Nokia 5320 Xpress Music

We're talking XpressMusic, so we just have to say it: the 5320 makes a notable step up in audio quality. Still not the best in business, but it's way to go. The distinct youthful appeal is both a blessing and a curse, as it may put off those who favor smartphone power over music skill. There's some questionable design decisions too. They got rid of the swivel and, however subjective, possibly lost some of the charisma. Plus, the 5320 is definitely low key even compared to the way more modest 5310.

The 15-months-old 5700 was well due for an upgrade, so a youthful music-centered Symbian phone has its reasons to hope for a success. The improved sound quality, FP2, the doubled RAM and the more compact size sound right but the 5700 has stereo speakers, and a better display and keypad.

The lack of Wi-Fi however is still a downer and so is the smallish display. We do agree that there aren't many Symbians in this price range to feature Wi-Fi but that doesn't make the 5320 any less exposed to pressure.

The 5320 stays faithful to the XpressMusic-on-Symbian concept and makes it hard to decide whether smartphone strength or the music heart give it the extra edge. It sounds like we grew older overnight, but this time the young targeting somehow just couldn't have been more distinct. With that in mind, Nokia 5320 was just released and even a small price drop in the coming weeks may do wonders for it.

Key Feature:

• 2" 262K-color display of QVGA resolution
• Symbian 9.3 OS with S60 3.2 UI
• ARM 11 369 MHz CPU and 128MB of RAM
• 140 MB of user memory
• microSD slot with support for up to 8GB, 512MB or 1GB card in the retail package
• 3G with HSDPA support
• Bluetooth and USB v2.0
• 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera
• 3.5 mm standard audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Dedicated music controls
• Music-centric Active Standby plug-in
• Very good loudspeaker performance
• Compact body and light weight
• Cool handsfree set in the retail package

Main Disadvantages:

• QVGA at 15fps video recording max
• Poor battery life
• Smallish display
• No Wi-Fi
• N-gage gaming support is still in the works
• Audio quality is good but not great