5530 XpressMusic: Best Touch-Screen Phone Under $200
Everyone’s haing and hemming about the hottest selling nokia mp3 phone, which means the low end ones don’t get much love. And it’s really too bad, because the Nokia 5530 and 5800 XpressMusic is one of the most capable under 200 dollar phones out there.
Nokia XpressMusic Hardware
The 5530 XpressMusic is a pretty pocketable phone. It’s small, thin, and fairly lightweight. It’s also solidly built, and not as cheap-feeling as the 5800 XpressMusic. Carrying it around was a heck of a lot more preferable than lugging around my monster-sized N97, despite the loss of a couple key features.
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It’s interesting to note that, while the 5800 XpressMusic had actual buttons (Send/End/Menu) on its face, Nokia has opted to make those keys touch-sensitive areas. It really works good and I actually prefer these buttons to the tactile versions. To me it seems much easier to press in one-handed action. The XpressMusic shortcut key is still not changable, but works well for quick access to what will probably be your most used functions anyway. (with the exception being the “Share Online” shortcut, this is junk)
Moving on to the display, I found the 5530XM touch-screen on par with the 5800 XpressMusic – that is to say, it could be better, if it was more sensitive, like the N97.
XpressMusic Software
Even though the 5530XM runs the same flavor of Symbian S60 Fifth Edition as the N97 and 5800XM, it brings a few improvements to the table. Kinetic scrolling, long missing from the other mentioned phones (although added recently to the N97), is *almost* present everywhere: apparently someone at Nokia forgot to add it to the main menu. Transitions between screens are surprisingly fluid, and the phone gives you the feeling that it’s faster than it probably is. It definitely boosts the user experience.
The internet browser is based on WebKit, and renders webpages reasonably well. It’s not perfect, however. There’s 2 issues: first, there’s a lack of kinetic scrolling that’s evident when browsing nearly every page – you’re stuck having to “backscratch” the touch-screen to scroll down. It’s an obvious oversight, and I’m not sure why this was not noticed during testing. And next, visiting certain sites like Gizmodo causes the application to suddenly quit. No warning. No error message. At least you get a nice transition out effect.
Data speeds on AT&T’s EDGE averaged a speed of 153.05 kbps down (20 KBps), compared to the 292.8 kbps theoretical max of the device. 20 KBps doesn’t seem too quick, but strangely adequate I didn’t have a dilemma with EDGE. It was surely browsable. (speed tests calculated with mobilespeedtests.com)
Call Quality
As well as can be predictable from a distinctive Nokia – that is to say, very good. The only problems I had were due to AT&T’s crapper network. Voices came over crystal clear, and suprisingly I had no troubles in this department.
Multimedia
The stereo speakers on the 5530XM, like the 5800XM, are very, very suprising and good. It’s hard to say which is better – my money’s on the 5800, but either way, music sounds great, and different from the typical “tinny” can speakers that are in most cell phones these days. Note that the Music Player on the 5530XM is the old version, not the newer one that’s present in the latest N97 update.
The 5530XM also comes with some preinstalled computer games like the infamous Bounce, Trivial Pursuit, and Asphalt 4, American Idol, and Global Race Raging Thunder. After trying Bounce, I came to the insight that the 5530 simply can’t handle any serious 3D game – Bounce was choppy, laggy, and the controls are just plain lousy (no accelerometer support in this distribution). Trivial Pursuit, on the other hand, was a pleasant time-waster even though the computer seems to cheat.
Battery Life
In one word: admirable. I was able to go almost six days straight of random light/moderate usage prior to the phone crapped out on me, and that’s simply amazing. By comparison, I can only go, at best, two days on my N97 with the same usage. Sure, you can’t just evaluate the two like that (3G and a larger screen are probably a big reason why), but the Nokia 5530 is still a winner in my book when it comes to battery life.
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