Name: Rajeev Sharma
Location: USA
Date: 2009-11-21
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Best or Only Smartphone for $150
Comment: I am a late adapter when it comes to cell phones. So refrained from Iphones and vu/touch phones as one was mostly tied to a provider data plan or had to pay a premium for the phone itself.
If you dont care about 3g (read data plan 29.99 a month) or GPS there cannot be a better phone at this price range. Solidly built, some reviews complained about back cover. I do see an issue there as it get on the phone with little notches on all sides. But how may times you open that. Specially when SIM/SDHC is accessible from outside. The only time you need to open the back cover is when you install a battery.
What I love about this phone in order of preference.
Form Factor (It looks like a phone and not a PDA)
Not tied to a provider or unlocked so you dont have to be geeky searching for unlocking/jail breaking articles.
Wifi 54G (email is good on the run)
Quad Band GSM World Phone
Media/Music playback is excellent.
Can go upto 16GB Micro SDHC (plenty of music or videos) comes with 4Gig.
Speaker phone and in general call quality for me increasd 3-5 times. (I used Razr before).
Clear brilliant screen
Touch pad responsive enough
Picture quality @3.2MP is good in daylight and flash comes in handy for pictures in lowlight (subject @2-4 ft).
What I will look for in future revisions.
USB Charging capability
A little thinner (Not that is fat right now) but it would make it sweeter.
Total Alloy body including back cover for a more solid feel.
Maybe a more rugged look/feel (non piano black or non shiny finish for e.g Zune kind of finish or finish with more friction), I always get a feeling I am going to drop it.
Name: V.A.
Location: Waltham, MA USA
Date: 2009-11-27
Customer Rating: -
Summary: great phone + music player for the price
Comment: Been playing with the phone for several days and I absolutely love it for the $199 I paid. Of the features I was interested in, here are my opinions on them:
0) very easy to setup this unlocked phone -- I took a SIM card from a Tmobile prepaid phone and inserted into this nokia and it self-configured everything for me (a relief for me as this was my first time buying an unlocked phone). Now that I know the cell coverage is good in my brick-walled condo, I'll swap this SIM card for a cheap $30 Tmobile monthly plan SIM card, and fully expect this to be a quick swap
1) perfect size -- fits in a shirt or pants pocket easily, is lightweight, and easy enough for my stubby fingers to hold and operate. hard to operate this with gloves on though (e.g., on a ski slope)
2) music player and FM player are *very high* fidelity, especially compared to other players out there. A couple of caveats though -- the earphones that come with it are only average for sound quality, and I get much higher fidelity sound using my other set of compact Sony headphones. Also, from what I can tell, the FM radio only works with headphones on -- you can't use the built-in speakers for radio. The built-in speakers are a lot better in fidelity than other phones/players I've tried, but obviously this device is too small to accurately replicate bass using its built-in speakers. Bass is fine with good headphones though.
3) WLAN capability is fantastic. With free WLAN everywhere, it's by far the cheapest way to access the net through the phone without a data plan (recall I'm doing this with a prepaid SIM card). Note that the phone supports 2G (and not 3G), but with WLAN being much quicker downloads (e.g., 2-3 sec delay to start playing youtube videos) and usually free, I'm not interested in 3G. video quality was surprisingly good for such a small device. Reading email on yahoo was pretty easy, but required a few too many clicks too navigate within yahoo -- I wouldn't want to go through 40 email with this, but it's fine to scan my daily email and reply to just a few email. I had been planning on buying a nettop and WLAN scanner as well, but this phone already does both of those functions well enough for me so I won't be buying either anymore.
4) instruction guide that came with it could really use some work. if you're new to Nokia (like me), it was tougher to figure out than other cell phones I've used (sony ericsson, motorola, and panasonic). the back cover is annoyingly badly designed as others have remarked, and the instructions were nearly useless for getting that cover off and back on again. i'll probably seek out google searches for this device before i use the instruction guide in the future.
5) comes with 4G memory card, but the slot is in a bit of an odd place. my other phones usually kept it in the back with the SIM card and battery, but this places it in the side. it's really an odd design, but since I don't plan to swap memory cards all too often, not a huge issue for me.
6) battery life is average. my previous sony ericsson gave me a 10 hour talk time, and this phone probably gives about half that, and even less if you go crazy with WLAN, etc. so i'll probably end up buying a second charger so I can keep one at work and home (I listen to music all day at work with it)
7) phone lacks AM radio and GPS. sports broadcasts are often on AM -- would have liked if they added that in. GPS would have been nice, but alas, all these things would have probably raised the price too
overall, i'm really happy with this phone given its price -- it gives me all the features I really need without forcing me in to expensive cell phone data plans with the wireless companies. its music player capabilities beat out even the $400 phones/players, and if you're willing to live without a few features, this is a great phone for the price -- plus you won't feel as bad if you damage it
Name: J. Yang
Location: San Jose, CA
Date: 2010-01-13
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Concerning Battery Life
Comment: This is a great phone! However, it took me a week to figure out why my battery life is very short. I was charging this phone every night and it runs out of battery at 6pm, the next day.
Double check:
1) Your RSS or Web Feed settings. This will activate your Wifi and drain the battery.
2) Your Mail for Exchange settings. I had this set to "check every hour" and my phone only lasted a day.
3) All internet settings. Make the apps ask for connection. If you have any apps that automatically check for updates, you will drain the battery.
4) Apps in the background. Like IM or Facebook.
5) Email automatic retrieval.
After I turned all of these automatic features off, my battery life is the same as Nokia's spec.
I really enjoy this phone.
Name: YSR
Location:
Date: 2009-11-27
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Beautiful Looking Phone made perfect for those that use their phone for the "new-basics"
Comment: The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic phone is absolutely beautiful when you have it in front of you. I bought this phone for my fiancee and I had the urge to keep it! The phone is not one for the super tech-savvy individuals so I don't know what the purpose is of comparing it to the high-end, high-tech phones. What you have with this XpressMusic phone is looks + what I consider the new-basics of cellular use. The "new-basics" include: Great Call-clarity, Music-playing capabilities, excellent sounding speakerphone, memory card storage, a vibrant touch-screen, sturdy phone casing, and smartphone enhanced features like social networking, etc.
If you are looking for a phone that will provide you with a lot of features, at a moderate price, with beautiful looks, then this is the ONE!
Name: Y. Micael
Location: USA
Date: 2009-12-07
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Good things come in small packages
Comment: At first I opened the box and was dismayed at how small the screen was. I previously had an LG EnV touch, which had a 3.0 inch screen but was drastically larger than the 2.9 inch screen of the 5530 XM. What can I say, I like big screens. But once you get used to it, u realize a small screen can be an advantage when you only have one hand available. It is highly customizable, the screen is vibrant and rich, camera is great for a phone, the wifi is easy to configure and connect. Music on this phone is simply AMAZING. The words are so crisp and clear I have now made it my primary music listening device over my ipod, seriously. The phone aspect of this phone is 4/5. I feel the antenna is not as powerful, as there is a no service bar constantly when I am in the university library. But I do not know 100% if this due to my carrier or the. Anyway, best deal around for an unlocked phone under $200.
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