Nokia 5310 made thousands of fans with its very announcement. Packing a 16M color QVGA display, dedicated music keys, stereo Bluetooth and FM radio in a sleek thin body, this neat handset is sure to appeal to quite a lot of slim phone admirers. Plus, the XpressMusic logo is a good enough premise for music phone fans to be on the watch-out too. With the first XpressMusic bar-shape we have an amazingly thin and lightweight handset with serious sonic power.
Nokia 5310 official photos
Key features
- 9.9 mm slim and lightweight
- 3.5 mm standard jack
- Lots of preloaded applications
- 2" 16M color display with QVGA resolution
- Ambient light sensor
- Decent keypad
- Bluetooth with A2DP
- S40 5th edition user interface
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Dedicated music keys
- microSD card slot (2GB memory card included)
Main disadvantages
- Mediocre camera with no flash or auto focus, really slow
- Tri-band only
- No 3G
- Memory card slot under the battery cover
- Inadequate QCIF video recording
- Uneven backlighting
It seems that Nokia is more determined than ever to get its fair share of the slim phone market. Releasing 5310 right after the 6500 classic comes to prove that producing phones less than 10 mm thick is no problem for the Finns. Moreover, Nokia 5310 seems an attempt at winning the hearts of the music loving masses and, as we see it, might just be the right stuff for that.
Nokia 5310 views
Reflecting on its corner of the mobile phone market, we think Nokia 5310 will face the strongest competition from Sony Ericsson W880 and W890, when the latter hits the shelves. Other potential rivals are the Samsung Ultra phones, as Samsung is well known for the high audio quality of its handsets and true mastery of the slim shape.
Nokia 5310 is yet another slim device by the Finnish manufacturer. It is only 9.9mm thick, which may not be a world record but is surely a great achievement. It fits perfectly in almost any pocket, as its other dimensions (103.8mm height and 44.7mm width) are also quite compact. Furthermore, the weight of only 71 grams guarantees that it won't tear a hole in that pocket.
Nokia 5310 comes in two color versions - red and blue - and in our humble opinion both look very well on the handset. Most members of the team liked the blue one a bit more but the red one we were testing looked quite pleasing too. However, in all fairness, we have to admit that the seamless design of Nokia 6500 classic is truly hard to beat.
Anyway, speaking of color versions is quite arbitrary, as the only color enhancements are the aluminum bars on the front, one of which holds the dedicated music player controls. Red or blue, they do spice up the handset exterior and are a boost to its sporty youthful design.
The earpiece and the ambient light sensor share an aperture at the center at the top of the front panel. Below them is the 2" display that is going to receive due attention latter on in the review.
The earpiece and the light sensor share an aperture above the display
To the left of the display are the dedicated music keys, used for controlling the music player or the FM radio. As we see it, they are both functional and easy to use.
The dedicated music keys work like a charm on Nokia 5310
Continuing our journey down the phone's front panel we see the D-pad. It is surrounded by the two selection keys and the Call and End keys. All those controls are large enough and quite convenient. The last but one thing on the front is the keypad, which we'll come back to in more detail in a little while.
The D-pad and the controls surrounding it are large and easy to use
The mouthpiece, placed at the right side of the keypad, completes the list of elements on the phone front.
The mouthpiece to the right of the keypad
The thing to notice on the left side of Nokia 5310 is the charger plug, while the right side hosts the volume rocker and the neck/wrist strap eyelet.
The Nokia 5310 sides - volume rocker, lanyard eyelet and charger plug
The bottom of the phone is perfectly plain and bereft of operational elements, so we move on to the top of the device. The power button is here, near the left corner. The 3.5 mm standard audio jack is on the opposite side, while the microUSB port is between the two.
The 3.5mm standard jack, the microUSB slot and the Power key are all found topside
Placing the audio jack on the top of the phone is a smart decision indeed: you can easily carry the handset in your pocket with the headphones connected.
The only things on the back panel of Nokia 5310 are the 2 megapixel camera lens and the three loudspeaker grills. Pity no flash is there, which means that night shots are sure out of the question.
Nokia 5310's back side - loudspeaker grills at the bottom and the 2 megapixel camera at the top
Opening the battery cover reveals the BL-4CT battery and the SIM card slot. The battery is said to last 300 hours in stand-by or 5 hours and 20 minutes of talk time. While this might not be the best figures around you sure won't be forced to carry a charger with you at all times.
Nokia 5310 torn apart
It might seem that the SIM card can be inserted/taken out without removing the battery but this is in fact impossible because of the SIM holder lock.
