Nokia 5130 XpressMusic: Reporting for duty

Gsmarena have posted their review of the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic. Here are the key features, music features, main disadvantages and final impression.

Key features:
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
2" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution
Sleek body design and choice of materials
Ambient light sensor
Hot-swappable microSD card slot up to 16GB (1GB card included)

Music features:
Top notch audio quality
Dedicated music keys with backlighting
Music light effects
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Up to 21 h of dedicated music playback

Main disadvantages:
Mediocre camera with no flash or auto focus, sluggish
QCIF video recording (only good for MMS)
No 3G
No stereo loudspeakers
No smart dialing
No Java multi-tasking
No office document viewer
No Flight mode and no Active stand-by

The Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is small and cheap but has more character than you pay for. The remarkable audio quality and that extra bit of style should be more than enough for your money in any basic S40 package with a music slant.

The previous Nokia competitor in this category was the 5220 XpressMusic, which we duly reviewed. With an almost identical price tag, it gets its edge from Nokia maps and flight mode. But speaking of edge, the asymmetrical design can be too hard to swallow for some.

For mass appeal there's Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. We guess we just need to pay due respect to the Nokia music bestseller. This phone looks good and does the music right and you have the word of millions on it. It has the same price and similar features and that's a good enough reason for the 5130 to set its hopes high.

Unfortunately to the XpressMusic lineup, the newly introduced Nokia 5130 is in for some serious competition by now elderly midrange Walkmans, which enjoy a golden retirement.

The sharp-shooting Sony Ericsson K770, sexy Sony Ericsson W880 and the conservative Sony Ericsson G502 all offer more user-friendly and better looking UI plus 3G support. The K770 camera should not be underestimated either, while its audio quality is not that bad either. Nokia could have had a winner there if only they did more work on the UI. Instead they even cut down its only competitive features such as the Active Standby and Nokia Maps - not to mention basic stuff such as Flight mode.

At the end of the day Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is an excellent hansdet with pleasing exterior and nice to feel finish. Unfortunately the S40 user interface implementation on the Nokia 5130 is heavily outdated, while the competition hardly sleeping.