Nokia 5300 Black Review - Display & Audio
Display & AudioNokia built the 5300 with a gorgeous 2" QVGA (320 x 240) display that supports 262,144 colors. The display actually looks a bit larger than it is thanks to the handset's compact body and the black border that frames the screen. In any event, colors display richly and vividly on the display, and text, photos, graphics, and videos were all easy to see. I took a few outdoor shots with the phone's camera and set one as my wallpaper, and honestly marvel at how great it looks on that screen. As mentioned, the Active Standby mode on the 5300's Series 40 OS allows for a great deal of home screen customization. WIth a few clicks I set my phone up to display a horizontal shortcuts bar, text and icon links to the music player and radio, and a shortcut to today's entry on the calendar along with all of today's appointments. Oh, and beneath that, I also have a customizable note (text and icons). Again, the 5300 isn't a smartphone but it does offer quite a bit more power and flexibility than the average handset when it comes to customization.
The 5300 also features a power save mode that dims the display after a period of inactivity, leaving only the time and date displayed in black at a very low brightness setting. Optional animations can also be set to run when the phone is slid open and shut.
I tested the tri-band GSM 5300 on T-Mobile's network in the San Francisco Bay Area. Voice quality through the internal earpiece was generally excellent. I almost always captured a strong signal, and voices were almost always clear and loud on both ends of the conversation. The speakerphone worked well, though voice dialing is not supported by the 5300.. While I don't expect much from music playback through a cellphone's built-in speaker, the Nokia's speaker had plenty of volume for impromptu group listening sessions.
A stereo headset is included with the 5300, as is a 2.5 to 3.5mm stereo adapter. The headset is of standard "included earphones" quality, which is to say that if you listen to a lot of music you're not going to want to use it for very long. I used the 3.5mm adapter to connect my Ultimate Ears earphones to the 5300, and also to connect it to my car stereo system. The UE earphones are ... well, they're pretty awesome ... and they uncovered a fair amount of background hiss coming from the phone during music playback. Generally speaking, however, the hiss was only noticeable between songs or during very quiet passages. And I didn't really notice the hiss at all when the phone was playing music back over the car stereo.
I should also mention that any phone marketed as a "music phone" should really have a 3.5mm headphone jack built-in. The 5300's adapter works, but it's both cumbersome and easy to lose. Nokia's N76 has a 3.5mm jack, so it's not like they don't know how to build one into a handset. That being said, I'd rate the 5300's audio quality for music playback somewhere just below that of an iPod or a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone: It's really very good, but not quite on par with the best in the business. Nokia's built-in graphic equalizer is great for tailoring the sound to your own tastes, and it features several factory presets and two more that you can customize to your own liking. Bluetooth audio devices are also supported, including stereo over Bluetooth. I had no trouble pairing a Bluetooth earpiece with the phone, and voice quality with the earpiece was good. Stereo music over Bluetooth also sounded quite good.
Next: Messaging, Internet & Connectivity »Fetch me more...Quickly jump to more information about related topics, cell phones, carriers or phone manufacturers mentioned in this In-Depth Review by using the links below. About our in-depth cell phone reviewsWe take great pride to ensure that the our reviews are thorough and accurate. In no way are our editors directed or influenced by any manufacturers, advertisers, or partners; we believe that honest, opinionated reviews -positive or negative - are the only way to maintain credibility and serve our users. Reviews by companyApple, BenQ, BlackBerry, Eten, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, o2, Palm, Pantech, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony EricssonNoah's Phone in 60 Seconds video review of the Nokia 5300 Xpress Music Player highlights the great features including the 1GB memory card that can hold an iPod Shuffles worth of songs Nokia has been pushing their high-end N-Series "multimedia computer" handsets in the United States over the past year, going so far as to open flagship stores in New York and Chicago where consumers can purchase the devices unlocked for use on T-Mobile, Cingular, and other GSM networks. The Finnish cellular giant's business devices have also been gaining a little traction here in the states, with the E62 holding a place down in Cingular's... Music is the main draw of the 5300. Nokia's music player arranges your tracks in iPod-like fashion, letting you browse according to Artists, Albums, Genres, Composers, and user-deinfed playlists. Songs can be loaded direct from a computer via USB or bluetooth, or using the included mini-USB cable. T-Mobile included Nokia's music management program on CD with the phone, though I found it just as easy to manually drag tracks to the... Messaging on the 5300 includes SMS and MMS as well as IM support for AOL, ICQ, Windows Messenger, and Yahoo!; Email is not supported by a dedicated client, though T-Mobile's T-Zones service does provide a very rudimentary email service accessible via WAP browser. As such, the 5300 is just fine for occasional messaging, but certainly not the device for anyone who needs mobile Email on a regular basis. Text entry is made easier by... I've always been a fan of Nokia handsets. They're generally built to high standards and feature attractive, logical menu systems, and solid features, even if they're a little less trendy than their competitors when it comes to style. The new Nokia 5300 XpressMusic for T-Mobile brings a little bit of flair to the Finnish phone maker's sturdy style, combining a sporty color scheme with rounded edges, external media controls, and an... I'm testing out the new Nokia 5300 XpressMusic for T-Mobile right now, and was dismayed to find that it wouldn't sync with my Mac's Address Book and iCal applications. However, a quick Google search yielded an easy hack that I successfully employed with the 5300, and that looks to work with other unsupported Nokia handsets as well.
The fix takes about five minutes (or less) and involves digging into one of iSync's resources, cutting... Three new Nokia music handsets combine strong features, youthful style and attractive pricing Espoo, Finland and New York, NY, USA - Amid the excitement of the hottest DJ's and live performances from chart-topping artists, Nokia today launched an exciting new range of music phones during an exclusive event at Nokia Theatre in New York's Times Square. Headlined by the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic, which features a stylish slide design and holds...
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4.7
