Nokia 5310 Xpress Music

Oh yes! Nokia's XpressMusic range has moved up a gear and Sony Ericsson had better watch out. The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is a classic-shape music phone available in a choice of red or blue. It's an ultrathin phone, at just 9.9 mm, and has a lovely practical design with a good sized conventional keypad and a 5-way navigation key (Sony Ericsson take note!) There are three dedicated music keys placed at the side of the screen and volume keys along the edge.The bevelled edge makes it easy to hold in your palm, and the red or blue stripes are funky but not over the top. We like the look, we like the feel. This is definitely a phone that you can enjoy even when it's switched off, and it's small and light enough to carry anywhere - jeans pocket, shirt pocket or handbag.

This is primarily a music phone, and it's equipped with a full function music player and FM radio. The music player has support for playlists, album art and an equaliser. You can listen to your music using the built-in loudspeaker (which is a bit on the quiet side), or preferably using the stereo headset supplied or a Bluetooth wireless headset (optional extra). The 5310 has a new upgraded audio chip, and the audio quality is impeccable. Really, the music player is just as easy to use as one of Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones, or even a dedicated MP3 player. We like the fact that there's a decent amount of memory built in (30 Mbytes), but you'll definitely want to kit the phone out with a memory card: the 5310 supports microSD cards up to 4 Gbytes, which is enough for around 1,000 songs. MicroSD cards are really cheap these days (around £25 for 4GB), so really there's no reason not to go for the maximum size available.

But the 5310 is not just a music phone. As well as making calls and playing music, it will do everything that you'd expect from a mid-range non-3G phone. The camera is a respectable 2 megabytes. It lacks a flash, which is a shame, but in good light it'll take decent pics. The display is outstandingly good, with a high-res screen that's as good as anything in this price range. Although the phone isn't 3G, it supports fast downloads using EDGE and has the Opera Mini Browser built-in, so you can still browse the web, and the screen is large enough to make this feasible. The phone comes with 3 games, and you can download Java games too. The UI is quite customisable, with animated screensavers, wallpapers and downloadable themes.

If there's one thing wrong with the 5310 (and at Mobile Phones UK we love to find things wrong!) it's the battery life. Nokia quote 300 hours standby - that's 12.5 days. Forget it! You'll get 1-2 days use from this phone, depending on how much you use the features. Since it's a music phone, you'll probably use it a lot and will need to charge it most days. Get over it - this is an ultrathin phone with a large LCD screen and tons of features. This is what the battery life is like in this kind of phone. If a longer battery life is essential for you, then buy a different phone (not an ultraslim one - maybe the SE W810i or SE W910i.) A number of users are also reporting that their phone freezes or restarts. This is unacceptable, and if this happens to you, return it to the shop. If it happens again, ask for a different phone.

Features of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

• 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
• Video camera
• Display: Active matrix LCD, 240 x 320 pixels, 16million colours, 2 inches
• Music player (MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAc+, and WMA music files / OMA DRM 2.0 and Windows Media DRM)
• Stereo FM radio with Vidual Radio support
• Ringtones: Video ringtones, MP3 and MP4 tones, eAAC+ tones, AAC tones, WMA tones, 64-voice polyphonic MIDI, message alert tones, and alarm clock tones
• Integrated handsfree speaker
• Voice commands
• Voice recorder
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email (SMTP, POP3 and IMAP 4) with attachments, Nokia Xpress audio messaging
• Games: Music Guess, Snake III, Citybloxx, downloadable Java applications
• Animated screensavers, wallpaper, themes
• Internet: Opera Mini Browser, Yahoo Go!, Nokia Mobile Search, WAP 2.0, HSCSD, EDGE up to 177.6 kbps
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, modem
• Memory: 30 Mbytes plus microSD card (up to 4 Gbytes)
• Organiser: Alarm clock, calendar, to-do list, notes, calculator, stopwatch and countdown timer
• Flight mode
• Size: 104 x 45 x 9.9 mm
• Weight: 70g
• Talktime: 5.4 hours
• Battery standby: 300 hours
• Music playback: up to 18 hours