Nokia 5220 Xpress Music Review

The Nokia 5220 Xpress Music is the latest entrant in the mid range MP3 phones category. Nokia has made it quite good with the Xpress Music range so far and it now a close competitor to Sony Ericsson’s Walkman series. The 5310 Xpress Music is the highest selling MP3 player phone in the world and the latest 5320 Xpress Music has also garnered good reviews and is a smartphone + MP3 player. The 5800 Xpress Music is just about to launch in a month and is expected to be a iPhone killer with a full touchscreen and the best sound quality and speakers in any phone yet. Coming from such a great background, the 5220 may seem a bit under featured, but it offers good music at a low price with a slim form factor and a novel design. It is very similar to the Nokia 5310 in terms of features and pricing, maybe Nokia tends to replace it with the 5220. In this review, we check whether the 5220 Xpress Music manages to impress or turns out to be just another dud.

Nokia 5220 Xpress Music Specs:

• Dimensions: 108 x 43.5 x 10.5 mm
• Weight: 78 gms
• Display: 2.0″ 262K color TFT Display at 240 x 320 pixels
• Camera : 2 MP (1600 x 1200 pixels) cam, QCIF video recording
• Memory : 30 MB Internal memory
• Connectivity : GPRS Class 32, HSCSD, EDGE Class 32, USB 2.0
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• Battery: Li-Ion 1020 mAh (BL-5CT)

Other Features: Stereo FM radio with RDS, Java MIDP 2.1, 3.5 mm Audio jack.

Design and Display:

The 5220 Xpress Music features an all new stylish design and a super slim form factor. It is just 10.5 mm thick which makes it one of the slimmest phones around. On first look, it looks like a stretched up 5310. It also resembles the look of the Nokia 3500 classic. It has a plastic body which feels durable and has good build quality. It does feel a bit cheap but we suppose you have to give it points for the durability. It is as good as any other Nokia in the physical quality aspect. It is available in three colors - blue, green and red.

It has a 2.0″ TFT display which supports 262K colors at QVGA resolution (240 x 320 pixels) . The screen size is the standard used in almost all Nokia phones in this range. It does prove to be small but does the job. The display has nice brightness and contrast levels. The ambient light sensor adjusts the brightness automatically. The viewing angles and sunlight legibility is decent too.

The keypad is placed exactly below the display. It is nice and easy to use with good key positioning and feedback. There is also a very stylish lanyard eyelet below the keypad. On the left side of the phone, you can find the dedicated music controls and the standard charger port. On the right, you find the card slot and the volume keys. The top sports the shielded microUSB port and the 3.5 mm audio jack. The back of the phone is rather clean and sports just the 2 MP camera lens.

Interface and Multimedia Playback:

The Nokia 5220 classic is powered by the Series 40 platform which is the standard in Nokia’s low and mid-range phones. It is as intuitive to use as ever and fast and zippy. It is probably the simplest interface yet has lots of features. The basic interface hasn’t changed much since quite some time.

It sports the standard S40 gallery which is easy to use but not very impressive. It allows fullscreen viewing, zooming in on images, a picture editor, slideshow and other standard features.

It also features a nice music player interface which gels with the new look of the 5220 classic. The new interface is loaded with features and offers lots of customizable settings. It has a custom EQ and comes with 7 preset EQs. It also has the stereo widening feature. The presence of the 3.5mm slot ensures that you can use any earphones of your choice. The 5220 XM also supports the A2DP profile due to which you can listen to your music wirelessly using bluetooth headphones on your 5220. Coming to the audio quality, it outperforms the Nokia 5310 in this category. It is one of the best sounding devices in this range and truly lives up to its Xpress Music name.

The video player is improved over the previous versions and supports full screen viewing and fast forward, rewind options. The 5220 XM can play the 3GP and MP4 formats natively. However the 2″ display isn’t really suited for video playback.

Camera:

The 5220 XM sports a 2 MP camera which is capable of taking pics at 1600 x 1200 pixel resolutions. The image quality is average and not much to speak of. It can do for casual shots. There is no flash or autofocus, Nokia isn’t marketing it as a camera phone. It records video at QCIF resolutions - the quality isn’t anything to speak of in this case either.

Other Features:

The 5220 XM has nice call reception quality. The caller / receiver can be heard clearly as it also has some form of background noise cancellation. The speaker volume is great too. It also has a stereo FM radio with good reception quality. The FM Radio supports RDS using which you can obtain track and station information.

The Nokia 5220 XM is powered by the 1020 mAh li-ion BL-5CT battery. It is capable of providing the 5220 XM with about 5 hours of talk time and about 20 hrs of music playback. It has a rated standby time of 400 hrs and should last about 2-3 days on a single charge. The battery life is really superb considering its range and slimness.

The Nokia 5220 Xpress Music comes bundled with a USB cable, a stereo headset, a charger and a 512 MB memory card as well as the standard PC Suite and Nokia software CD.

Pros:

• Slim and light weight
• Nice stylish design with good build quality
• Great audio quality
• Good battery life

Cons:

• Mediocre camera
• No 3G

Final Words:

The Nokia 5220 Xpress Music is a very nice and affordable phone with great features. It has all the features of a good music phone and performs decently in other aspects as well. It is much better than the best selling 5310 XM and should prove to be a nice replacement.

Our Rating: 3.75 / 5.