Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Review

Introduction:

Nowadays, choosing a cell phone is a hard task. The market is flooded with many models with different design, quality and functionality, targeted at different audiences. Some people prefer smartphones, others look for something less complicated, like a music-oriented phone. Nokia comes out with a solution for the second audience and especially for the young consumers.

The music slider 5610 XpressMusic falls in to the middle class music phones of the manufacturer, combining a youth design and a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, FM Radio with RDS, the ability to play videos with “quality close to DVD” and a 3G connection. With these specifications, the phone can easily be considered a direct rival of the Sony Ericsson W910.

The package contains:

Actually, the headphones that come in the box, have the function of a convertor from 2.5 mm to 3.5 mm and act as a remote control. Unfortunately, you are unable to adjust the sound volume and can only jump to the next track. To take advantage of the rest of the functions/settings, one must pull out the 5610 out of his pocket.

Design:

The sporty youthful appearance of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic slider is a result of the color schemes used: dark gray, black and red (in our case). Besides this variant, there are two others, in which the last color of the scheme is replaced by blue or purple. For the manufacturing of the phone have been used aluminum and plastic, which are very pleasant to touch.


However, the only metal parts are the music slider key and both panels, flanking the display. The edge around the phone creates the illusion that it is also metal, but it is made out of plastic. Depending on the model, it is colored black, blue or purple.

With dimensions of 3.9 x 1.9 x 0.7 inches (98.5 x 48.5 x 17 mm) and 3.9 oz (111 grams), 5610 is far from being the smallest. In contrast, Sony Ericsson W910 is slimmer and much lighter. Nevertheless, the Nokia model is very well balanced and fits very well in your hand, but when in the pocket of your jeans, it will be felt at all times.


You can compare the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic to many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare tool

On the front side, we have the 2.2” QVGA (240 x 320) TFT display with 16.7 million colors. It is covered by a scratchproof glass, which is a fingerprint magnet. It has a very good contrast and the picture is beautiful with well-saturated and lively colors. We were pleasantly surprised by its performance in direct sunlight. Everything was visible, but as if slightly faded.

Over it, is located the brightness sensor accompanied by the speaker and the video calling camera, which is red and resembles a robot eye.

Below, we have the soft and the navigation buttons. The music slider is the innovation here. You can easily push it left or right and it will automatically come back to its position in the middle.

It is used as a music functionality shortcut, but we’ll discuss that in detail in the software section. There are two system lights on both its sides, which flash when the phone is in standby mode or in the event of a reminder, missed call, message etc.

The other five buttons are standard for almost every phone: the two soft ones, accompanied by the "receive" and "end" call keys, with the 5-way D-pad between them. The last one is the only one felt by touch, since it is protruding. However, it is hard to get used to and operate because of the small size of the directions. You won’t have trouble with the rest of the buttons because they are easily pressed and clearly felt.

The phone slides up very lightly, especially if you place your finger on the protruding music slider. Even when it is opened, the 5610 fits firmly in the palm of the hand (even though not as well as some top shelf models) and makes you think, that it will last long. Sliding the phone up reveals the shiny black keyboard backlit in white. The buttons have a well-expressed relief, they are easily felt when pressed and very pleasant to the touch. Only using the top row is not trouble free, since it is too close to the edge and though not preventing you from writing a text message, it is annoying.

The bottom of the phone houses only the strap hole. All the connectors (charger, microUSB slot and the 2.5mm jack) are located on the top part of the phone, accompanied by the battery lid release button. Even though such is present, the lid is very hard to remove and you have to push so hard that sometimes it’ll feel like it’s about to brake. Unfortunately, since the microSD card slot is under the cover, you’ll have to deal with the inconvenience every time you want to replace.


On the right side, we have the volume control and the camera-dedicated button. The first one is not easily felt and is hard to press because it doesn’t have a well-expressed relief. However, the second one is well protruding and is user-friendly also. Once pressed, it quickly activates the camera and if held a bit longer, the camcorder is started.

Interface:

Standard for a Nokia non-smartphone, 5610 runs on Series 40. Here we have present the last, fifth version, including feature pack 1, used in 7900 Prism, Arte, 6500, 5310 XpressMusic and others.

