Nokia call the styling of the new Nokia 5330 XpressMusic "edgy". We have another word for it - "ugly". "Edgy" is the sort of word that designers use when they have come up with something that looks like a Pontiac Aztek.
The Nokia 5330 XpressMusic is an unappealing mix of curves and straight lines that doesn't seem to fit together well. The 2.4" display is dwarfed by a sea of shiny plastic that looks out of proportion, and when the small numeric keypad slides out, the 5330 looks almost comical.
It is worth bearing in mind that the 5330 is 101 x 48 x 14mm in size when closed, the same size as many monoblock "candy bar" designs. Slide it open, and the 5330 comes in at 128mm tall.
Get past the tragic exterior, and the 5330 XpressMusic isn't bad. It comes with tri-band UMTS (but no HSDPA), GPS with Nokia Maps, a decent multimedia player, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth and a 3.5mm audio socket. There's a 2GB microSD memory card in the standard sales package, plus dedicated media keys to make music playback easy to manage.
We appreciate that some people might like the way that the 5330 looks, and it certainly looks like it might make a good music player. At €160 before tax and subsidy, it looks like pretty decent value too. Even if it is probably the ugliest phone that we have seen so far this year!
Nokia say that the 5330 XpressMusic should be available during Q3 2009 in black/red and silver/blue colour combinations.
Nokia 5330 XpressMusic at a glance
Available:
Q3 2009
Network:
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 +
UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100 or
UMTS 900 / 1700 / 2100
Data:
GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G)
Screen:
240 x 320 pixels, 16m colours
Camera:
3.2 megapixels
Size:
Large slider
101 x 48 x 14mm / 113 grams
Bluetooth:
Yes
Memory card:
microSD
Infra-red:
No
Polyphonic:
Yes
Java:
Yes
GPS:
Yes
Battery life:
7 hours talk / 16 days standby (GSM)
5 hours talk / 16 days standby (3G)
-Nokia 5330 XpressMusic
