Nokia 5310 Review

The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic has dimensions of 103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 millimeters and weighs in at 71 grams. On the front face there is a TFT full color display that measures 2.1 inches with a portrait resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.

Below the display there is a softkey control panel that has two softkey buttons for selecting options on the left end and another key primarily for canceling or exiting applications on the right end. Below these there is the green call start and the red call cancel or end buttons. Right in the center of the softkey panel you'll find the five-way scroll keys. Below these is the alphanumeric key pad with an embedded dedicated Nokia menu key, sharing with the zero on the alphanumeric key pad.

On the immediate left of the numeric key pad there are the dedicated multimedia buttons for skipping back and forward as well as playing and pausing music.

The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic comes in either Blue, Pink, Red or Black banded colors that decorate the left and right sides of the display.

On either side of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic there is not much going on as you can see there are practically no keys or controls other than the volume up and the volume down keys on the right side of this Nokia phone.

The back side of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is reserved for just two items. There is the cover for tha battery compartment which houses the standard Li-Ion 860 mAh (BL-4CT)battery and the slot for the SIM card and the 2MP camera which also supports video recording.

The top of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is fitted with the power control button, the microUSB slot and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

Controlling the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is quite simple as this is a Symbian based phone. The general menu can be accessed using the dedicated menu key on the alphanumeric key pad or pressing the left softkey button when on the home screen.

Once within the menu you can access any application by navigating left and right or up and down using the four circling keys on the five-way scroll keys. The center key on the five-way scroll key is used for selecting the desired application.

Operation modes such as silent, meeting, offline and more can be accessed using the standby button on the top of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. This button can also be used to switch the phone on and off.

Multimedia functions can be accessed using the dedicated keys on the left side of the display while controlling sound volume can be done using the volume keys on the right side of the Nokia 5310.

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The Nokia 5310 has a Stereo FM radio with RDS and visual radio. Preinstalled games include the popular Snake 2, Towerbloxx and Music Guess. Other games can also be downloaded and installed onto the Nokia 5310.

The music player on the Nokia 5310 supports MP3/MP4/AAC/eAAc/WMA audio formats.

As far as data connectivity, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic supports GPRS and EDGE over the air without the option of either 3G or Wi-Fi. You can connect to other devices using Bluetooth or microUSB with this Nokia phone.

The camera on the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is capable of a resolution of up to 1600 x 1200 pixels. Messaging capabilities range from the standard SMS and MMS to Email. Internet can be surfed using Opera Mini, the preinstalled Internet web browser.

Out of the box, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic boots pretty fast and is quite responsive on launching applications. The sound quality on the Nokia 5310 is great especially when using the headset and you even have the choice of using your preferred standard headset.

There is good reception on the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic as far as connectivity to cellphone networks go. Sound quality during the call is excellent and there is sufficient reduction of background noise.

With the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic you will have talk time of up to 5 and a half hours and 300 hours on stand-by.

The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is quite deficient in functionality and there is plenty of room on the device for improvement. However, this is somewhat of a budget phone meant to appeal to fun loving users, it therefore fits the bill well. The Nokia 5310 does a good job in its primary function as a phone and secondary function as a music player. For a price of US$120 I would recommend the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic.

Be sure to take a look at these other XpressMusic phones from Nokia such as the Nokia 5800 and the Nokia 5230 Nuron.