Full Nokia 5130 Review:
Design :
The Nokia 5130 is a classic Nokia
design, keeping the elements of
the XpressMusic family that we've
always enjoyed, while retaining
the company's slightly rounded
candy bar aesthetic. We like that
the Nokia 5130 keeps the
external playback controls of the
Nokia 5310, but otherwise it's a
larger phone in every dimension,
especially it's thickness, where
the Nokia 5130 is about 50%
thicker than the thin, dense
Nokia 5310. The Nokia 5130 is
also more than a half ounce
heavier, though it's now clad
mostly in glossy plastic, instead
of the metal shell of the 5310.
This gives the phone a lighter
feel, more playful than serious,
and the plastic lets Nokia use
some interesting textures and
embossed styles to create a very
modern looking device.
We didn't like the port covers on
the phone. The microUSB port
and the microSD slot both have
small plastic covers, and while
this presents a cleaner look for
the rim of the phone, these
covers were difficult to open, and
the USB cover especially was
always in the way when we tried
to plug in the USB cable.
The display on the Nokia 5130 is
disappointing, especially for a
Nokia device. The colors waver
enough as you rotate the phone
in your hand that your left and
right eye will see the display
slightly differently, creating a
flickering effect that was
unpleasant in normal use.
Though it was easy to jump into
the music features, it was more
difficult to navigate between
features, backing in and out of
various menus. The phone also
seemed sluggish moving the
cursor from icon to icon or tab to
tab.
Calling
Calls on the Nokia 5130 sounded
good, but not great. Voices
sounded clean, with little
distortion, but we heard a
constant, high-pitched static
during our conversations. The
phone saw mediocre reception
on T-Mobile's network in the
greater Dallas area, receiving only
2 bars of service on average,
which was less than some other
T-Mobile phones we have on
hand. Battery life was improved
from the Nokia 5310, and we got
more than 5 hours of talking
time out of a single call. However,
for a phone with so few features
and slower EDGE networking, we
were hoping for some truly
astounding battery time with this
device.
For calling features, the Nokia
5130 lags behind, with one
notable standout. Thanks to a
large speaker on the back of the
phone, clearly meant for music
playback, the phone has a nice,
loud speakerphone. We were
easily able to carry on a
conversation in our car on
speakerphone with loud driving
noises all around. Otherwise,
don't expect much. The phone
has voice dialing, but after we
went through the confusing and
ambiguous Nokia training
session, the Nokia 5130 still had
trouble guessing our spoken
commands. The phone managed
to guess correctly about 30% of
the time, which is pretty much
useless for hands-free callers.
Messaging
For messaging fans, the Nokia
5130 comes with a nice set of
features, and a couple surprises.
It still lacks some of our modern
favorites, especially threaded
messaging, which presents text
messages as a conversation.
Instead, you get to see one
message at a time on the Nokia
5130. For instant messaging
fans, though, the Nokia 5130
includes presets for AOL, MSN
and Yahoo, but also surprises
with Google Gtalk service and
even MySpace IM. We like seeing
MySpace on more phones, as we
think social networking services
make a great conduit for instant
messaging. For e-mail the
pickings are a little more slim, as
the phone comes with limited
presets for setting up e-mail, but
our favorite services were
represented, including Gmail and
Yahoo, as well as some other
popular providers.
The keypad on the Nokia 5130
did not make for easy typing.
Though the phone is wider than
its predecessor, the keys are
stuffed into a more narrow band
in the middle, with a wide,
sloping rim around the edge. The
keys were too glossy to be
comfortable, and the shiny silver
paint against the matte silver
backing did not make reading
digits easy. If you can't touch
type text messages, you'll have to
find the right lighting to see the
keys well.
Music
Music is the name of the game
for the Nokia 5130, and as we've
said many times, we like the
directness of the music playback
features. There are controls on
the left side of the device, and as
soon as you press play, the music
starts. Even if you're in another
app, you can press play and hear
music. The Nokia 5130 also
comes with good hardware for
listening. Besides the necessary
3.5mm headphone jack on top,
which let us use our favorite ear
buds instead of the chunky buds
bundled in the retail package, the
phone also has a very nice
speaker. Bass was lacking, but
the speaker was loud and clean,
able to fill a small room with
sound.
Though playback was great on
the Nokia 5130, the music player
app itself, and the navigation
between the different music
screens, needs serious work.
Nokia should borrow a play from
Sony Ericsson's book, as the
latter company's Walman phones,
like the Sony Ericsson W760
that's now available on AT&T for
the same price as the Nokia
5130, specialize in making it easy
to navigate through the music
player to easily find your tunes,
create playlists and more. Not so
much with the Nokia 5130,
which uses a more difficult and
counterintuitive menu scheme.
We did like the abundance of
audio control, which let us set
our own equalizer and enhanced
the sound with stereo widening
effects. We were also
enthusiastic about the fun
dancing lights display, which
lights up the side of the phone
above the playback keys, but the
lights didn't seem to dance in
rhythm to the music, so the effect
fell flat.
The Nokia 5130 also has a simple
video player, but this is
confusingly mixed in with the
audio player library. You can play
videos up to the QVGA resolution
of the phone's display, but the
Nokia 5130 can't downsize
larger videos to fit the screen,
which was a hassle. Even more of
a hassle is the fact that the movie
playback is also tied to the music
buttons on the side of the phone.
So, if you were watching a video
earlier in the day and then you
press the Play button to hear
some tunes, the player picks up
your last request and starts
playing the movie soundtrack.
Better to just skip video playback
altogether than make it a
disappointing, confusing feature.
Web browsing, camera and more
If you're looking for a phone that
makes good calls and does a
great job playing music, a simple
device to replace, say, a basic
calling phone and an iPod nano,
the Nokia 5130 should be your
perfect match. However, as far as
other multimedia features are
concerned, we found the quality
to be below average. We haven't
had the chance to play with the
Nokia 5630 yet, but it looks like
Nokia wants you to consider the
5130's big brother for a more
versatile multimedia experience.
Full specs:
2G Network:GSM 850 / 900 /
1800 / 1900
DISPLAY Type:256K colors
Size 240 x 320 pixels, 2.0 inches
OS: Symbian S40
Messaging:SMS, MMS, Email
Browser:WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio:Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games:Yes + downloadable
Colors:Red, Blue, White Aqua
GPS:No
3.5mm jack:Yes
- Dedicated music keys
Phonebook:2000 entries,
Photocall
Call records:Yes
Internal:30 MB
Card slot:microSD, up to 16GB
(verified), 1GB included
GPRS:Class 32
EDGE:Class 32
3G:No
WLAN No
Bluetooth:v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port:No
USB :v2.0 microUSB
CAMERA:Primary:2 MP,
1600x1200 pixels
Video :QCIF@15fps
Secondary:No
Java:MIDP 2.1
- MP3/WMA/eAAC+ player
- Organizer
- Voice memo
- Predictive text input
Standard battery: Li-Ion 1020
mAh (BL-5C)
Stand-by:Up to 288 h
Talk time:Up to 6 h
Music play:Up to 21 h
Price Approx: Rs.3700
smartphone in their range called
