Nokia has been among the pioneers with music mobile phones, and the Nokia 5310 is a good, if not outstanding, addition to the line. The candy bar style design is neatly slim, just made for the pocket, and it offers – as it should – a 3.5mm headphone jack so users can use their own headphones. The body of the phone has keys dedicated to music, so browsing and playing is a snap, although it could use more memory – even the card slot only supports an extra 16GB, limiting the amount of tracks the phone can hold, but users can subscribe to Nokia’s Comes with Music service. Although the audio quality is good, it’s certainly not the best on the market.
At a mere two megapixels, the camera seems like an afterthought, and the picture quality isn’t especially good.
The keypad is simple and straightforward, but hardly worth writing home about. Users can customise the screen and include information on music, which is what should be expected in a device like this.
It’s more problematic using the phone to browse the Web, however, since there’s no 3G or Wi-Fi included. After all, it’s a mobile phone, not a smartphone, and one that’s focussed on music more than anything else.
Within those limits, it does a good job. It’s priced right and, for any music fan on a budget, it offers what they’ll need. Call quality is fine, and so is the battery life, which is an important factor for anyone wanting to play a lot of music.