Another opening hidden under the battery cover is the memory card slot. It is inconvenient, as you have to remove the cover every time you want to access your memory card. A slot on the surface might have just been a far better solution, although it would've probably spoiled the design a little.
Placing the memory card slot under the battery cover is inconvenient by all means
To wrap up inspecting the phone's hardware, we have to say that we are generally very pleased with its build quality. High-quality materials have been used and that contributes to both the handset's looks and sturdiness. The phone feels nice in hand but due to its extremely light weight it sometimes stands a little too toy-like. Still, if you don't have the largest of hands, this isn't a major concern at all.
Keypad scores decently
The keypad of Nokia 5310 has ample terraced buttons. It is easy to distinguish between keys on different rows but virtually impossible to do so for buttons within the same row. This renders some problems to orientation if you rely on touch solely. However, the size of the keys does help here so probably some training will greatly improve the situation.
The keypad of Nokia 5310
The backlighting is very uneven but still good enough in m ost cases. In dark environments it will cause no problems to usability but we somewhat feel disappointed with how the handset looks in the dark.
Backlighting is very uneven and somewhat spoils the phone looks in the dark
A very good display but too small
The display of Nokia 5310 is a 2" with QVGA resolution, capable of showing up to 16M colors. It excels in picture quality and legibility under direct sunlight. On the other hand, we would have liked it if it was bit larger.
The Nokia 5310 display in the dark
Neither backlighting, nor contrast is user-configurable. In the menu you can only set the phone's behavior in power-saving mode. An animated screen-saver can be set to appear on the display and, consequently, convert into a screen-saver showing a digital clock, the current date, and icons indicating missed events, if any.
All these readings are perfectly legible in any light condition. In the menu you will also find a sleeping mode option, with which the display goes out completely.
Telephony
As you might have guessed, signal reception and call clarity have not been compromised in Nokia 5310. The calls are loud and clear on both ends and you will have no problems communicating with this phone. The vibration of the phone is at moderate level.
Making a phone call on Nokia 5310
The loudspeaker loudness test results of Nokia 5310 are not among the best. It is definitely on the quieter side as is visible from the results table. Still, on most cases you are unlikely to miss a call but don't count on your hearing only in very noisy environments. You can find more details about our test, as well as the results of all other tested mobiles here.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overal score | |
| Nokia 5310 | 64.8 | 62.0 | 75.9 | |
| Nokia 6500 classic | 74.7 | 75.7 | 83.8 | Excellent |
| Nokia 6500 slide | 74.2 | 72.8 | 78.2 | |
| Samsung U600 | 66.7 | 66.2 | 75.3 | Good |
| Sony Ericsson W890 | 69.6 | 78.2 | 72.7 | |
| Sony Ericsson W910 | 77.5 | 70.7 | 82.7 | Excellent |
User interface is quick and comparatively easy to use
Nokia 5310 employs the Series 40 5th edition user interface. As you might know Nokia decided to skip the 4th edition and went straight to 5th from the 3rd. But leaving the name aside, we have to say navigating and controlling the phone are almost the same as with the previous UI edition and identical to Nokia 6500 classic. The phone offers a vast number of configurable options but at the price of somehow complicated menu structure and navigation.
S40 user interface
When in stand-by, the display as usually visualizes the pre-selected wallpaper plus signal strength, battery status and time in the top bar. Beneath the top bar are the operator logo and the date. The bottom bar is reserved for the descriptions of the functions assigned to the center of the navigation key and the two context keys. The center of the navigation key opens the main menu, while the context keys can be assigned a function of your choice. The font on the main display can be of any color.
If needed, active standby mode can be activated. It consists of several parts that can be edited or relocated according to the user's preferences. In the most common case, the top area is reserved for instant access to favorite functions denoted by their respective icons. The central area provides instant access to the music player. At the very bottom events from the calendar are displayed set for the current day. A cool S40 feature, that even Nokia smartphones lack, is the possibility to add a note to the active stand-by. The two soft keys' functionality can also be altered if necessary.
The main menu in Nokia 5310 classic can be visualized in four different ways: a grid of icons with or without captions, a list of items, and tabs. While each of them has its pros and cons, our personal choice remains the typical grid view with legends, showing a matrix of 3 x 3 icons. If you prefer more icons to appear on screen, you can go for the grid view without text, as it displays a 4 x 3 icons grid.
Different main menu views
The icons themselves haven't been changed at all, keeping the well known stylish design with animation of the selected icon. They can also be freely reordered within the grid.
