Nokia's XpressMusic series received no less than four devices since the highly acclaimed Nokia 5700 made its way on the shelves. While most of these XpressMusic phones can be considered mid-level in technical features, there's one that surpassed all expectations – Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Unfortunately, we won't be talking about the first Nokia phone featuring a touchscreen, instead we will test the rightful predecessor of the older 5700 model, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic. Targeting youngsters that prefer music quality over the phone's versatility, XpressMusic series make their life easier by offering a wide number of phones at a rather fast rate. Starting with Nokia 5220 XpressMusic, the Finnish giant gave up the swivel design that had been well-known since the 3250 and 5700 handsets were launched, and adopted a more traditional candy-bar form factor.
Announced in April 2008, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic handset was shipped three months later, in July 2008. At the moment, the phone can be acquired for the amount of $240 USD, unlocked and without any plan. Fans of XpressMusic series can choose from two available color versions: Blue and Red.
Design
Nokia 5320 XpressMusic looks and feels fresh and daring. It seems the right phone for those young trendsetters that are changing 3-4 handsets per year. Covered all in plastic, the pattern on the back and both sides makes users get a good grip. The classic bar form factor may look boring at a first glance, but upon close examination users will remain with a nice feeling, as the plastic used at manufacture is very well polished. The device measures 108 x 46 x 15 mm and weighs 90g (including battery). These numbers don’t make it neither small, nor too large.
Above the small 2 inch-display there's a secondary camera for video-calls, but also a special key called 'Own key.' Below the screen there's a standard Symbian keypad, with large buttons, which are a little too embedded, so typing fast on the phone is out of the question.
The big D-pad button is large enough for any finger, but I found it very weird to control. Nokia says the D-pad features 8-way control, especially created for playing N-Gage games. That means that you have to be very careful when using the Navi key. Besides the two soft-keys on both sides of the D-pad, there are the Symbian menu key, the two Accept/Reject calls keys, and the usual C (Delete) key.
The Power button has been placed strategically on top of the phone, and can be used for various functions, besides turning the device on/off (change profiles, lock keypad). Nokia 5320 is definitely a music phone, thus you'll find that it features three external keys, on the left side, which can be used to control the music player.
The keys are very large and users will be able to control the music without even looking at them, in a very short time.
On the same side of the phone, Nokia placed a microSD slot for memory cards. The slot is covered with a plastic stripe, which is impossible to pull out, without removing the back cover first. The right side of the candy-bar features a dedicated camera key and a large dual volume key. The microUSB port, the charger port and the 3.5mm jack port have been cramped on the bottom side of the phone. The 2 Megapixel camera on the back features a dual LED flash, but lacks any protective cover.
Overall, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic is a good-looking phone, but without the 'swiveling' feature it seems that it lack the 'X' factor, specific to almost all XpressMusic series.
Display and Camera
Nokia 5320 features a 2 inch-TFT display, supporting 16 Million colors and 240x320 pixels resolution. Besides its small size, the screen is pretty good, in accordance with Nokia's standards. It's readable in the sunlight, and features good brightness and nice colors. For more in-depth info regarding performance, check out the benchmarks below.
The 2 Megapixel camera features a dual LED flash, which is somewhat useless, as quality of the pictures is very low, no matter if they're taken during the day or at night. Auto-focus capabilities are lacking, also some protective cover, thus leaving the lenses susceptible to scratches.
The maximum resolution that users can set to take pictures is that of 1600x1200 pixels. The maximum one that can be used for movie recording is of 176x144 pixels (15fps).
The interface is pretty much straightforward, with settings like Effects, White balance, Flash, Panorama mode. As you can see from the samples, the camera is not the best in its range, on the contrary, it can be easily taken as a sub-mediocre feature.
I also believe that this is the same module camera as the one used with the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic device, since it features the same problems. Tons of noise, color distortions, no focus, and awful contrast.
Menu and Software
Nokia 5320 runs Symbian 9.3 operating system, with S60 3rd Edition and Feature Pack 2 interface. Besides the usual improvements added by FP1, you'll now be able to choose from four different standby screen modes: Horizontal, Vertical, Basic, or Nokia default. Another new feature that has been introduced by FP2 is the availability of animation when browsing the menus.
Furthermore, users have quick access to the task manager, as the function appears now at the top of every pop-up menu. The Search utility has been improved with a new function called 'Say and Play.' Basically, you can pronounce any artist or song name by using the built-in speaker, and the phone will start playing the correct file, if the respective word is included in the song's metadata. The device only recognizes English language or English pronunciation, in case you thought of other language names. Nice features, but they didn't work too well.
The phone also supports the latest version of Adobe's Flash Lite 2.1, the interoperable platform that enables the accelerated development and delivery of rich graphical mobile content, and includes audio file playback and streaming capabilities that provide audio and music enhancements to both mobile gaming and multimedia experience.
The handset also includes some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock, and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as ringtone.
