Nokia’s third touchscreen phone is a noticeable step-down from the 5800 and the N97. There are benefits to the simple life though, as you end up with a more compact handset that still manages to pack in the features.
Bargain touchscreens seem to be trendier than winkle pickers and laying into Kerry Katona right now. The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is the latest budget offering to appear on our desks after the neat Samsung Blade and the Poundland–worthy Alcatel OT–708. So can it take top spot when it comes to cheapo, proddable blowers? Read our full Nokia 5530 XpressMusic review and we’ll tell you.
In fact, the 5530 pressed for each a Mc job around high school or uni and take advantage of this is, Nokia has jam-packed this affordable handset with media and social networking features to make even the most ardent status updater at humor hold.
Conclusion
For those already with the Nokia 5800, I don’t think the Nokia 5530 is worth swapping your existing mobile phone for, unless you REALLY want that scrolling contacts homescreen. The Nokia 5530 is a very good choice though, for those who just wants a touchscreen mobile phone without spending too much dough. Of course, they can always opt for the Samsung Tocco Lite or LG Cookie but the Nokia 5530 is definitely a better music player. For those without much preference and just wants a touchscreen phone, they would have a hard time choosing amongst all the affordable touchscreen mobile phones available but I’m sure the Nokia 5530 won’t find it hard to find a following of its own.
Features and Performance
If you already own the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, then there’s really not much difference in terms of software except for the homescreen. In the homescreen, there’s a scrolling contacts bar which is pretty cool except that I probably won’t find that much use to it since I really don’t put pictures of my contacts (except for three people; my boyfriend, my mom, and my best friend), but hey, maybe I can put pictures of famous people in my contacts list to spice up the 5530’s homescreen.
Anyways, the Nokia 5530 is a watered down version of the Nokia 5800 so basically, it’s the Nokia 5800 without the GPS, 3G, and 5 megapixel camera. The Nokia 5530 did retain the WiFi though and the accelerometer, and the 3.2 megapixel camera is not that bad.
Some people might complain that they would prefer the 3G over WiFi so I guess it really depends on your preference. Me? I prefer the 3G but only because I seldom come upon a free hotspot and besides, ever since I’ve heard of WiFi stealing, I rarely connect to free WiFi in a public area.
The phone comes with a 4GB memory card which will hold a pretty decent playlist of 12,000 tracks. You can upgrade the memory to 32GB if you have more CDs than Universal Music though.
There is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and inside the box you even get a set of Nokia Stero Headset WH-205 headphones which we tried out and were quite impressed with. The headphones limited outside noise and are a nice bonus with a music phone.
The 5530 comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, which is good for taking some fun pics of random friends to upload onto your Facebook wall, but isn’t really good for much else. Again though, for the price and the target market it’s an entirely reasonable happy snapper
Music-wise, the Nokia 5530 is a very good music player, The included headset is great compared to what was included in the 5800. I like the music player on the Nokia 5530 as you can adjust the sound balance and use stereo widening.