The submenus follow no consistent pattern. Some items have captions, others do not. In certain cases, you will even be able to see the selected item described in small font, so you will not need to step further into another menu level.
As usual, the menu items are intuitively accessible through keyboard shortcuts. The color background of the entire menu, as well as the wallpaper on the display, can be easily modified by changing the active theme. The menu responds quickly, without lagging or holdups. Also, none of the frequently discussed halts or unexpected restarts in our Opinions section were experienced for the time we reviewed the handset.
Phonebook can now hold up to 2000 contacts
The phonebook on Nokia 5310 offers space for up to 2000 contacts. Each contact can be assigned a variety of fields but the phone numbers are limited to 5. First names are separated from last names eliminating problems, which may occur with synchronization. Ringtones can be assigned to each contact. Naturally, you can also assign personal pictures or videos that will run on an incoming call.
The picture displayed is different for incoming and outgoing calls, as it fills the screen when you are on the receiving end of a call, and appears much smaller when you are calling one of your contacts.
Nokia 5310 phonebook
There are three available view modes for your contact list: List-of-Names, Name-and-Number and Name-and-Picture. It can display the SIM card contacts, the phone memory contacts or both at the same time.
There are three different options for the phonebook looks
The phonebook font size can also be modified, should this be necessary, and it's an option that will surely be widely appreciated. Searching is done by gradual typing of the name of the corresponding contact. And that's not all: contacts can also be organized in groups and these can subsequently be used as call filters.
Another application to mention here is the voice dial: no pre-recording of voice labels is necessary. There is also a training application that helps for better results when using voice commands and/or dialing.
The Call Log in Nokia 5310 also hasn't undergone any significant changes compared to other S40 devices. It can display Dialed, Received and Missed calls separately, as well as all of them together. Every submenu can hold up to 20 call records with their date, time and duration.
The Call log keeps track on all you communications
Messaging is adequate
The message menu has not changed either. Not that it needs to, as it is organized almost perfectly. Besides standard text messages, Nokia 5310 is capable of receiving and sending EMS, MMS, and email.
The SMS and MMS use one and the same editor and all you need to do in order to turn a regular SMS into an MMS is insert a picture or any other multimedia content. As soon as you activate the editor, it displays a field for entering the number of the recipient, which you can fill through standard typing, select it from the phonebook, from the caller groups, or from the list with the most recent addressees in the call register. There is even the very handy option to select a favorite message contact in case you have frequent correspondence with one and the same person.
SMS and MMS share the same editor
Everything in the editor is intuitive and is organized in a practical time-saving manner. Once you have inserted the relevant number, a single click will shift to the message body where you can start typing. It goes without saying that the phone also offers a rich T9 dictionary.
Message length is limited to 1000 characters with both the count of typed characters and the number of parts the message will be divided into being displayed constantly. All messages use the shared memory, regardless of their type.
A photo, a contact card, or an event from the calendar can be sent via MMS. MMS size limit for both send and receive is 300 KB. A handy feature is that the phone will automatically scale down pictures for sending via MMS.
The email client is doing its job pretty well meeting most user needs in this aspect. It works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols and supports multiple email boxes.
You can hardly want anything more from the native email client
When a message is to be sent, it finds the email address of the corresponding recipient in the phonebook. Sent attachments are not limited in size. Both message headers only and entire messages can be downloaded, depending on your choice.
The email editor does its job very well
XpressMusic player has been upgraded
Without doubt, the music player is among the most important applications in Nokia 5310. Therefore it is no wonder that Nokia have made an effort to make it a very good one. Not that they have made any great improvements to the functionality but the new looks are really nice and suit well the overall design of the handset.
Nokia 5310's elaborate music player
The dedicated music keys are also a boost. They are used for controlling both the music player and the FM radio, with their functionality at a given time depending on the last used application.
Besides managing all the typical functions of a music player, it also sorts songs by artist, album and genre. The player works with MP3, MIDI, AAC, AAC+, and WMA formats. Naturally A2DP profile is supported, allowing listening on Bluetooth wireless earphones. The player is customizable through a number of themes that are at your disposal. These were all quite eye pleasing as you can see from the screen shots.
If you don't like the headset that comes in the retail package, you can easily change it for another one, as a 3.5mm standard jack is present both on the phone and the remote.
But moving back to the player, we have to say that it offers a large number of configurable options. The sonic experience can be enhanced by an equalizer and a stereo expansion function. There are 8 preset equalizers on Nokia 5310 but you can easily modify them and create new ones.
