The market for music phones is growing every month. Demand for integration and combination is adding increased pressure on manufacturers such as Sony and Nokia to combine the functionality of an MP3 player inside a cellphone. Nokia’s latest effort, the 5300 XpressMusic from T-Mobile is a valiant effort that comes with both faults and favors. If you’re thinking about leaving the iPod at home and using your phone as a music player, read on to see if it’s worth saying goodbye.
As far as design goes, the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic has functionality in mind, but certainly not style. One of the thicker slider-phones out there, this thing feels really big in my jeans pocket. However, if you’re wearing a coat or jacket with an inside pocket, then you won’t mind carrying it around. The 5300 XpressMusic features dedicated music control buttons, volume control, and a camera button – all on the sides of the display. There’s also a joypad, center button, 4 additional buttons, and a numpad when you slide the phone upright.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the Symbian 60 OS that Nokia tends to go wild with most of the time. It’s very clunky and hard to use. Thankfully, this phone doesn’t use it. The UI Nokia has gone with is very friendly, crisp, and a welcome change to a world of VCAST and Motorola menus. It’s extremely responsive and not once does it ever lag between commands. Nokia’s music player software works just fine although there’s nothing special about it. Just drag and drop your files and you’re good to go.
Among the music-related features on the 5300 XpressMusic are several other assets that make this phone worth buying. Those of you who use AIM or any other IM a lot will be pleased with the full-feature IM client on this phone. That “Mobile Buddies” list? Delete it. You won’t be needing it this time around. The included 1.3MP camera is better than most around (RAZR, Sidekick 3) and takes decent photos suitable for web viewing as long as you have good lighting.
What about the reception though? Nokia has always had a reputation for strong signals and crystal clear reception and the 5300 XpressMusic is no exception. Calls are pleasant on the ears and you won’t find yourself going “Hello, hello?” repeatedly over and over. Don’t worry about this phone dying either. Standby time with on/off talk time let me go three-and-a-half days without charging.
So with Nokia getting back into the T-Mobile lineup, is it time to switch? Those of you who need better reception with the ‘Mo should definitely consider the 5300, if not for the extra features. Plus with the current rebate schpiel going on currently, you can snag it for under $100. Not bad. However, since music storage is limited to microSD cards, you might want to just move on and keep the iPod handy.
Hey Vince:
How do you think Nokia should improve S60? Why didn’t you talk about the fact the device doesn’t have a 3.5 mm headphone jack?
it does have an adapter, stefan, so it works with 3.5
I listen to audiobooks on my ipod so I need to be able to resume playing where I left off. Does the phone support this or does it go back t the begining of a track when the music player is restarted? Does this have any sort of bookmark feature like the ipod?
JP – as far as I can tell it doesn’t work that way.
When you press the play button on the side of the screen, it will automatically resume from where ever it was last paused.
My only problem is getting the playlist to work. You cant make playlists on the phone itself, you have to use the Nokia software to make it work. I cant seem to make a workable playlist and its getting sooo annoying. I traded my W810i for this phone and I’m already deeply regretting it.
How do you get the playlist to work? I sync the playlist from the pc suite, but it doesnt appear in the “track lists”
all you have to do is updated your playlist everytime you sync your music
wow! i like This cell phone and its price its really cool well i dont know its price but last time when i came to the web i think i saw the price was $250 of a cell like this i wandered if it’s true pliz reply me as sun as posible
Can someone help me?
i just bought my nokia 5300 phone
and when i press the play button on the side, a message justcomes up saying “connect an enhancement”
what should i do?
you probably have the radio on, because that needs and enhancement to use as an arial. just go into media then music player and press the play button then .
Can anyone help me? I download ringtones, but when i try to assign them, it says cannot be set as ringtone. why is this? Its am mp3 file, just like the ones that came on it.
