Nokia 5300 Review
Nokia’s XpressMusic product line, as the name implies, are mobile phones laden with music features and is the Finnish manufacturer’s answer to Sony Ericsson’s Walkman phones. The mid-range Nokia 5300 for sale, announced in September 2006, is one of the first mobile phones in Nokia’s music-centric product range.
At the time of its release, the Nokia 5300 presented a good value for money music phone. The price and its feature set proved to be a good alternative to the Walkman phones. The 5300 has since been superseded by more advanced offerings from Sony Ericsson and Nokia themselves. For the budget-conscious, however, it should still be enticing today given the readily found discounted Nokia 5300 units out there.
As with most of Nokia’s offerings, the Nokia 5300 for sale has solid build quality. At 92.4 x 48.2 x 20.7 mm in size and 106 g in weight, this slider phone is compact and lightweight, albeit a bit thick. Don’t be fooled by the somewhat cheap looks, this phone feels well-built in your hands. The spring-assisted slider is very smooth while the alphanumeric keypad is comfortable to tap on with its large keys. The 1, 2 and 3 keys, however, could have been separated from the slide a bit more. People with big thumbs might find the top row a bit cramped.
The 2” QVGA-resolution display has adequate brightness levels and is readable in sunny conditions. Readability is mostly what you should be concerned about as you won’t use the unlocked Nokia 5300 much for viewing photos taken by the camera. At 1.3MP, no flash and below average photo and video quality, the camera takes a back seat to the 5300’s main feature - the music player.
The Nokia 5300 for sale’s music player is good enough for the average user. It supports the most common audio formats (MP3, AAC, AAC+, and WMA) and also has stereo FM. Audio quality was decent even when using the loudspeaker. The included headset, while not as good as the ones provided by Sony Ericsson on their Walkman phones, still performed well. But with a standard 3.5mm adapter included in the box, you can use your own choice of quality headphones. The 5300 also supports Stereo Bluetooth, giving you quite a few choices on quality cans.
With the dedicated music keys beside the screen as well as the camera button, you can use the audio and camera functions with the slide closed. The 5300’s Series 40 user interface also allows you to minimize the music player and have your tunes play in the background while you fiddle with the other functions. When the player is minimized, the active stand-by display shows you the artist name and the song title.
At only 5MB, the discounted Nokia 5300 is a bit stingy with the internal memory. It does, however, have a microSD card slot which is hot-swappable; a very useful feature if you plan on carrying more than 1,500 songs (the average number of songs you can fit in a 2GB memory card) with you.
Another plus for the 5300 is the aforementioned user interface. The Series 40 UI is highly customizable and has a basic but very intuitive file manager and menu layout.
For the techno or audiophiles, the Nokia 5300 may not be for you as a high-end, and expensive, do-it-all phone or even a dedicated portable media player would better satisfy your discerning taste. But for the average user on a budget and who values the convenience of having one device handle your calls and messaging needs while providing a decent audio player, the Nokia 5300 is certainly a great choice.
