Nokia 5130 XpressMusic Review

Software and Functions:

The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic runs the fast and handy Series 40 interface. Even if it´s the first time you´ve had to use a handset like this, you will feel at home pretty soon and get used to the shortcuts allowing access to basic functions like phone contacts, calendar, messages and camera in a snap. We recommend that you switch off the menu transition effects though, because they lead to pronounced lagging, not to mention we can´t say they add irresistible appeal to the phone interface.



The phone is a quad band device and therefore, usable anywhere in the world, although it lacks 3G support. Opera Mini is preloaded and this is good news. It´s a great app, especially in the case of affordable phones, because it opens complex pages pretty fast, even on EDGE and doesn’t generate a stunning amount of traffic in the process. Moreover, the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic sports extra features like Ovi Contacts (to sync your contacts to Nokia servers) and Share on Ovi (file sharing service).



Now, you don’t really think the 5130 XpressMusic would deliver the same image quality as the Nokia N86 8MP or Samsung Pixon, do you? That´s exactly how we felt, so we can´t say we had high expectations about the 2-megapixel camera, not really. Still, we have to say it did… disappoint us. Saving a snapshot takes about 3 seconds, not to mention the colors look thin and surreal. The level of details is definitely below par even for a camera with 2 megapixel sensor. The only thing that videos are good for is being sent in MMS messages, because they are captured at QCIF resolution and about 15 frames per second.





Now, the musical capabilities of the handset are another pint of beer, erm, sorry, cup of tea. The audio player is cool, visualizes album art properly and comes with several themes that alter the way it looks. The headset that comes boxed with the phone feels comfy to wear and the sound it produces is of utterly acceptable quality – loud and clear, but lacks decent bass frequencies. Don’t try to get it going at full blast, sine the irritating crackling noises become clearly audible. Things got much better when we plugged one of our average quality headphone pairs. The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic produced such a loud sound that it almost got our ears split and the overall playback quality was pretty close to what the iPod nano 2G delivers. We must say this is quite an accomplishment for a simple, unpretending phone. However, if you consider providing the sound background at a party, you better get portable loudspeakers such as the Nokia MD-9 that we have recently reviewed, because the built-in loudspeaker of the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic doesn’t pack much punch. The device comes with FM radio with RDS and its interface is easy to change using the preloaded themes.



We are pleasantly surprised by the four game titles that turned out to be fully functional and not just trials. What you get is Bounce Tales, Guitar Rock Tour, Rally 3D and Snake III.