Hi guys!My girlfriend gave me as a present a Nokia 5300 but i think it has a problem,it makes a sound like “noise” (or whistle).I don’t have to make a call to hear it.I hear it every time I put it on my ear even it is on call or not. I heard that noise at my friend’s 5300 too but it wasn’t so loud.Has anybody notice that.If yes, did he solve these problem?How?Please save me!Nokia doesn’t replace it!Thanks anyway
PS:Sorry for my English
I have this phone with t-mobile. The phone is advertized to be edge compatible, but i can’t use edge, just gprs. I’m located in the middle of Los Angeles and I have t-zone, so shouldn’t it work?
I just got my phone and I don’t know how I can sent my picture to my email from the phone with the picture I took from there. Help
hi there.. i really love the phone, but the problem is i don’t have one.. and i don’t have any money to buy it. help me! where can i win nokia 5300 for free??? I’m really desperate to have that phone. help……… asap
thanks.. oh by the way I’m from the Philippines. Pls. help me…
hi there,
I dont know weather i should buy this phone or not, im getting the nokia 5300 in a few days, so i dont know what phone i should get, Im really intrested in the nokia 5300 and it sounds really nice, Is it a good phone? please help!
thanks….
Thank you for opening a wonderfully new sight..I wish you the best of luck with your new venture.
Can someone help me PLEASE !!! everytime i press the play button it says:connect an enhancement even when i try to play the radio
Another thing did get a different cover for the phone, if yes were did u buy it
THANK YOU
can someone plz help me? i just got my nokia 5300 and i can’t transfer any music into it. i connected it to the usb and it says no device dected, when it is connected! i followed all the instructions but it still says its not connected please can someone help?
okay i got the music to go in but not pictures, can anyone help?
i use nokia 5300 as a modem for my internet use. wihle i get connected to the internet quite fast, however, the mobile phone icon that appears at the bottom right corner of the computer screen, has a cross sign with a red color circle, and it says “Nokia PC Suite” “no phones connected”. But it does not interrupt my internet use in the computer. Why does it happen? How to get that icon to show that its connected?
How did you get your N5300 to act a modem?
Is the Nokia 5300 poor battery? I want to know…
Does it have cool text sms features? I want a phone dat is good for texting, imean soft keypad? does it have?
hiya
i bought the nokia 5300 yesterday and i have had 2 songs sent to me via bluetooth but they havent been found on my fone and i cant get my music to play on loudspeaker :( im really upset coz i have been told thth this is a reli good fone nd it isnt makin a gd impression plz help
lol..always update the music library after adding any song..u may find it..the phone is a good catch..can play 3Gpp videos also, better cam etc..dont regret.it is much more of a computer..two many menus to browse..so far like it.
Our family all have 5300s and we love them except they ALL have had problems with unreliable sound, to the point where they can’t be relied upon to ring at the proper volume when someone calls, message tones are iffy, alarms have to be backed up.
We’ve been through 5 phones between us and they all have the same problem. Has anyone else experienced this?
How do you transfer music from the My Music folder into your playlist (Playlist meaning when you push the PLAY button, that is the music that plays).
It automatically did it before… after a while of not transferring, but now it won’t whenever I get a new song.. please help me…
Vabella
I got my 5300 last Saturday. Everytime I try to download songs from my computer onto it, it doesn’t work It reads: No device detected. A similar message like mine was posted before by Jenn-August, 2007. How did they manage to get music on their device? Is some kind of software necessary to perform that task?
Hey Can Anyone Help.
I Got My Nokia 5300 Sent To Me From England And Im In New Zelanad.
Its Account For The Internet Setting Is T-Mobile.
And I Cant Seem To Be Able To Use The Internet.?
ive had tha fone for ages now but my music player still has all the songs on it that i dnt hav but did hav and i dnt no how to get rid of them this means my music players messed up plz help
hi I have my nokia 5300 for a while now but now some how when I make call I can’t hear. the other person hear me just fine but I can’t hear anything
It only works when I use loudspeaker please help me up if anybody have had this problem before
I cant get the battery cover off
SOMEBODY HELP ME!
Someone please help.
My Nokia 5300 keeps restarting after a while. When i turn on my 5300, i have to wait for the memory storage to be ready in order to send any texts or anything like that. But then after a while it restarts it self.
hi over there