Nokia 5610 XpressMusic review

The audio performance from the 5610 XpressMusic is really very impressive; there's a lovely balanced sound

Nokia's striking 5610 XpressMusic has headline grabbing music player functionality but this 3G mobile does much more than play a decent tune

Nokia has been making plenty of noise about mobile music recently, announcing a spread of music download and streaming mobile internet services. At the core of its handset range, though, Nokia has been equally busy upgrading its specialist mobile music phones.

Headline grabbers such as the N95 8GB and N81 8GB demonstrate that Nokia is prepared to go toe-to-toe at the high-end of the phone market. But Nokia has also introduced more models into its funkier XpressMusic music orientated phone range.

The 5610 XpressMusic uses the same eye-catching, brash look as its lower-tier 5310 XpressMusic stablemate - black and graphite, trimmed with either red or blue brushed aluminium side panelling. The 5610 XpressMusic though offers a higher spec phone for your bucks.

The 5610 is a 3G-enabled sliderphone that sports a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back panel, a secondary video calling camera up front above its large 2.2-inch display, and has full high speed web browsing capabilities.

Unlike previous Nokia XpressMusic models, the 5610 doesn't have a distinctive set of dedicated music buttons separate from the main controls. Instead, it employs a neat spring-loaded slider control immediately below the display to flick quickly between the music player, FM radio application and the standby screen. The 5610's main D-pad select key is labelled as a play/pause button, but the D-pad operates the usual music player controls in much the same way as many other Nokia models.

Under the surface, the chassis of the 5610 XpressMusic follows the template of the Nokia 6500 slide. It has broadly similar dimensions - with the plastic casing of the 5610 a touch larger (98.5(h) x 48.5(w) x 17(d)mm) and lighter (111g) than the 6500 slide's; the button layout (apart from the slider) is duplicated, as is the camera and flash positioning and its socketry. The overall look, though, is very different- more urban, Nokia reckons.

The 5610 has a glossy black plastic front panel that covers the D-pad and softkey controls, plus scratch resistant covering over the 240x320 pixels, 16.7-million colour display. Inevitably, this along with the pimpled plastic back cover, and glossy plastic keyboard, gives the 5610 a plasticky feel that the aluminium framing doesn't do much to offset.

The music player onboard the 5610 XpressMusic is naturally the focus of attention here. It can handle MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAc , and WMA music files, and cover art is supported too. The user interface is straightforward to use, and uncluttered, using essentially the same software employed on other recent Nokia Series 40 handsets, such as the 5310 XpressMusic and 6500 models - though with customisable XressMusic 'skins' available to make the player user interface look slightly different.

Tracks are arranged in regular MP3 player-style categories - playlists, artists, albums, genres - and there's a video playback option too. Tracks can be downloaded over the air from mobile network operators' music stores, and it's straightforward to sideload tracks from a PC using the USB cable and Nokia PC Suite software supplied with the phone. Alternatively, you can drag and drop tunes from a PC to the 5610's memory card using the USB link.

Bluetooth file transfer is another option, if less practical for multiple music files. The 5610 doesn't yet, however, support the full Nokia Music Store over-the-air download service although you can download tunes over the air via the onboard Download! application using the Jamster Music subscription service.

There's a slim amount of internal memory to store tracks - just 20MB in all - but MicroSD card support means you can swap cards with up to 4GB of storage capacity. Nokia boxes the 5610 XpressMusic with a 512MB or 1GB card to get you going.

Also included in the pack are a pair of stereo earphones, the Nokia Stereo Headset HS-45, with AD-56 in-line remote control. This two-part headset plugs into the phone via the 5610's 2.5mm jack socket, while the audio remote control section has a 3.5mm socket, enabling you to easily upgrade the supplied earphones to better quality headphones.

The audio performance from the 5610 XpressMusic is really very impressive; there's a lovely balanced sound with plenty of bass, tonal depth and sufficient volume without distortion. Trying better quality headphones or noise isolating earphones will only add to the sound quality provided by the standard set, but those provided should be fine for most users.

There are various equaliser and stereo widening options, and of course a speaker option if you want to share your musical tastes with friends (or unwilling fellow public transport travellers...).

The 5610 XpressMusic is impressive on the imaging front too. Its 3.2-megapixel camera is a notch above standard shooters, with autofocus, a macroshot facility for in-focus close ups, and a double LED flash. You can fire up the camera quickly with a dedicated key on the side (or through shortcut keys or softkeys on the Active Standby page), and the phone is comfortable to hold and operate as a camera.

Scope for adjusting settings is limited, although there are a few white balance options, and six image size settings up to the maximum 1536x2048 pixels resolution (see our article Nokia 5610 XpressMusic camera samples for a more detailed look at shooting capabilities).
Captured images can be finely detailed with bright and vibrant colours rendered. The autofocus locks on relatively quickly, and there's a two-step cature button to help you get in-focus shots. With a bit of practice, you can also capture decent in-focus shots very close up to subjects.

Video taken by the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is also better than average for a cameraphone, with the facility to shoot in VGA quality (640x480 pixels) at 15 frames per second. Downloaded or sideloaded video plays back smoothly on this phone, looking better than average on the large display (Nokia claims it is "near DVD quality").

While the music and imaging share the spotlight on the 5610 XpressMusic, Nokia has filled out the typical Nokia Series 40 rundown of features with a bunch of interesting applications. You do get push email and instant messaging functions onboard, plus the usual Nokia organiser functions, and a Nokia XHTML browser that can be used to surf the full internet or Wap sites at 3G speeds.

But Nokia has also slipped in a few additional web-based services. You get an Opera Mini browser, which can provide quicker rendering of websites for mobile screens, reformatted for easy scrolling or regular viewing.

The Yahoo! Go mobile application is embedded too. This app (which can be downloaded to many handsets from Yahoo!) offers a widget-alike homepage tailored with updated information and news pushed to the phone, Yahoo!'s oneSearch mobile search engine plus links for fast access to services like maps and guides, Flickr, and Yahoo! email.

Nokia also includes an installer to download WidSets, Nokia's own widgets application that delivers automatically updated information, news and blog postings from web-based services straight to the phone without you having to open up the browser.

Other features include a Search app for quick internet searches, Nokia's Bluetooth-based short-range social networking Sensor application and standard fare such as convertor and world clock apps.

The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic puts in a first class performance as a straightforward mobile, too, producing clear, clean audio. Battery life is quoted by Nokia at up to 6 hours talk time or up to 320 hours in standby; alternatively, you can eke out up to 22 hours of music playback between charges.

Overall, the 5610 XpressMusic has some attractive elements for a non-smartphone music mobile; its slider switch is a nice touch, shuttling you between the standby screen, music player and radio quickly and smoothly. And the look of the phone is certainly striking. Best though is its fine music player. The 5610's size may be an issue with some; there are slimmer and lighter 3G music mobiles on the market that may have more slimline appeal to the fashion-conscious. The music player interface and controls are pretty standard for a recent Nokia Series 40 handset and not as sophisticated as, say, the latest Walkman phone player. A 3.5mm socket on top, rather than a headset adapter affair, would have been welcome too.

However, the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic delivers a great overall music phone performance - the core feature of the Nokia XpressMusic range - and comes with a decent 3.2-megapixel camera too.