Nokia 5630 XpressMusic Review - Camera and Connectivity
Camera and FM Radio (3 out of 5)
The 5630 XpressMusic comes with a 3.15 MP camera with a dual LED flash. It supports a maximum image resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. It doesn’t have autofocus but instead comes with something called the enhanced fixed focus. The image capture quality is pretty average, good enough for casual shots. The images are sharp with good contrast and accurate color reproduction. The camera interface is very easy to use and offers a lot of customizable options which I rather enjoyed. You can control the flash, self timer, night mode, multi shot mode and also set various color effects like sepia, negative, B & W, vivid etc. The enhanced fixed focus allows you to capture pictures from a smaller distance and works as advertised. It also supports video recording in the VGA resolution at 15 FPS. The video recording quality is unfortunately quite poor, definitely not to be relied on for your vacation videos.
It also comes with a FM Radio with RDS. It can automatically scan all radio stations and save them to your device for easy access, while the FM Radio interface is very nice and easy to use. It also comes with the standard Symbian Gallery application which allows you to browse through the images in your device using a very cool interface. Browsing through the heavy images is a breeze, with minimal lag, thanks to the 600 MHz processor and 128 MB RAM. You can also view the images as a slideshow and geotag them.
Connectivity and Battery Life (4 out of 5)
Connectivity and Battery Life:
The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic sports a range of connectivity options including GPRS Class 32, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, 3G – HSDPA / HSUPA. It also sports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with universal PnP. It also has Bluetooth v2.0 with the A2DP profile for Bluetooth Stereo headset support. The WiFi adapter connected easily to protected and unprotected networks and the browsing speed after connection was ample if not stellar. I also found that the data connectivity went off without a hitch, and Edge + 3G connections allowed for suitable browsing.
The device is powered by the BL-4CT 860 mAh Li-Ion battery which lasts about 1.5 days with normal usage. To maximize the battery life, I would suggest turning off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options when not in use and lowering the display brightness. Otherwise the battery worked as advertised with no hiccups along the way.
The phone also comes with a charger, a data cable and a set of stereo headphones with remote. A product manual and software DVD is also included in the retail package. The 4 GB microSD card is the icing on the top of the cake, especially considering that MicroSDHC cards of all sizes are accessible using this excellent “storage” device.
The signal reception on the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic is just like all other Nokia phones – simply awesome. The call quality is pretty great with minimal noise. The speaker volume is also very good as it should be on a music player based unit.
Conclusion
The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic is a very good option for those who want a cheap, music centric smartphone but are willing to sacrifice on the camera front. It is a great deal for just $300. Totally recommended.
This post is part of the series: Nokia 5630 XpressMusic Review
The new Nokia 5630 XpressMusic is an affordable but very powerful smartphone with a lot of features. It is specially good in the music department and is aimed at those who want a cheap phone which doubles up as a PMP.
