Slider Phone: Review of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

How far can $99.99 go for a modern-day cell phone? While you’ll get an ample bang for your economical buck with the new Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, don’t expect the top-grade feature set of an iPhone 3G or Samsung Instinct.

Rather, the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is exactly what it sounds like: a phone for all sorts of sounds.

In the sound department, the 5610 XpressMusic delivers in prioritizing two primary functions: an iPod-like interface for you to listen to all your favorite songs and FM radio.
So the 5610 XpressMusic can prove to you its musical devotion, the phone features a unique “slider key”. Its design is for you to easily “slide” between the main screen, your song playlist and the radio.

The main screen features your “myFaves” (or five favorite people to regularly call, text, instant message, email, etc.).

While Nokia designed the music slider key after simplicity and a commitment to what’s at the phone’s core, the key would be more beneficial being able to perform other functions as well.

The key indeed is an easily navigable tool and should be used for faster scrolling where speed has been ignored. It’s too cumbersome to scroll through the radio stations one at a time and, for example, there’s no easy way to jump from 89.5 FM to 101.1 FM. While the slider key would have allowed for a fast-seeking solution, Nokia didn’t think of this.

The rest of the phone’s functions are performed by five keys right below the slider key. Unlike the phone’s candy bar version – the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic – the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic for T-Mobile is a slider phone. The 5610 slides open only for the purpose of revealing its standard, 12-key numerical pad.

The prime difference between the 5610 and the 5310 – which are both marketed as music phones – is that the 5610 uses a slider key for its three musical functions whereas the 5310 delivers these functions in three separate buttons on the far left side of the phone.

In addition, the 5610 comes with a 2-gigabyte memory card with support for up to 4 gigabytes. The amount of storage space a cell phone comes with and can be upgraded to is a critical element for those interested in storing data including music, pictures and video.

The 5310 only comes with 1 gigabyte of memory and can’t be upgraded any further. That 1-gigabyte limit could be a deal killer for some wanting to store more data at a given moment than the 5310 can allow.

To give you an idea of what 4 gigabytes can translate into, Nokia says that amount of cell phone storage space can support up to 3,000 songs with a length of 3:45 each with decent-quality encoding.

Now the 5610 XpressMusic’s radio function is a delectable treat. While some may not be used to listening to traditional radio on a cell phone, you most certainly can much in the same way you do with a regular radio. For the 5610’s radio to function, it must also have an antenna.

A single wire – much like a wire that’d string from your phone to your ears for music – actually serves as the antenna. Another double-strung wire then hooks into the antenna and ends up with headphones for your ears.

The 5610’s radio won’t work without the antenna wire. Just like with a regular radio, you’ll sometimes hear the same static on your cell phone depending on the signal quality of the radio station and your current environment.
The supplied headphones can be considered decent quality but inferior to other, more pricey headphones that supply more bass sound.

If you don’t want to listen via in-ear headphones, you can also listen to the phone’s built-in loudspeaker. The loudspeaker does an excellent job with its sound and can be considered a quality solution for a cell phone. Of course, this doesn’t compare to a home-stereo sound system. The loudspeaker is especially weak with its bass sound.

While the 5610 XpressMusic is branded mostly as a music phone, another standout feature is its camera. While many cameras today come with 2-megapixel shooters, the 5610 has upped the ante a bit with its 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera and dual-LED flash.

Compared to traditional digital point-and-shoot cameras today, though, 3.2 megapixels still pales in comparison to what’s on the market. For a cell phone, this is still an improvement over what’s typically on board most phones. Many cell phones with cameras also don’t come with a flash. The 5610 uses two bright light-emitting diodes to do the trick.

Once in camera mode, the 5610 does everything horizontally. In other modes, the 5610 lives vertically. Though the horizontal environment initially makes sense when you’re just snapping a picture or recording a video, navigation becomes confusing.

The same five-button keypad you use when the phone’s closed is designed to work in the same fashion horizontally just like you use it vertically.

You may find yourself flipping the phone back and forth without certainty of how it will act in that mode as compared to how you want it to function.

Once you take a photo, you may feel that finding the picture is buried within other, less-important camera functions. Your photo album should have been more prominently featured.