An „Active Standby” option, housing shortcuts and organizer information, can be visualized on the homescreen. If you are a fan of the simpler view, you will only see the options of the soft buttons and the middle of the D-pad.

By default, the main menu is visualized as a 3x3 grid, but you also have the option to view it as a grid with labels, a list or as tabs. In addition, the menus can be rearranged to suit your needs best. Navigating through the menus is easy, because 5610 reacts quickly to all commands. Besides being able to change the way the main menu looks like, you are able to personalize the overall appearance of the interface, by installing new themes.

There are seven sound profiles available to choose from, depending on the environment you are in. You can adjust each one’s settings, according to your needs.

Phonebook:

The phonebook is visualized as a list with names in alphabetical order. It can also be viewed as a name and a photo or name and a picture. At first, when entering a new contact, you can input two names and a phone number, but you also have the option to add more information (ringtone, video, picture, e-mail and others). This is done by choosing the “add detail” option from the menu. In addition, you can delete, move or copy all contacts from the phone to the SIM and vice versa.


As in most non-smartphones, 5610 is not able to search both names of a contact simultaneously. You have to choose either the first or the second name.

Organizer:

The organizer offers the functions standard for a Series 40 phone: Alarm, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer and a Timer.

There are a few options to set the alarm: time, repetition, tone, snooze time-out and repeat days. However, there is only one and you won’t be able to set few alarms for different times (and days).


The calendar can be viewed as a month or a week, with the second option also visualized as a 7-day hourly schedule. From the menu, you can go directly to the To-Do list, where you can add tasks to be completed.

The calculator has few variants – standard, load and scientific. It has a standard interface and nothing will surprise you here.


We won’t discuss the rest of the options of the organizer, since they are standard for the Series 40 interface and because they are sufficient for a music-oriented phone.

For some of the functions, Nokia 5610 offers a system of voice commands, as well as voice dialing. Since the device is equipped with voice recognition and is user independent, you don’t have to record any commands with your voice (so it can be used by your spouse or lover, for example). To activate this option, hold the right functional key or use a handsfree.

Messaging:

The messaging menu is also typical for Nokia. From here, you can write or send an SMS, e-mail, flash or audio message. The T9 predictive text input system helps you for those and you can use the templates too.


It is easy to setup e-mail accounts, because the phone recognizes some of the options of the more popular web mail services, such as Gmail and Yahoo.

Also in this menu, is located the Yahoo!GO program. This application will let you follow the latest news and the weather forecast. Last, is the Map application, through which you can search for addresses, routes and POI (Points Of Interest).



Connectivity:

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is a quad-band GSM with support for 850/2100 MHz 3G, which makes it a global phone.

We are somewhat disappointed with the Internet browser, because of its inability to correctly visualize pages that are more complicated. You can use it to read something, but you’ll definitely avoid taking advantage of its services. You can forget about regularly checking your Facebook account for example.


To connect locally, you can either use the microUSB included in the package or pair wirelessly via Bluetooth 2.0. Nicely thought of, the phone charges while being connected to a PC via the cable, which is an option that is not present in most other mobile devices by the manufacturer.

Multimedia:

Since it is a music-oriented phone, 5610 has to provide excellent music quality.

The slider button under the display is used for fast access to the music functions. It lets you jump to the music player, the FM radio and back to the homescreen. We would have liked to go back to the last screen instead; while writing a message, we go to change the song, but the slider doesn’t automatically take us back to what we were previously doing, for example. Overall, this button facilitates the access to the music functions to some extent, but is seems like its role is not well planned.

From the music player menu, you can see all tracks, your playlists, you can sort them by artist, album, genre or take a look at the videos available. Naturally, there’s an option for the player to work in the background, so you can use the rest of the functions in the meantime.

The interface is designed to be user-friendly. In its upper part, there is an indicator of the track number of the song currently playing. Underneath, is the album cover or just empty space if such is not available. In the lower part of the screen, we have the track info, including the total and the elapsed time, accompanied by the progress bar. The bottom is reserved for the indicators.

