Nokia 5310 Red review

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Sony Ericsson have a wide range of Walkman branded mobile phones, with a model to suit most pockets, and Nokia needed to respond to this following the introduction of their high-capacity, high-end phones such as the N95 and the phased-out and slightly disappointing 5300 XpressMusic model. So here we welcome the 5310, a well-priced model with all the right music related features to challenge Sony Ericsson's hold on that area of the market.

Shunning the obsession with sliding this and flip that, Nokia have kept the 5310 simple and designed it around the traditional candybar shape. To this end we have a colourful and clear 240x320 TFT display under which is the standard D-pad, softkeys and 12-key keypad. Edging the display are the dedicated music player keys for entering the software and navigating through songs, however, all these features can also be activate via the D-pad and softkeys too. Available in red or blue, Nokia have also sensibly kept the weight of the 5310 down to a waif-like 71grams and a chassis thickness of just under 10mm, making it perfect for the pocket.

Weight and size are very important for a music phone, but not quite as important as on particular feature that almost all manufacturers overlook, especially on more budget phones. We're talking about wanting to plug in our own preference of headphones of course, as not everyone wants to use the often poor quality ones supplied. Nokia have not only incorporated a 3.5mm jack plug into the 5310, but they have thoughtfully placed it on the top, right next to a mini-USB socket and the power button! Aside from this you get a 2MP camera, stereo FM radio and a MicroSD slot for the supplied 2GB card, although the phone can take up to a 4GB version should you have enough music.

Now, this is all well and good, but if the sound produced by the 5310 sounds like it's coming from under a pillow, it's not much good is it. Thankfully, Nokia have continued their tradition of producing some of the best sounding phones on the market and the music-player sounds terrific. The Nokia 5310 accepts all of the popular file formats, uploaded CD cover art and supports stereo Bluetooth. Even the supplied headphones do an admirable enough job! Considering the excellent deals you can find, the 5310 is a viable alternative to a separate phone and music player in your pocket.

Of course, this being an obviously music-orientated device means you have to make do without certain things; the camera has no autofocus or flash for example and there is no 3G to enable you to download new music quickly. But when the player is this good, the phone this well designed and when Nokia have clearly thought about what listeners to music want, these omissions shouldn't really matter.

Nokia 5310 Red specs and features

• Tri-band
• 2 Megapixel Camera
• FM radio and MP3 player
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
• 30MB internal memory
• microSD Card Slot (TransFlash)
• EDGE and GPRS
• WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (Opera mini)
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
• Dimensions: 103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 mm
• Weight: 71 grams
• Standby Time: Up to 300hrs
• Talk Time: Up to 5hrs 20mins