Moreover, Nokia's integrated browser has not changed, but it offers great Web navigation experience. There's also a rich English dictionary, nevertheless other languages can be downloaded too.
The phonebook can store an unlimited number of contacts, as long as you have enough storage memory left. The fonts can be customized, though only those displayed when opening Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.
Some Java games come preinstalled – Marble, Jelly Chase, Groove 2, and Guitar Rock. The phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but also with any Symbian S60 3rd Edition software.
Communications
Nokia 5320 XpressMusic is a quad band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) handset, HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) compatible, which features GPRS class 32 (100 kbps), EDGE 32 class (296 kbps), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (57.6 kbps), but lacks Wi-Fi. Tested on the EDGE and 3G networks, the phone has performed a little bit above average, as you can also see in the screenshots.
When connecting the USB cable, you'll be able to choose among four modes: PC Suite, Mass storage, Media transfer, Image transfer. All four of them are intuitive and easy to use, so there's nothing more to add here. The process of synching is very fast, browsing and transfers are made very quickly between phone and PC.
Other connectivity tools include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR support, and microUSB for PC synchronization (no charging). The Bluetooth connection reaches easily almost 126 KB/s, so you'll be able to transfer data fast.
In terms of messaging, the phone offers standard SMS and MMS messaging solutions accepting all available message types. The device also includes an audio message editor and e-mail support. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one e-mail account. Additionally, it can download headers and supports attachments. The Push to talk service is also available for those who are looking to use it.
Processor and Memory
Nokia 5320 is powered by a single ARM11 family processor running at speeds of up to 369 Mhz.This is one of the best CPU's embedded in Nokia's mobile phone, so it makes a nice addition to 5320's technical features.I have found that using the embedded browser and another application in the background makes the phone almost stop responding. Especially if you load pages rich in graphics.
The handset embeds 140 MB user free internal storage memory, 128 MB SDRAM memory. Bear in mind that just 125 MB are free executable RAM memory. Anyway, storage space can be expanded up to 8GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card. The sales package also contains a 512MB or 1GB microSD card. I found two drawbacks related to memory. The first was the fact that you could not open the plastic stripe covering the microSD slot, without pulling out the back cover. The second was the unpleasant surprise that I had when testing an 8GB microSD card and finding that it worked very slow. In fact, only after I stored more than half of the space on the memory card with various files did I notice that the memory card was read very slowly. The 4GB memory cards didn't have these problems.
Multimedia
Instead of being a complete multimedia solution for those looking for the perfect music phone, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic only offers a glimpse of how might such a phone be. The product comes with Nokia Music Headset HS-45 with AD-57 remote that enables users to change the headphones with better ones.
Even without the remote, this could've been possible, as the phone features a 3.5mm jack port. Music player interface looks exactly like previous XpressMusic series music players, and supports an impressive number of file types (including MP3, WMA and eAAC+). Without impressing too much through its sound quality, Nokia 5320 could be a decent choice for those looking for a music phone with a high-battery autonomy. The music player features an Equalizer that includes a Bass-booster setting, Stereo widening, Loudness and Balance.
The FM radio has a standard interface, and can automatically scan and save the available stations. It features RDS support and Visual radio. The Visual radio application can download all the local stations and save them to the handset with their names. Both functions, radio and music player, respectively, can be ran in the background with no problems.
Nokia 5320 also includes Real Player for playing video clips. The video player can be displayed in both normal and fullscreen modes. Unfortunately, the small screen makes the whole experience rather frustrating.Battery
The 890 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5B) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 250 hours in standby and of about 3 hours and 30 minutes in talk time mode. Also, Nokia states a music autonomy of almost 1 day (24 hours). Unfortunately, our test unit only managed to play music continuously for around 12 hours. Moreover, talk time was even lower, and we were forced to charge the unit every 2 days, without using it too much. Impressions
The old Nokia 5700 XpressMusic needed a fresh disciple, and the 5320 might be the device that reinstates the XpressMusic series on top of the music phones market. Unfortunately, the standard bar form factor as well as mediocre multimedia capabilities may reduce its appeal to music phone fans.
The Good
One of the best features of the phone is the fact that it provides the latest Symbian package and one of the most powerful CPU's designed for mobile phone units. Added to HSDPA connectivity and somewhat nice design, Nokia 5320 makes a very good addition to the XpressMusic series.
The Bad
The most important letdowns of the phone are definitely the battery and the crappy 2 Megapixel camera. I'm pretty sure that they would've boosted the phone's sales, if they performed better. I have also discovered some software issues with the memory card, especially when it was almost full with files, which adds to the flaws of the device.
Sales package
Nokia 5320 XpressMusic handset;
890 mAh Li-Ion Nokia Battery BL-5B;
Nokia Travel Charger AC-8;
MicroSD card 512 MB or 1GB;
Nokia Music Headset HS-45 with AD-57;
User Guide;
CD-ROM;
Music Leaflet.
14 DAY TRIAL // 
