The main difference between them is the form factor, a factor that under marks the idea that anyone would find something to meet its expectations and taste when picking out a handset from the Xpress Music segment.
Design
The front panel was developed under the concept of being almost completely flat - the idea that helped to build the thin plastic body. The display has a resolution of 240x320 pixels and a responsibility to create the perfect picture with 16 million colors on-board. The main control buttons are situated beneath it. The navigation is handled by a D-pad, two soft keys and another two answering keys. The alphanumeric keypad is committed to support our flat theory with little shape on the buttons. Near the earpiece a light-sensor has the job to minimize battery consumption by adjusting the display brightness and the keypad backlight. Thus it reduces it to minimum when it detects sufficient ambient light and does the opposite when it gets in the darkness. Music controls are on the left side along with the charging slot, while on the opposite side the music rocker makes its presence. Although many aspects are really looking the same as on Nokia 5610, the great surprise and difference is the 3.5mm jack, which is on the top of the phone, near the USB entry and the On/Off button. On the rear panel the 2MP camera is fair enough for a music handset. Have we missed the MicroSD slot? No, we didn’t forget to look for it but it happens that it’s not present. The Memory Card can only be inserted by removing the battery cover, and carefully searching beneath the SIM card.
Features
The menu or User Interface is far more familiar to everybody. Nokia 5310 is powered by Symbian Series 40, the 5th edition. There are some specially developed themes to fit the exterior design; also the standard customization of the menu is available. Somebody may be happy to hear that the messaging center includes and E-mail client, but the lack of support for 3G networks will certainly turn down many smiling faces. The phone still makes its mission complete with a multifunctional music player and FM radio. You have the possibility to sort music in several modes, profit from the RDS utility, or take under control the music quality by adjusting the 5-band equalizer. Video can be played in landscape mode, but it shows off some bad level when recording its own video clips, an aspect that could be better. The camera menu is equipped with several options and lets you specify the quality level, resolution, and for those who feel inspired and want to express more it also includes some great effects. The connectivity is based on GPRS and EDGE. The Bluetooth unit is designed to maintain a stereo connection with your headset, and helps to share music files and photos with other mobile phones. The USB connection serves as the main data transfer option, and helps to synchronies with your PC as well. In the end we must admit that the similar exterior design does not meet the same technical specifications inside. It is up to every person to decide whether it will opt for Nokia 5610’s better camera equipped with a flash LED, or for a handset that is specifically dedicated to music fans with a 3.5mm headset input as the edge element.
