In which I review one of Nokia's cheapest ever smartphones - and yet one that's reasonably up to date and with 90% of the functionality of its bigger brethren... At Nokia's RRP of £230, the 5530 XpressMusic isn't a 'must buy'. But at a street price of £140, depending on the deal, the 5530 will bring S60 5th Edition and smartphones to a whole new market. The ultimate cost? No 3G and no GPS. Here's my full, illustrated review of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic.
Read on in the full article.
It seems Rafe and Steve have been exchanging intimate messages 😉
thanx for the review, it seems like a cracking device for the money, a good budget s60 for anyone thats coming from s40. :icon14:
No 3G = FAIL
Good review, thanks!
There is one question that bugs me: does this phone finally support wlans with eap/ttls/pap?
Nice review Steve. I think it is very interesting with the new homescreen that was first shown in videos several months ago. I have an 5800XM and have since I saw the the videos the first time hoped that it finds its way onto my phone with a firmware update (still hoping and waiting 😊). However a week ago I had the chance to play with an X6 that also has that new homescreen and I was quite puzzled by what I saw. With the new homescreen it was not possible also to have your next calendar events that most people know from and love about symbian!! Can you confirm that that also is not possible with the 5530?
Not sure what you mean by the 'controversial' stylus silo. Better to have a stylus silo than having the stylus dangling around like the Omnia i900.
Also stylus = useful for handwriting recognition, something that is important in Asian market
i wouldnt say no 3G = fail, i dont use 3G, i have my n97 set to 2G mode, alot of people i know only use 2G as they have wifi.
Some will want 3G and thus will rule out this little gem.
Having used one, the camera is not bad but no 3G is a problem. No evidence that maps is available even as a download.
i am always surprised, why reviewers lack gps and 3g.
these two features are those you don't need for *cheap* touch phone with strong internet capability.
if you need those features, there is one very easy solution - buy 5800!
Used to be that AAS delivered exciting, well written articles on ground breaking new products.
Nowdays it seems AAS is just a cheerleader for every POS that comes out of Finland.
Why AAS would waste an article and bandwidth on a simplistic phone that lacks basic 2009 functionality is beyond me. Oh and... I couldn't care less about phones for the 'emerging markets'.
Arthur wrote:Used to be that AAS delivered exciting, well written articles on ground breaking new products.Nowdays it seems AAS is just a cheerleader for every POS that comes out of Finland.
Why AAS would waste an article and bandwidth on a simplistic phone that lacks basic 2009 functionality is beyond me. Oh and... I couldn't care less about phones for the 'emerging markets'.
Yep..and you're still reading AAS news, you're still buying Nokia, and you bought that POS N97. You must be a really miserable Nokia employee. Oh..and the 'emerging markets' couldnt care less about you.
Unregistered wrote:Yep..and you're still reading AAS news, you're still buying Nokia, and you bought that POS N97. You must be a really miserable Nokia employee. Oh..and the 'emerging markets' couldnt care less about you.
Is that really the best you can come up with?
Why AAS would waste an article and bandwidth on a commenting system that lacks basic antitrolling functionality is beyond me. Oh and... I couldn't care less about what 'Arthur' thinks.
Nokia's 5530 and soon to come 5230 are much much better than samsung star's and corby's at least nokia offers good applicatons and games and other where as is very hard to find any apps or games for samsung ones
Biggzy wrote:i wouldnt say no 3G = fail, i dont use 3G, i have my n97 set to 2G mode, alot of people i know only use 2G as they have wifi.
Some will want 3G and thus will rule out this little gem.
Well said.
I've tended to keep 3G switched off on my N95 and N85, helps battery life a little, and if I've got some podcasts to download, I'll do that at home on the considerably faster WiFi connection.
So comments of no 3g=fail, is in itself a fail.
>>There is one question that bugs me: does this phone finally support wlans with eap/ttls/pap?
Suspect it's the same as 5800, but as I've no idea what your acronyms mean... 8-)
>>puzzled by what I saw. With the new homescreen it was not possible also to have your next calendar events that most people know from and love about
Yes, this is puzzling. Looks like an early firmware glitch. Suspect it'll come in the first firmware update.
>>Not sure what you mean by the 'controversial' stylus silo. Better to have a stylus silo than having the stylus dangling around like the Omnia i900.
Better not to have one at all and to not have that space 'wasted'.
>>Having used one, the camera is not bad but no 3G is a problem. No evidence that maps is available even as a download.
Yes, this surprised me. Even with cell tower positioning, Maps would be very useful.
>>Nowdays it seems AAS is just a cheerleader for every POS that comes out of Finland.
You've conveniently been screening out all the many critical articles and reviews we've done then?
>>basic 2009 functionality is beyond me. Oh and... I couldn't care less about phones for the 'emerging markets'.
But I bet the BILLIONS of people IN the emerging markets care VERY much. As do people with far less income than you.
>>Why AAS would waste an article and bandwidth on a commenting system that lacks basic antitrolling functionality is beyond me.
ROFL. I've been bugging Rafe about clamping down for ages 8-)
Steve
It's amazing how selfish and insular some people are. Do those that suggest the lack of 3G is a 'Fail' not realise how lucky they are to be in a country that actually has a widely available 3G network(s) ????