There are no up/down arrows depicted anywhere, which to correspond to the same directions on the D-pad, but they actually have functions. Pressing up, will take you back to the musical menu and down will visualize the playlist with the song currently playing.

In addition, from the settings, you can activate the equalizer and/or the stereo widening function, which to enhance the sound.

Besides the music player, Nokia 5610 offers a built-in FM radio with RDS support. Before turning the radio on, you need to plug the earphones in, because they act as an antenna. You can store a total of 16 stations, also being able to change their names and the order, in which they appear. You have the option to program all stations available, input a specific frequency or to search for all the stations in the region you are in, via the Internet, which is kind of pointless.

The loudspeaker delivers a high-level sound, but any low frequencies are not to be heard, of course. It’s better if you use the earphones, but the sound is not as good as in Sony Ericsson W890.



The video player supports 3GP or MP4 file formats. Since the manufacturer claims that 5610 can play videos with quality close to DVD, we decided to check for ourselves. The maximum resolution, at which we managed to play videos, was 640 x 480 in both formats. However, when reproducing videos with a bitrate higher than 512 kbps the picture didn’t correspond to the sound and vise versa. That’s why when playing a video, we recommend you use a lower bitrate and a resolution matching the display’s.

Camera:

The camera with which is equipped the Nokia is 3.2-megapixel with autofocus and a double LED flash. It takes 2 seconds for the interface to start, two more for the autofocus, and you’ll have to wait about 6-7 seconds after snapping a photo, in order for the camera to be ready to go again.

The interface is relatively easy to operate. At first, it is in landscape mode, but you can switch to portrait. In the upper part, we have the icons indicating what are you shooting (pictures/video) and where are the files stored. On the left side, we have the number of pictures or time remaining, the quality and the zoom level, and in the bottom, is the resolution used.

The camera offers the following options and settings: brightness, flash on/off, night mode, image sequence on/of (in groups of three only), countdown counter, color effects and white balance. You can take macro photos, but this is an automated function and the user is not able to turn it on/off.

The pictures are average for such a camera. They lack detail and there is a lot of noise, which is stronger indoors. The flash manages to illuminate the object photographed bright enough, so it is clearly defined on the picture.


Overall, we are content with the performance, because we cannot expect a music-oriented phone, to make perfect photos.

The videos can be recorded at 640 x 480 pixels and 15 fps. Currently, there are not many phones that offer recording of VGA videos, so its presence here is quite “charming” and is a big advantage for those of you who prefer that type of media instead of still photos. Well, don’t expect perfect quality…

Nokia 5610 sample video at 640x480 pixels resolution

Software:

Like most of the phones with Series 40 interface, 5610 XpressMusic also comes preloaded with some programs, which can be found in the menu Applications. These are: Converter, Download!, Installer, Opera Mini, Search, Sensor, World Clock and Yahoo!GO (the last one is present in the Messages and Media menus). There are four games as well.


The phone supports JAVA 2.1 and that allows you to download many other applications for that platform.

Performance:

We are somewhat disappointed because of the light lag felt when operating the phone. Even though some of you may not notice it, it was annoying for us that the phone was slower than Nokia 6120, which although a smartphone, is not supposed to be faster than 5610.

Unfortunately, the sound quality during a conversation is not very good either. Your voice is heard muted and sharp and the collocutor will have trouble hearing you. You will also hear his/her voice similarly with the sound loud enough, but with a constant background noise.

According to the official data supplied by the manufacturer, the 900 mAh battery has to provide 6 hours of talking, 320 hours in standby mode and 22 long hours of playing music. In reality, 5610 gave up after about 8 hours of listening to music and simultaneously playing City Bloxx.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for an affordable music slider with youthful, sporty appearance, Nokia 5610 will offer you not only that, but also a player with an intuitive interface, quality sound and FM radio, to listen to, once you get bored with the rest of the tunes. It is not surprising that the phone has a few drawbacks such as bad Internet browser, mediocre camera and a sound during conversations, slightly above the average. If you think you’ll not be able to live with those, then maybe, Sony Ericsson W910 is what you should consider as a possible solution.