Nokia 5630 Xpress Music Review

Nokia 5630 Xpress Music Mobile PhoneDespite owning the ground in all round media devices with the Nseries range, Nokia don’t have it all to themselves when it comes to music focussed devices. So, slowly the largest phone manufacturer in the world has been putting a plan into play to dominate this sector of the market, too. First, they announce the ‘Comes With Music’ service, which allows users who purchase compatible handsets to download unlimited music tracks from the Nokia Music Store for no extra cost. Then, they beef up the Xpress Music range with a number of well featured, music focussed handsets. One of the latest of these is the Nokia 5630 Xpress Music.

The 5630 Xpress Music handset comes complete in the box with a 4GB memory card, which allows you to store 1,000’s of music tracks. One of the really cool features on the handset is the ‘Say it and Play it’ feature. Simply, this allows you to speak the name of an artist or song title, and the device will automatically play it for you. Alongside the music player the handset has an internet radio application, a separate file and storage section for podcasts and a built in FM radio. With support for Bluetooth 2.0 you can listen to your music in stereo without a wired connection; otherwise you can listen with your favourite headphones thanks to the built in 3.5mm audio output jack. Another way of using this is if your car or home stereo has an audio input option, with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable you can play all your music from your phone through the connected stereo speakers.

The device has dedicated music keys, for controlling music playback. The keys on the side of the phone are easily accessible, as is the alphanumeric keypad, but the send/end call keys, soft option keys and menu/clear/cancel keys seem very small and closely situated together, which could cause problems.

The thing with the 5630 is, it is not *just* a music device. Underneath the hood, so to speak, is a fully featured Nokia S60 smartphone. There is support for HSDPA for super fast music downloads, alongside HSUPA for fast upload times as well. With a built in 3.2 megapixel camera, HSUPA means snaps taken on the phone can be quickly uploaded to your favourite file sharing or social networking site. In practical terms, this means within minutes of taking a picture, it can be published to the internet for the world to see.

The fun doesn’t end with music and sharing, though. The Nokia 5630 Xpress Music is also one of the few non-Nseries N-Gage compatible devices on the market. This means the whole catalogue of N-Gage titles is available for the device for excellent gaming on the move. Despite this, the 5630 XM measures in at just 12mm thick, making it the slimmest and lightest N-Gage device to date.

There are some serious features with the 5630 too, such as built in WiFi support, Quad band GSM and Dual Band HSDPA, for serious data usage. There is a built in email application, and the ever excellent S60 web browser, too. The device runs on the latest version of S60, so includes some nice menu effects called transitions, for those that like that sort of thing. There should be no surprises in learning the handset has a QVGA TFT screen, supporting up to 16 million colours, as this is almost the Nokia standard these days. The screen measures 2.2 inches point to point. Internally there is a very impressive 150MB of internal memory capacity, with support for expansion up to 16GB with an additional Micro SD memory card.

Overall, the Nokia 5630 Xpress Music is a capable device offering a wide choice of music options, good connectivity for sharing and uploading, and excellent gameplay thanks to the N-Gage support. Initial impressions suggest the only downsides to the device appear to be a low capacity battery and a cramped keypad. The 5630 Xpress Music has an expected release date of Q2 2009.


Source article: Nokia 5630 Xpress Music Review