If you happen to live in a country that doesn't have 3G, why would you want to pay for a feature that is not usable?
Those that say no 3G is Fail = idiot.
clonmult wrote:Well said.I've tended to keep 3G switched off on my N95 and N85, helps battery life a little, and if I've got some podcasts to download, I'll do that at home on the considerably faster WiFi connection.
.
This is a good idea, I tend to use WiFi for most things as free wireless is almost everywhere for me. I will turn off 3G and see how much difference it makes to battery. I already get 2 days.
No 3G will be a boon for those in areas with patchy, where otherwise a phone would constantly be switching modes, and running the battery down even more.
As others have pointed out, many developing areas simply don't have 3G either - and I remain amazed by people who decide that if a device doesn't suit them, then it must be rubbish; why shouldn't people who have only 2G networks get their hands on 5th edition? There's no rule of nature that says if you've only got 2G available, you can't have a smartphone.
At the suggested street pricing, there's another interesting option for devices such as this - VoIP. I'll shortly be moving all my phones over to VoIP, and since this has WiFi, as long as it will run the latest Nokia SIP settings software, then it's an ideal 'convergence' device for me. You'll pay a similar price for a DECT VoIP phone, which probably won't even have a full colour screen, let alone touch, won't sync as easily with a PC, and certainly can't be used outside of the house.
That makes devices like this very attractive in ways that perhaps wouldn't at first appear obvious.
slitchfield wrote:>>puzzled by what I saw. With the new homescreen it was not possible also to have your next calendar events that most people know from and love about
Yes, this is puzzling. Looks like an early firmware glitch. Suspect it'll come in the first firmware update.
Is it not at bit wierd that the error is there both on the X6 and the 5530? Perhaps Nokia meant for it to be like this? Allthough I sure hope not.
I also hope the application shortcut strip gets scrollable as well. I wonder why it is not already.
With regards to why this article - well as others have pointed out this is a very relevant device for emerging market (or for anyone who is interested in a cheaper handset)... we try and cover as much possible, not just the high end stuff.
With regards to comments - how would people feel about a switch to something like Disqus? I'm trialing this on All About Maemo - www.allaboutmaemo.com - the main down side is it loses the forum integration. Probably best to let me know outside of this comment thread - email rafe a t allaboutsymbian.com or via any other means.
I am suprised that in your review you did not comment on the contact notes. How it is not possible to read more than six lines of text; even though the amount of text that can be added is (I think) only limited by the phones memory.
moonshot wrote:I am suprised that in your review you did not comment on the contact notes. How it is not possible to read more than six lines of text; even though the amount of text that can be added is (I think) only limited by the phones memory.
Err... not sure what you mean. I've just edited a 20 line note. But I agree it's silly the way the contact view only shows one line with "..." at the end. Gah,
Guys,
Ovi maps is available for the 5530. I have it installed on my handset and it uses cell tower triangulation to find my position. Get the lastest OVI suite to get maps.
I can confirm that you can't have the upcoming calendar appointments on the homescreen and I can confirm that yes, this is annoying. Actually, that's not quite true - you CAN have the appointments on the homescreen, but then you have to do without the contacts bar at the top. It looks like nokia made this decision on purpose due to the amount of screen room, but I DEFINITELY think that there is room for both contacts and calendar.
The 3g isn't as big an issue for me as I thought. The best browser IMO is currently opera beta 5, which is very fast, even over 2g.
Finally, this phone is fantastic value for money.
I have this phone for a month and fell then broke it when I was riding a cab. I haven't tried so much about it. 😞 http://heathrowairambulance.com
I was disappointed to find that what look like speakers on the left and right of the front, aren't speakers at all.
Why do the people who design these things think it's best to project the sound in the opposite direction (or to the side)? I challenge you to find a stereo system that does this.
slitchfield wrote:Err... not sure what you mean. I've just edited a 20 line note. But I agree it's silly the way the contact view only shows one line with "..." at the end. Gah,
Sorry maybe my fault, not explaining correctly. You have a 20 line note (in notes attached to a contact; not the general notes). Bring up the contact, scroll down past phone numbers, address, etc. to notes. you can only read six lines of the 20 line note. So how do we read the rest of the note?
psiegumfeldt wrote:Is it not at bit wierd that the error is there both on the X6 and the 5530? Perhaps Nokia meant for it to be like this? Allthough I sure hope not.I also hope the application shortcut strip gets scrollable as well. I wonder why it is not already.
You can have all you calendar events on the home screen. But if you choose that option then the scrollable contacts are removed and replaced with the shortcut applications.
moonshot wrote:Sorry maybe my fault, not explaining correctly. You have a 20 line note (in notes attached to a contact; not the general notes). Bring up the contact, scroll down past phone numbers, address, etc. to notes. you can only read six lines of the 20 line note. So how do we read the rest of the note?
Still not sure we're talking about the same thing. On all my S60 phones, you just get to see one line of a note and have to 'Edit' it to see the full text... 8-(
Or maybe you've got different line endings within the note? Wierd.