Nokia 3250 WESC

Nokia 5300 – Music To Your Ears
By Jawahn

In 2006, the cell phone rage included more than thetelephone-with-little-more style of just five years earlier. Not only arephones of 2006 full of great looks, they are packed with musical features tomake them more like Walkman's than a way to phone home.

The Nokia N91 has everything except the kitchen sink, much morethan most users would ever need. Nokia answered the call of the casual userthat wanted integrated music features without being able to beam satalites inspace when they introduced the 5300 Xpress Music phone.

When you first set your eyes upon the Nokia 5300, you won'tnecessarily say "WOW!" The outer design is a little more boxy andbulky than the average top-of-the-line mobile phone. The 5300 measures 3.6 by1.9 by 0.8 inches thick, but it is lighter than it looks, weighing in at justover 3.5 ounces.

While the closed device is not terribly remarkable, try to openup the little gem and you'll find it's not the clamshell design of last year.This is a slider phone, one of the first put out by Nokia, though you wouldn'tknow it when you feel the ease of the slide. You won't get thatbaby-in-your-hand cradle feel of the clamshell but that's the nature of aslider phone.

The display is a full 2 inches and supports over 250K colors.Graphics and texts pop off the 320 x 240 pixel screen. You can adjust the fontsize and backlight time, though you can't adjust the brightness. Not to worry,the screen is plenty bright in the dark and shaded areas outside. Nokia tookadvantage of the color perfection with their eye catching, but not gaudy,menus.

Speaking of menus, Nokia really got it right on this phone. Theyprovided clear, concise descriptions of new applications users of yesteryeararen't familiar with when you place the cursor over the menu icon.

The navigation controls are covered in a rubber film thatprovides some traction for fingertips. There is a five-way button that makesnavigating the menus a breeze in addition to providing a shortcut to any fourfunctions you program. Additional shortcuts are available on the standbyscreen, too. The two familiar soft keys are programmable and the standard Talkand End buttons are in the same place as other Nokia phones.

Looks aren't everything, however, and at some point you'llprobably do much more than stare at your new mobile phone. This is where thiscell really shines. To the left of the display are dedicated music buttons forplaying your favorite tunes. You'll pause, play, fast-forward and rewind yourtracks effortlessly. Adjust the volume with the dedicated rocker on the rightside of the phone.

The music player is far superior to other mid-range priceddevices. The stereo Bluetooth makes for easy music file transfer from computerto phone. The speakers are much better than other Nokia models and most othermusic phones. Support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, and WMA files are all included.

While you're playing music tracks, the display will present
toyou the name of the song, artist, album and song length. It will additionallyshow you how to use the musical navigation buttons that are along the side ofthe screen. Play modes include shuffle and repeat. If you like to personalize yourlistening experience, you'll love the Nokia 5300. The equalizer has five presetmodes and two that are customizable. You can effortlessly save your tracks toringtones as well.

Sound quality is second to none. The speakers will please you atany volume level. The headphone volume is just as clear and crisp as your homestereo.

More than a phone and a music device, the 5300 has a lot ofadditional applications to offer. The phone book is large capacity, allowingfor up to one thousand contacts, complete with information like emailaddresses, web URLs, up to five numbers each, birth date, company, job title,notes and address. The SIM card is capable of storing an additional 250contacts. Organize contacts by groups or add a photo to the caller ID so youcan keep everyone straight. You can also assign a ringtone to each and everycontact or a group.

The text and multimedia messagingfeatures meet and exceed the expectations of most users. With T9 datarecognition, this Nokia will complete your words for you. Other integratedstandard features included in this phone are the timer, alarm clock, calendar,to-do list, notepad and calculator.

If you need even more space for music, photos or contacts, theSD card will expand your storage by 2 GB. Nokia didn't consider that some userswould be swapping SD cards, apparently, because it's located beneath thebattery. If you don't take your cards in and out often, you won't find this tobe problematic. If you are change cards often, though, you might want to keep athin screwdriver handy.

I can't tell you about the Nokia 5300 without spending a fewwords on the Bluetooth feature. The infrared port is convienantly located onthe side of the phone, making synching simple. Check and send email, surf thenet and download tunes whenever you like.

Snapping pictures with the camera feature won't leave youdisappointed. The 1.3 megapixels will capture shots in one of six resolutions.Ranging from 1290 x 960 to 160 x 120, you'll find the jpg pictures will becrisp and colorful. There are three camera modes, color effects, the ability toadd notes to the pictures, a 10-second timer, sequence shooting for takingthree pictures in rapid-fire, an 8x digital zoom and the ability to adjustcontrast. You can't adjust the brightness and there is no flash but those arethe only real places this camera comes up short.

Shoot video in 3GPP in one of two resolutions – 176 x 144 or 129x 96. The quality is nothing worth writing home about but is pretty standardfor a 1.3 megapixel camera.

Withthe price tag hovering around $300 when it was released in early 2006, thisphone is music to your ears without blowing out your wallet.