Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition

Discontinued
16th November 2009

The Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition (or just "MTVE" for short) is a DVB-H enabled handset aimed at those markets where a mobile digital TV rollout is taking place.

Regular readers may remember the original Nokia 5330 XpressMusic which was announced back in March, but this handset failed to materialise and was presumably cancelled. That version of the 5330 was notable for being an exceptionally ugly device to look at, but the MVTE version has been redone in glossy black with silver highlights and looks much better - Nokia say that there is a glossy white version available too.

It's perhaps a strange phone for mobile TV - the 5330's display is a standard 2.4" 240 x 320 pixel panel which isn't exactly huge. The DVB-H picture displays in landscape (wide) mode, so it does make the best use of the limited display. The rest of the phone is pretty straightforward - it's a 3G device (but doesn't support 3.5G data), comes with GPS and Nokia Maps, a media player, an FM radio, a 3.2 megapixel camera and all the other usual features that you would expect from a midrange Nokia such as Bluetooth and microSD expandable memory.

The relatively large 1000 mAh battery gives over 7 hours talktime and 14 days standby time. Nokia say that the 5330 MTVE can play DVB-H for up to 6 hours, using the bundled wired headset as an antenna.

Nokia are planning to roll out the 5330 MTVE in markets where DVB-H broadcasting already exists or is being implemented. This is actually a pretty limited market, in Europe only Italy, Finland, Austria, Albania, the Netherlands and Poland have a nationwide rollout complete, with France and Spain hoping to follow soon. Outside of Europe, Vietnam, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia and parts of India have coverage too.

If you live in the UK and Germany, then it's worth noting that although there have been some DVB-H trials, there seems to be no move to roll it out. Russia is looking quite likely to have a DVB-H service in major urban areas from next year.

To give Nokia credit, they have been committed to DVB-H for some years and have made several handsets that support it, including the popular Nokia N96. Nokia do have an ulterior motive though, their partner Nokia Siemens Networks is a major manufacturer of DVB-H network equipment, so there are more than just handsets at stake.

Nokia plan to roll the 5330 Mobile TV Edition during Q1 2010 priced at around €155 before tax and subsidy, which seems to be a pretty low cost way of getting a DVB-H receiver.