17 Jun 2008
Included in Nokia’s XpressMusic family, the Nokia 5300 is a mobile phone which is highly music focused. The mobile phone has a smooth and sturdy sliding mechanism which measures 92.4 x 48.2 x 20.7 mm and weighs 106.5 gram. It has a decent sized keypad with large buttons for easier texting and easy access to dedicated music keys that can play, pause, forward and rewind. These keys can also be used as a volume control and a zooming button when the camera is in use.

An Active Standby screen is featured which allows the user to quickly access a lot of commonly used functions from the carousel-style menu. The Nokia 5300 has an integrated 5mb internal memory. Users can expand this to 2GB using a MicroSD memory card. This will allow users to store approximately 1,500 songs.

As this is a music mobile phone, you will find a row of dedicated music buttons located on the left hand edge of the screen. These buttons let you start and stop a playback, and skip, forward or backward the music tracks and playlists. It also includes a feature that allows users to sort by artist, album and song title.

Equipped with a high quality stereo music player, the Nokia 5300 supports all main digital formats such as MP3, Midi, AAC, AAC+, enhanced AAC+, and WMA. It also includes a built-in stereo FM radio which allows users to select and enjoy their favourite radio station. Music can be played over the mobile phone’s speakers or headphones. Once the supplied headphones are in use, the sound quality is pretty good. Most users are fond with downloading ringtones. The Nokia 5300 ringtone feature offers MP3, True Tones, Midi, alert and gaming tones. It also supports 64 polyphonies.

The 5300 has a large 2-inch screen which features up to 262k colours on a QVGA TFT display. It has a vibrant display resolution in 320 x 240 pixels. It also comes with colour schemes, animated wallpapers and animated screensavers that allow users to customize according to their preferences.

The mobile phone also comes with a 1.3 megapixels resolution camera that takes quality photos. The built-in camera lets you shoot in either portrait or landscape mode. Some of the most remarkable camera tools the Nokia 5300 have includes an 8 x digital zoom (for close up target), video mode (for recording moving footages as well as still photos), video playback, and video storage (for sharing pictures).

Another addition to Nokia 5300’s superb imaging features is the “photo effects” tool. This lets users manipulate the photo’s overall quality. It also includes a voice recorder to record a message and send it to other phones using Nokia’s Audio Messaging Facility. The Nokia 5300 also supports voice commands.

It is also possible for users to share their photo and video recordings through the use of the MMS message service feature of the Nokia 5300. Supplied with a basic web browser, a user can also browse the Web using the HXTML browser which can be accessed from the phone’s menu. With the MMS feature, it allows users to conveniently check emails on their phone as often as they want. Moreover, the MMS service also allows the creation of text messages, with sound, video or photo recording.

In terms of connectivity, the 5300 includes a Bluetooth as well as infrared feature and even USB connection to allow the user to quickly transfer data. It also allows users an option to use compatible Bluetooth devices like headsets or wireless speakers to play music. A CD is also supplied to let the user manage files and music transfers from the computer to the mobile phone or vise versa.

One of the many users’ concerns often involves battery life. The Nokia 5300 comes with a rechargeable battery which will provide the user with up to 3.2 hours of talk time, up to 223 hours of standby time and 12 hours of music playback time from a fully charged battery.

The other features of the Nokia 5300 are alarm clock, reminders, stopwatch, countdown timer, calculator, calendar, notes and pre-installed Java games (such as Snake and Soduko).

Let us know what you think of the Nokia 5300. Leave your comments on the mobile phone using the form below. Please also score the phone out of 10, and leave your name (first name is OK) and location.

1. You must own or use the phone to leave a review
2. Do not use this form to ask questions
3. Inappropriate submissions will not be accepted

Your Name:
Your Location:
Email Address:
If you leave your email address and your review is more than 50 words and contains the name of the handset, you will automatically be entered into our free prize draw to win £100 on 28th July 2008. The email address will not be used for any other purpose and will not be displayed on this page. Terms and Conditions
Review:
Score out of 10: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

copy the text from the image into this box