Entry level true music phone. Review on Nokia 5220 XpressMusic

I am back with another cell phone review, this is my 8th review on Mouthshut.

Few days back I was looking to replace my good old workhorse Nokia 3110 classic. I shortlisted Nokia 3120 classic, Sony Ericsson G502 & Nokia 5220 XpressMusic.

N3120c was on top of my list as my exprience with N3110c was truly amazing. N3110c is certainly my favorite among my all other phones.But being IT guy I love new technologies and that made me buy new phone. SE G502 is also among the best mid range phones, it has very best fixed focus camera & really good screen coupled with time tested A200 platform by SE. I dropped G502 becasue of its boxy looks & ugly design. Also its sound from loudspeaker is average, no doubt quality is typically SE.

Now come to N5220xm, you will surely ask me how this phone find its way to my pocket when I was supposed to buy 3120c ?? Well the reason is its exciting look, sound & value. When I actualy saw N3120c it was good, infact really good but sound quality was disappointing. Another thing is that N3120c doesn't come with memory card or USB cable that means I would have to spend Rs.500 more on microSD & cable. Then I saw N5220xm which was Rs.1200 costlier than N3120c but comes with 1GB memory, USB cable, Software DVD, Lanyard & other regular things like charger & headphone. Sound quality is bonus.

I bought it just 4 days back and my observation is as follows:

Introducing Nokia 5220 XpressMusic:

The phone is built upon latest S40 5th Edition FP1 platform and which is one of the best platform in the world after S60. It is really easy to use and supports so many things. Support for Java & Flash Lite is also good. Some people says that phone is slow but I must tell you that its not slow but its jerky. No ghosting, no problem under normal use.

Features:

You can check it on https://nokia.co.in/A41039045. Apart from regular S40 5th Edition FP1 features there are additional features like Nokia Maps, 3.5mm Audio jack, Music Lights & Dedicated Music Keys. Rest features are same as other regular phones from this category. No 3G.

I give it 9/10.

Construction:

The weak point of this phone. Although phone is built very strongly but only if you see it from front. If you see its back you will notice that the back cover is made up of so thin plastic that it requires only one fall from hand to break. When you hold phone little tight you will notice creaking sound. Battery housing is also not very tight to hold battery on its place, just shake phone little more and you will feel battery colliding with back cover. The outer surface of cover is made of rubberised plastic. Rest quality is really fine absolutely no problem if you take care of your phone. Keypad is very good, little small but very responsive.

I give it 8/10.

Display:

Display is good but not the best. The resolution is 240x320 pixels that gives it very fine picture quality. If you compare it with one in N6300 then picture is less brighter. Viewing angle of display is narrow. One good thing is that the display doesn't go off quickly while you read SMS or Email. The phone has a sensor fitted near ear piece above display which controls brightness of display. The screen brightness is never hard on your eyes even if you see it at night. But it loses its picture under direct sun light.

I give it 8/10.

Sound:

This phone comes with dedicated sound chip. Music is not really loud but good enough, better than regular phones. You can't compare it with N series. Sound quality is notably good. It houses two stereo speakers, but hey don't get excited they provide only regular sound. But important thing is that it provides very good quality sound. Phone has Stereo Widening & Equiliser buit in, you can set predefined settings or set equiliser mannually. But if you set bass high then buitin speakers starts distorting sound at full volume. The headphones comes with it is of medium quality, lacks bass element. Although they sound very clear and loud. Try quality headphone to get powerful music experience. Phone has cool Music lights (above dedicated music keys) which keeps glowing according to music. The sound quality through earpiece is as usual fine. Speaker phone is also quite loud.

I give it 8.5/10.

Camera:

Camera isn't so good at bright lighting conditions, video recording is even worse. Although it has 2 MP camera it takes mediocare pictures. Everything is good on mobile screen but when you see them on PC, it looks mixture of green and pink layered. Now good things, camera boots up really fast & takes picture in no time unlike regular S40 phones. It uses a technology called NIPS which cleans picture noise and fill brightness in picture. I must say this technology works really well under low light conditions. Full marks for that. Although phone lacks camera flash. The trick to take good picture is when you get ready to take picture just hold on for 3-5 seconds before clicking. The reason is camera's shutter speed is bit slow and takes time to adjust correct exposer settings. Video recording capability is really poor, it records video at resolution of 176x144 pixels max & frame rate is around 5-7 fps.

I give it 8/10 (2 extra point for NIPS).

Battery:

I am still testing it as its still 4 days old. It is working for 1.5 days with bit heavy use. Heavy means display keeping on for long time as I am surfing through all features and entering my all data whole day. I think after few recharges it will be good for 2 days as battery has good storage of 1020 mAH.

I give it 8/10.

Verdict:

In one line, "its a best value for money phone". Features are compromised but still at this price its a boon. This phone is for those who wants everything in phone but at lower budget. It has its own charm which makes it look expensive.

Overall I give this phone 8.5/10.

I recommend this phone if you want a good music phone & overall package, but if you are one of those who likes better camera then go for SE G502 (it doesn't come with any memory or cable but its 3G).

I must thank you for reading so long review.

That's it for now.