Available equalizers and themes
If you get bored with the music you have preinstalled on your Nokia 5310 you can activate the FM radio. It uses the audio player interface and has the well known functions. The Visual radio application is helpful, as it can download the radio stations in your area and save them to the handset with their names when an internet connection is available. However this might not be necessary as RDS is also supported.
FM radio player interface - RDS is also present this time
The video player of Nokia 5310 is compatible with 3GP and MP4 formats. Videos can be played in fullscreen mode, as well as fast-forwarded or rewound. The possibility to remove the soft key captions to make better use of the full screen view mode also improves the viewing experience.
Audio quality
As a music-oriented handset Nokia 5310 is supposed to excel in terms of audio quality. As it turns out it is quite up to the task. The handset has excellent noise levels and dynamic range. It is also doing quite well when it comes to frequency response. On the other hand it has rather high IMD and THD levels and not the best stereo crosstalk. Still these are all not too bad so we would qualify the audio quality of Nokia 5310 as good. You can find more info about the test itself here.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| Nokia 5310 | +0.29, -1.69 | -94.4 | 92.0 | 0.015 | 0.491 | -73.8 |
| Nokia 6500 slide | +0.52, -0.98 | -79.7 | 78.0 | 0.0057 | 0.051 | -70.9 |
| Nokia N81 | +0.39, -1.13 | -86.6 | 85.8 | 0.041 | 0.040 | -69.9 |
| Apple iPhone (v.1.1.1) | +0.34, -1.16 | -90.8 | 91.3 | 0.0050 | 0.016 | -91.4 |
| Samsung U600 | +0.41, -1.12 | -89.2 | 86.5 | 0.0040 | 0.019 | -86.9 |
Nokia 5310 vs Nokia 6500 slide
Gallery and file manager are one
No significant changes in the gallery were made with Nokia 5310. That's a pity, as we aren't really in love with the looks of the S40 gallery. Probably a part of the problem is that it is used as a file manager too.
There are three different views for the gallery: list with details, list and grid. Once you pick a picture you can zoom on it to see more detail. Zooming itself is not the fastest around (especially for larger pictures) and doesn't allow a picture to be zoomed in too closely, so actually it is not much of a help.
Three view modes are available for the gallery
The pictures can also be viewed in fullscreen and can be edited with the built-in picture editor. The latter offers a decent amount of options, but you will hardly end up editing your photos on your 5310.
Viewing a picture in fullscreen mode and zooming are also available
The final extras of the gallery include the available Slideshow and Search options. The latter is quite convenient for finding a specific file in overfed folders but we still believe that the gallery on S40 is not Nokia R&D team at their best. That goes true especially in user friendliness and we do hope that sometime in the future the file manager and the gallery of these phones will be separated.
Camera performance is disappointing
Speaking about multimedia capabilities, the camera is one of the most important things to mention. Nokia 5310 is armed with a 2 megapixel camera with image resolution of up to 1600 x 1200 pixels. Typical of Series 40, the camera settings are not the richest around but are still reasonable for this shooter. They include white balance settings, three quality levels going form basic to high, and various effects. Sequence shots and shooting in both portrait and landscape mode are also among the available extras.
Camera user interface can be set to work in both portrait and landscape mode
The camera itself is not the best we have seen either. Frankly, it is not even near average level. It has no lens cover to protect it from scratches. The lack of flash dooms night photos, while the fixed focus is surely to ruin any attempt at a close-up.
The lack of a dedicated camera button is another real downer when it comes to operating the camera. It is quite uncomfortable, especially when shooting in landscape mode, to use the confirm button of the D-pad for that purpose.
Photo quality is below average; in favorable weather decent images can be produced, sharp enough, with less blown colors. The noise levels are high in areas with no detail like the sky for example. Given the absence of autofocus, you'd rather not take a picture of a closely situated object or text, as they will surely be blurred. Text is only legible if captured from a distance.
Some photos from the camera of Nokia 5310
Finally we need to warn you about the camera speed. This one is surely among the slowest we have tried recently. It will take ages to save a picture at the highest resolution and that stretches the shot-to-shot time considerably.
Connectivity is good
Connectivity is at about the level you would expect from a handset in this price range. The best performer here is the USB connectivity, which is really seamless. Upon connection of the USB cable, it prompts you to select the connection mode. On the other hand the microUSB is not as widespread as the miniUSB, but this may just be how the future is shaping. You can then alternate these modes by only a few keypresses. Moreover, Mass storage is available, allowing your phone's memory to be directly accessed from a computer.
The Bluetooth version is 2.0 and it supports the A2DP profile, which allows a stereo wireless connection. The rest of the connectivity options include the network support - unluckily Nokia 5310 does not support 3G and relies on EDGE and GPRS only. There is no infrared port on the device either, but this is not much of an issue to us.
Finally, the memory card slot, which can sometimes be the most convenient way of transferring information, is also present here. It is somewhat uncomfortably placed under the battery cover but still this is only a minor obstacle.
Web browsers
Nokia 5310 classic has an integrated WAP browser, which also manages HTML pages. No significant changes in functionality have been made and it is identical to the one used in Nokia 6500 classic. Font size modifications are available, as usual. When set at the smallest font, the display visualizes up to 11 text lines. Direct address entering is available too.
The phone's primary web browser
The browser faces serious competition from another application - the famous Opera Mini Java application. The latter is pre-installed and is definitely a strong nomination for a first choice for browsing the web on Nokia 5310 classic. It is far more intuitive and fits text better than the integrated browser. The browsing experience can hardly be compared to the one on Nokia's smartphones but still is at a more than decent level. We still wished the screen was a little bigger on this occasion.
Opera Mini web browser
Organizer is one of Nokia's elements
The organizer brings no novelties either, and, frankly, it doesn't need many. Month, week, and day views are available for the calendar. The week can start on Monday, Sunday, or Saturday. There are five types of events: reminder, meeting, call, birthday and memo. Further, each type of event has its own specific fields like start and end time, type of alert with various advance intervals, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly repetition.
Calendar month view and setting up an event
There is also a handy to-do manager that enables you to categorize tasks in three priority levels. Tasks can be alerted of, as well as marked off once accomplished. They are easily synced with the calendar application.
The to-do manager can surely come in handy in organizing your time
Text notes are available as well - their length is limited to 3000 characters. The alarm clock is repeatable; it can be set to go off on any weekday and works even when the phone is switched off. You can also customize the snooze time if you wish.
The other organizing functions available include a voice recorder with a 60-minute length limit, stopwatch, countdown timer and a calculator. They are all easily operable and decently looking.
Countdown timer and stopwatch and a unit converter are available
This time the calculator offers two versions - a simple one with the most basic functions and a scientific one, which offers more advanced functions but is rather uncomfortable to use. In addition a loan calculator is also available.
Calculator offers a simple and a scientific version as well as a loan calculator
Applications
Nokia 5310 classic comes with a good number of preinstalled applications outside the organizer too.
Nokia Sensor is an application, used for Bluetooth communication. It allows the user to detect other users who are in the vicinity and to exchange messages with them.
Luckily, the regular unit converter remains and is consistently useful. It offers all kinds of converting options and offers currency conversion too.
All kinds of conversions are possible with Nokia 5310
The search application helps you find the piece of data you are looking for on you handset, while the download application takes you to the Nokia download center. There you are going to find a lot of useful stuff for your handset.
Something for every taste can be found in the Nokia download center
The final application that completes the list is the wallpaper creator, which challenges your imagination to create nice wallpapers for the mobile. Seemed fun at first but on a second thought, we doubt it this one will be put to very frequent use.
The wallpaper creator allows you to create your very own wallpapers
Let the games begin
Gaming lovers will probably appreciate the preinstalled content, as it includes three games. The City Bloxx game is first in this list. It is a challenge to both brain and reflexes and, as you might know, our team is quite fond of it.
City bloxx game is a challenge to brain and reflexes
Having in mind that this is a music phone, the Music Guess game comes is no surprise. It tests your ability to recognize songs by listening to small parts of them.
Music guess is a test to your music hearing
Last in line is the Snake III, which hardly needs description. After all it's the trademark game of Nokia handsets.
Snake III game
Conclusion
Summarizing our impressions of the Nokia 5310 we have to admit the phone is quite a pleasure to use. Plus, the good looks are a most welcome perk. Simplicity, affordability and friendly handling are good enough grounds for the mass appeal of Nokia 5310.
However there is enough competition in the thin music phone niche. As we see it, the strongest competitor will be the look-alike Sony Ericsson W880, and there is Sony Ericsson W890 just around the corner. And there's always Samsung and its latest Ultra lineup which has a nice music player and traditionally fare great in our music quality tests.
Other than that all we can say that the Nokia 5310 is well worth it and if you are not in a great need of a better camera it sounds like a great deal.
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