Nokia 5530 XpressMusic

Discontinued
15th June 2009

The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic can best be described as a cut down version of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic - this is a touchscreen media phone, but the primary differences between this phone and the 5800 is that the 5530 does not support 3G and it comes with a smaller display and no GPS.

Costing around €200 before tax and subsidy, the 5530 is somewhat cheaper than its bigger relative. And despite not having 3G, the 5530 XpressMusic does support WiFi and the screen has the same resolution of 640 x 360 pixels which makes it ideal for web browsing.

On the back of the 5530 is a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash. Video capture resolution is 640 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second, which is pretty good.

All the expected features are here: microSD expandable memory (with a 4GB card in the standard sales package), stereo Bluetooth, USB connectivity, a multimedia player and an FM radio. There's a 3.5mm audio socket too.

It's a little bit more fun and perhaps youthful than the 5800, with several different colours available: red, blue, grey, pink and yellow. Certainly the price is going to appeal to a younger market too. Nokia have added support for social networking sites, plus a feature called the "people carousel" which allows you to flick between your 20 favourite contacts with ease.

The 1000 mAh battery provides up to 5 hours talktime and 14 days standby time, and the 5530 is more compact than the 5800, it measures 104 x 49 x 13mm and weighs 107 grams.

So, is there really any point in producing a cut-down version of the 5800? We have always said that big-screen multimedia phones like this really need to have 3G support, and the 5530 XpressMusic plainly doesn't have it. But on the other hand, it does have WiFi so it can be used on a wireless network. So as long as you restrict your downloading to those times that you are near a WiFi network, then you should be OK.

But the main problem is that the SIM-free street price of the Nokia 5800 is now around €230 before tax, not much more expensive than the €199 price quoted by Nokia for the 5530.

If you're never going to use 3G or GPS, then the 5530 looks like a viable option. But in all honesty, we would probably pay the extra for the 5800 and then we would be able to get high-speed internet access and mapping everywhere without compromising.

Nokia say that the 5530 XpressMusic should be available during Q3 2009.