Nokia 5610 XpressMusic: Pros & Cons
Nokia XpressMusic is one of the most contending series Nokia ever came up with. The company’s idea of designing high quality music phones for music fans was yet a hard job. The company started up with two sliders Nokia 5200 XpressMusic and Nokia 5300 XpressMusic. Both the phones couldn’t mark their position in the market due to their ‘non-exclusive’ features, similar design and a bit high price. This was the first wave of XpressMusic series. About six months back, Nokia launched two new phones in the XpressMusic series; Nokia 5310 XpressMusic and Nokia 5610 XpressMusic. Nokia 5310 XpressMusic being a sleek monoblock made a proper place in the heart of the ladies & Nokia 5610 XpressMusic was yet another slider. You might be thinking about what’s the reason behind launching three sliders in one year from the same series. There is no actual mystery behind it else then this that the company wants to create such device which may look more like a portable music player. The difference Nokia made in the second wave is that the company replaced the white color from XpressMusic phones with Kelvin Black. This replacement added more sensational look to the 2nd wave.
Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is slider with a 3.2 megapixel camera. The phone has a rectangular design. There are no music keys on the side of the screen (which were previously used in Nokia 5300 XpressMusic). The top panel of the phone is made up of metal and the back housing is made up of plastic have a dotted texture. The sliding mechanism seems more strong and efficient than the previous XpressMusic sliders. The people who love music love this phone not only because of it design but for the major reason that this phone actually gave a ‘supreme standard’ to XpressMusic series. Nokia 5610 XpressMusic being ‘the king’ is powered by S40 3rd Version Firmware. The firmware is fast and efficient. The screen of the phone is a TFT which can display vibrant colors. On the right side of the phone, we have the camera and the volume keys (which can be used for zooming in the camera viewfinder). In spite of having so many good features, the users are experiencing some flaws in the phone. These flaws are quiet technical and practical as well. The ‘Cons’ are as under:
1· The phone sometimes behaves ‘dead’ when power saver and sleep mode is turned on simultaenously.
2· The music sliding key (which is placed above the soft keys) gets loose on continuous usage.
3· The front camera can only be used in the video calling mode.
4· The music quality in the headset is ‘treble influenced’.
5· The quality of the accessories doesn’t match with the phone.
6· The main camera has a dual OLED Flash, which behaves violently in the dark.
7· The phone captures the photo in at least 3.5 seconds.
8· No red-eye reduction mode.
9· The flash is turned off when the focus is set in the camera viewfinder. (Un-continuous flash)
10· On zooming the size of the photo is reduced (in-short the zooming and cropping of image takes place at the same time).
11· The screen catches finger-prints and dust very quickly.
12· The built-in Opera Mini browser works slow on the phone.
The above mentioned points are the problems faced by the costumers. The first point is an “interaction problem” the software mingles up with the hardware and as a result of it the consumers face this ‘sleeping problem’ with their Nokia 5610 XpressMusic phones. The company replaced the music keys with a music sliding key. This sliding key can be used to frequently interact with the music player, radio and the desktop even if you are in the main menu. On continuous use, this key becomes loose and begins to work improperly. The third point I mentioned above is about the front camera. Well the fact is that, 55 % of the costumers who spent 180-190 Euros on this phone don’t even know that it has two cameras and it can only be used when you make a video-call. The fourth point I mentioned above is something which I personally noticed, the sound quality is good but it has more treble. Even if you set the equalizer the sound will have that ‘treble tinge’ in it. The manufacturer has provided a dual-OLED flash to lighten up the 3.2 megapixel camera in the dark. In such light conditions where we really need a flash, the flash behaves too violently. The range of the flash is good but it would have been a better idea if the manufacturer had placed a single OLED flash in it. In dark close-up conditions, the captured image gets ‘totally white’. Another flaw, I mentioned above about the camera is that the phone takes at least 3.5 seconds in focusing, capturing and saving the image. The flash has two options (Automatic and On) but there is no difference whether you turn on the Automatic flash or you just set it to ‘On’. Although Nokia 5610 XpressMusic has a 3.2 megapixel camera but it has no Red-Eye Reduction mode. In the camera viewfinder, after focusing the flash is turned off immediately and on capturing the image the flash flashes twice which is actually a good option but it turn things ‘extremely white’. Another flaw, I stated above is one conventional problem of Nokia S40 phones, On zooming the picture size gets small. Nokia 5610 XpressMusic being the ‘leader’ of the S40 phones have the same flaw. The second last flaw is that the manufacturer has provided a ‘scratch-free’ cover of the display but it catches dust, stains and especially fingerprints very quickly. Sometimes, the users really need to clean-up the screen before ‘Turning into the groove’. The last flaw I personally observed is that the phone gets very slow while surfing the web using Opera Mini Browser.
Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is the most advanced S40 phones Nokia ever made. All the flaws I mentioned are based upon user reviews and my personal experiences. These flaws may vary in different regions and firmware editions. In few months, may be the company minimizes these flaws by installing a new firmware in the upcoming shipments.