Nokia 5130 XpressMusic Review

Introduction and Design:

One of the things that most self-respecting review writers dread the most is a white sheet of paper… erm, Word documents that is. Sometimes it feels like the plain paper is mocking at you, taking you down to task and pointing a finger bandies things like “So, what now, dude? What are you going to write this time?”. Things can get really out of hand when the device you are about to a review of doesn’t feature anything to make it stand out from the crowd. In other words, the handsets we tend to have most troubles with, in terms of our reviews, are those similar to the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. Don’t get this wrong though, the phone comes with a really nice set of functions, neatly packed in a likeable body.

As you may see in the pictures, the Nokia 5130 is a really cool looking and compact device. The glossy plastic face is a real eye catcher, plus we are pleasantly surprised by the color solution of our unit. There are two more color varieties of the handset – black and red (the classics with the XpressMusic series) and grey.

Similarly to most handsets aimed for people on a tight budget, the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic sports a 2-inch display with QVGA resolution. The overall image quality is satisfactory, although things get rather hard to discern in direct sunlight.



You can compare the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic with many other phones using our Size Vizualization Tool. 

As a whole, all buttons on the front side are comfy; it´s just people with thicker fingers might find the keyboard somewhat troublesome. We do not have any major gripes regarding the volume rocker or the keys that control the audio player. They don’t have enough travel, which makes them slightly unhandy, but other than that, they are totally usable. The 3.5mm jack, charger port and microUSB connector are on the top side and the three accessories to utilize come boxed of course, namely headset, wall charger and USB cable. The manufacturer ships the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic with 1GB microSD card, although we plugged in an 8GB card into the slot on the right side of the phone, just to see if it gets recognized. The phone seemed to be working just fine, despite the manufacturer´s claim it supports cards of up to 2GB capacity.



The overall outward appearance of the phone is one of the major aces up its sleeve. The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic doesn’t have a cheap feeling to it and reminds us of the Sony Ericsson W302 that also stakes on design appeal.

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.

Performance and Conclusion:

Aside from the capable music functions, we can recommend the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic for its great performance as a phone. The in-call quality is way above average – you can hear people loud and clear, although slightly monotonous. People on the other end rated the experience 8 of 10, but told us our voices sounded somewhat muffled at times.

According to the manufacturer, the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic should be able to deliver 6 hrs of continuous talk time and remain operational for 288 hrs in standby. The uninterrupted audio playback through a pair of headphones is estimated at 21 hrs, which is actually better than the 18 hrs of the Samsung BEATb M3510 or the 10 hrs that Sony Ericsson W302 allows.

The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is one of those devices that we find really difficult to write about, because they do not feature anything really special to make them stand out. On the other hand, this is a phone that we whole-heartedly recommend, especially if you happen to be on a tight budget. The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is a really capable device that will help you save money not just because of its affordable price tag, but because you will find out you won´t need to buy a dedicated music player. You need to, however, consider getting a better headset and this is something that holds true for most musical devices on the market, phones and audio players alike. The handset is a worthy successor to the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. The latter is equipped with a worse display and the in-call quality it delivers is certainly not as good. The Samsung BEATb M3510 and Sony Ericsson W302 are viable alternatives and if you are on the lookout for a reliable device to use on a daily basis and happen to be less exacting about audio playback, then we would recommend that you consider the Nokia 3720 classic that comes through flying colors even if it gets run over by a car.

The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic can be yours for $29.99 if you sign up for a contract with T-Mobile, at least in the US. Sounds like a great deal, plus the carrier sells the Aqua White version that looks really great.

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic Video Review: