Nokia 5610 Xpress Music Review – your Move Sony

In recent years the increased capabilities and capacity of mobile phones has made the significance of music phones increasingly more important. It is not beyond the realms of feasibility to say that a well-received music-phone can make major impact on the industry as a whole (iPhone anybody?). The range of devices on offer has soared dramatically to the point where there is something for everyone at every price-range. The large amount of devices on offer has now grown again, with Nokia’s latest addition to its Xpress Music family – the sliding 5610.

Nokia’s earlier entries into the music phone market; the 5200 & 5300, both fared relatively well but were let down by some build-quality issues and their not-exactly-compact nature. The 5610 aims to make up for this and adds more into the bargain as well.

Though by no means the smallest slider, the 17mm depth coupled with a dimple-patterned back-cover makes for improved grip and ensures it won’t stretch out your pocket, unlike the 5300. The steel casing around the slider of the phone makes the 5610 feel more like a quality product than any of the earlier Xpress Music series; in keeping with these latest additions, a similar design was incorporated with the recent 5310. Unfortunately, despite how good the design is, the glossy materials used on the front of then phone mark it out as an inevitable fingerprint magnet, a problem with many recent phones, which is showing no signs of going away in the near future.

The closest relation to the 5610 in terms of features is clearly the excellent 6500 Slide, as both can support Micro SDHC cards up to 4GB, possess 3MP cameras and are 3G capable. A lazy generalization would be to classify the 5610 as simply the 6500 Slide’s music-centric relation, but this would be doing both units a disservice, as the 5610 have in its possession the proverbial ‘ace up its sleeve.’

On the front just underneath the 2.2” display, there’s a small sliding key. This has been titled by Nokia as the “NaviSlide” key. The concept of this is purely for use with the music features. A slide to the right launches the radio menu and a slide to the left launches the music-player. It also has another use as well; the two LEDS at each end of the sliding key can be customized to blink on instances such as missed calls etc.

The 3MP camera does perform very well and again draws comparisons with the 6500 Slide in terms of its capabilities. The welcome addition of both LED flash and autofocus make the module very adaptable to most lighting situations and although it won’t be direct competition for the market leaders, it’s still an above-average performer that will have its uses. The only issue is the location of the camera lens, which could have done with being more recessed into the phone to prevent scratches, but perhaps that was too much to ask.

With a combination of solid build-quality and excellent music performance, coupled with good camera capability, the 5610 is sure to offer solid competition in the music phone market, in particular the Sony Ericsson W910i which it seems to be aiming to compete with and on this evidence the 5610 may well the lead. Your move Sony!