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More…At first glance, you may not realize that the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Phone is a cell phone at all. With its boxy black-and-white case, prominent music controls, and large screen, you could easily mistake it for a digital audio player. And you wouldn't be wrong: The 5300 is, in fact, almost equal parts music player and cell phone, and the music features are some of the best that we've seen on a phone.
Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Cell Phone
- Spec Navigator
- Display
- Operating System
- Camera
- Form Factor
- Battery
- Storage
- Dimensions
- Carrier
- Cellular Frequency Technology
- Features
- Audio
- Connectivity
- Included Hardware
- Included Software
- Media
- Messaging
- Sync
- User Interface
- Video
Display
| Diagonal Display Size | 2 inches |
| Display Resolution | 320 x 240 inches |
| Display Type | Color |
| Number of Displays | One |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Phones »
Pros
Music player is easy to use
Audio quality is very good
Cons
Camera takes sub-par snapshots
Bottom Line
This handset offers excellent music playback features and works well as a phone, too.
Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Phone
5300 XpressMusic Cell Phone Review, by Liane Cassavoy February 28, 2007
When closed, this slider-style phone looks squared-off and slightly bulky, but its gorgeous 2-inch display takes center stage. The music controls sit in the black rim around the display (a red-and white-version also is available); to the left are keys for scrolling through your music collection, as well as keys for playing and pausing tracks. Volume keys sit on the right side of the handset. Since the keys are rubbery, they're simple to locate by touch, and easy to push.
Basic controls below the screen make navigating the phone's many features a breeze. Sliding the device open reveals the one disappointing aspect of its controls: a phone keypad that feels overly plasticky. Still, the keys are nicely raised, so dialing is easy.
But the music features really make the phone shine. The music player, which is easily accessible through the unit's home page or via the external music controls, is very user-friendly. You can quickly scroll through your music library, which is organized by artists, albums, genres, composers, or playlists. The phone ships with Nokia's Music Manager software for organizing your library on your PC and a USB cable for transferring tunes to the phone, which includes a 1GB microSD card for storing them. While the desktop software isn't as intuitive as the phone's music player, it is still relatively easy to use. It scans your PC for audio files and lets you transfer any of them to your phone with one click. You can also use the Music Manager app to delete songs from the phone and to create playlists, which you can't do on the phone itself. T-Mobile does not offer its own music service with over-the-air downloads, so you'll have to obtain your music collection elsewhere.
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 5300 also includes a 1.3-megapixel camera that takes serviceable to very good snapshots. Still-life photos came out great, but like many camera phones, this model suffers from a significant shutter delay, so capturing moving subjects is hard. The phone also takes video clips, but they look pixelated and slightly grainy (typical for a camera phone).
Overall, the 5300, with its stellar music features, is impressive, especially when you factor in the price: T-Mobile is offering the phone for $99 with a two-year contract. That's less than you might pay for a dedicated MP3 player--so it's an excellent price for a device that makes calls, too.
Liane Cassavoy
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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61
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70
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85
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Phones
61
74
100
50
Performance
| Battery Life Average (hh:mm) | 5:06 |
| Battery Life Word Score | Fair |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Cell Phone
3 Reviews Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 3 reviews
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Reviewed by: dennisd
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: The music player buttons are easy to use.
Weaknesses: Upgrading to a 4GB Micro SD Card (non-Nokia) is virtually impossible. The music output could stand to be much louder. I know 2 people who returned it within a week.
Overall: NOT RECOMMENDED! Overall the phone is OK for me, but I have bought two 4GB Micro SD Cards so far and can't get either of them to be recognized by the phone. I bought the phone with the purpose of using it as my mp3 player, which works fine with the included card, it just doesn't hold enough music for me. I also found that the process of adding files could be much simpler. A drag and drop option from my music files directly to the phone would be great. I struggled for several hours the first time I attempted to add music. My sister and a friend also bought this phone and returned it within a week. One phone decided to never ring and on the other the sound quality and reception were horrendous. Thankfully this didn't happen to me. NOT RECOMMENDED!
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Reviewed by: perfectworld12
Duration of ownership: 6 Months
Strengths: this phone does use flash and can play 3gp movie (full length movies) formated files. does have FM radio. camera is really good
Weaknesses: battery doesn't last long.
Overall: i love the phone its great works perfect and i use it for a lot of things. i think this phone is worth the money and more people should get it.
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Reviewed by: NotEd3k
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: Robust Bluetooth support. Sharp screen. Excellent music player. Good tactile button feel. Standard USB port.
Weaknesses: T-Mobile has locked 3rd party Java app access. Poor camera in anything but bright sun. Unfriendly UI. None standard 2.5mm Headphone jack. Poor battery life. Custom USB cable.
Overall: .OK, I've had the phone for a little while and have had some good experiences and bad. Good. The Bluetooth is great. Full OBEX support is a nice change from the crippled support I had with Sprint. The screen is really sharp. Great for photos and web browsing. Music player is pretty good. Using Nokia's software it is actually quite easy to copy music over to the 5300 and it sounds good from the phone's speaker, which is amazing! Speaking of software, the Nokia PC suite of applications makes it easy to copy your Outlook contacts and schedule over, plus many other features, including backup of the phone as a whole or piecemeal. The Bad. I can't run Google maps on it. The phone supports it, but the unit has been locked down so that 3rd party applications can't access the data network. Same with the mobile Gmail app and Opera Mini. Very frustrating! Pictures look really bad if there is not enough light. It really makes me miss the quality I got with my old Sanyo phone's 1/3 mega-pixel camera 3 years ago. At least it worked inside. The battery discharges in a day. It's very frustrating to have a battery almost die on you without much use from the phone at all. You need to use a custom Nokia USB cable. Admittedly this comes with the phone, but it's still a pain. Plus the USB cable doesn't charge the phone, so forget finding a workaround for that battery issue!
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: cheaplikeafox
Strengths: dedicated music, camera buttons, decent picture quality, loud speaker, comes with headphone adapter, fm radio, lightweight, bright lcd screen, easy to use, great call quality, microSD expansion slot,
Weaknesses: only one alarm can be set, microSD expansion slot under battery cover, back battery cover slightly difficult to remove, no flash for camera
Overall: This one of the best midrange phones! It has great sound quality and speaker is loud enough. It is very easy to use, great battery life, and has a easy to read LCD screen. I did have some problems sending text messages to emails but maybe it wasn't due to the phone. It has a nice slider design and easy to access music player. It also has a video recorder too. Also, it comes with a headphone adapter so you can plug your normal headphones or a speaker to it to listen to music or fm radio. It's also very easy to transfer music, pictures to the phone using the supplied microUSB cable. One thing I did not like was that you can only set one alarm at a time. I like the ability to set multiple alarms like with the motorola phones.
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Reviewed by: Siddarthh
Strengths: Looks really good, The simple to use nokia interface, soft touch buttons, extremely light.
Weaknesses: top heavy when you open the phone. Camera not that great.
Overall: Great phone. Best i have ever used. Rate it way above razr or any of the moto phones. I had a sony w810i. I like this phone better. If you are thinking of getting a nokia, this is the one to get.
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