Volume: 85 cc
Weight: 106.5 g
Length: 92.4 mm
Width: 48.2 mm
Thickness (max): 20.7 mm
Display: 262,144 colors true color TFT QVGA 320 x 240 pixels 2″ display
Price range: $240.00 to $345.00
The 5300 XpressMusic sports a 2.0-inch TFT screen, 1.3-megapixel camera and camcorder, music player and FM radio; all function without sliding the phone open. For usability, the its screen features buttons on either side; on the left to control the Music Player and on the right turn on the Camera and adjust the zoom and function as the Volume Control.
The side navigation keys also provide easy access to the Music Library, supporting MP3, MIDI, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, and WMA file formats. Music listeners can download songs directly from the Web and/or transfer the songs to the phone with the free Nokia Audio Manager application.
The 2.5mm headset jack is found on the left side, together with three dedicated music keys. The Infrared port, camera, and volume buttons are found on the right. The power button, power jack, and USB port are found on the top, whereas the camera and speaker grille holes are found on the back. Notice that the music keys slightly protrude, making it easier to skip tracks in your pocket, though they can be a bit hard to press. All in all, the Nokia 5300 has a well thought-out design. It would have been better if there was some protection to cover up the USB and power ports, though.
The audio quality won’t rival that of your iPod; but, whether the sound plays through the included 2.5mm headphones or the external speaker, it’s better than what we’ve heard from most music phones. Songs occasionally sounded tinny when played over the speaker, but overall the audio was very good.
As a phone, the 5300 works well. Its rubbery exterior makes it comfortable to hold, and it slides open nicely with one hand. The unit is light enough to hold comfortably next to your ear during long conversations. Call quality and volume were quite good, but the talk-time battery life was only fair: It lasted 5 hours, 6 minutes in our lab tests.
The Nokia 5300 is quite capable when it comes to handling calls and contact lists. Voice quality was good, though callers complained of background noise as we made our way through the packed, noisy streets of Manhattan. Signal strength was always strong in New York using a T-Mobile SIM card. The speakerphone is among the loudest we’ve used, but while the phone sports speaker-independent voice dialing, we found performance on voice commands to be very poor; the phone didn’t recognize a single name we spoke. Bluetooth and push-to-talk capabilities are present, and conference calling was not difficult. The contact list accommodated plenty of fields, though you must add them one at a time if you want more than a single name and number per contact. Through the Nokia PC studio, the phone syncs your desktop-based Outlook contacts.
Key features:
Dedicated keys for convenient music play
Plug in your own headsets with the universal headset adapter
Never run out of space with expandable memory up to 2 GB
Show off great pictures with the 1.3 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom
Fun and friendly design that’s easy on the grip
Get everyone moving to the beat with high quality loudspeaker
Other Features:
Internal antenna
Animated color screensavers
Changeable color themes, user defined themes
Nokia Sensor
Flash lite player version 2.0
Plug and play mobile services
Nokia Audio Manager and Windows Media Player
Messaging:
Multimedia messaging: MMS for creating, receiving, editing, and sending videos and pictures with AMR voice clips (with up to 300 KB)
Email: Supports SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, and APOP protocols. Support for attachments (view jpeg, 3gp, MP3, .ppt, and excel files)
Text messaging: Supports concatenated SMS, picture messaging, SMS distribution list
Audio messaging: Record your own voice message and send to compatible devices
Instant Messaging and Presence-enhanced contacts
