Customer Reviews

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Unlocked Phone with Touchscreen--U.S. Version with Warranty (White)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Pros:
The unit is dead simple to get started with. Took my simcard from my ATT locked phone and dropped it in, and I was ready to go within a minute of opening the box.
The "Symbian S60v5" OS is quite advanced and has features that the iPhone doesn't have.
- multitasking: you can stream Last.FM and chat on IM (try using Pandora and AOL on the iPhone)
- theme/skinning without hacking the phone
- tethering without jailbreaking the phone
- Flash for web content (not full Flash 10, so no Hulu, but YouTube works).
- You can get apps from other places than the App Store (more like the Mac than the iPhone). Just download the .sisx file, and it installs.

Coming from a locked AT&T phone, the biggest benefit is the lack of crapware - no hardware shortcuts to "MeDiAnEt" and when you click on music, it doesn't prompt you to buy ringtones from AT&T. I'll never go back to carrier-subsidized phones.

Cons:
Battery is small - it'll last a full day of moderately heavy use (calls, email, web, music), but expect to plug it in every night.
Nokia's Ovi Store is not nearly as advanced as Apple's iTunes Store yet.
- Ovi Music is not available in the US
- Apps are rarely found in the App Store, because most developers would rather you download it from them directly (like Mac, not iPhone).
The phone update process is not as intuitive as the iPhone process - Small updates can be done from the device itself, but larger updates need a Windows PC (I used VMWare Fusion on my Mac)
The included micro-USB cord is quite short.

Up to you:
The device doesn't have battery-hungry things like 3G or GPS. If these are things that you need, look at the bigger brother - the 5800.

This is one of the best phones on the market right now, and it has received little attention! The 5530 is really in the class of phones priced $100-$150 higher. I have been researching phones for months now, and this is the only unlocked phone with a 3.2 MP camera, touchscreen, stylus and wi-fi all together for anywhere under 250 dollars. The only competitors that come close, Samsung tocco lite and LG cookie don't have wi-fi, and the Nokia E63 has a terrible camera and no touchscreen. This phone is a perfect combination of business featured smartphone and young and trendy media-phone.
Pros:
-Good responsive touch screen
-Excellent camera, photos come out with excellent quality
-Stable and powerful OS. You can run many applications at one time, and it does not crash. It is easy and intuitive to use, similar to a computer. It is also very capable, and can do many things a computer can: cut, copy and paste, downloading and installing applications etc.
-Stylish looking, both outside and user interface
-Good full HTML web browser
-QWERTY keyboard upon rotating the phone in almost all applications

Cons:
-Very light (would be a pro for most people, but I like phones a little heavy) and some of the plastic may feel a little fragile (but all phones today come with cheap plastic)
-No GPS or 3G (look at the Nokia 5800 if these are important)

In short: If you're thinking of buying this phone, go for it! You will love it!

I was stunned at the beauty and over functionality of this phone! Originally, my heart was torn in between the Nokia 5800 and this phone. I could have not picked a more wonderful phone. Aside from the GPS feature of the 5800, this offers so much more. In fact you can upload the mobile navigation provided free from Google Maps onto this phone if GPS is a must for you. Did I mention it is FREE! Unlike the 5800, you will not be charged $75.00-150.00 more (depending on the merchant's price) for this feature. Google maps just utilizes the carrier's network tower to pinpoint your current location. I love music and this phone sold me over. Everyone is jealous of the variety of ring effects this phone offers. You can literally customize everything for half the price of a the Droid, Garmin, and iPhone!I love the loudness, clarity, and bass this phone provides! An EXCELLENT phone! and I highly recommend it!!!!!

This phone is great I bought 2 for my wife and me and we love it it's like an iphone but not as huge. And the price is great too. Never have problems with the service always full bar. Nokia phones are the best.

I got this phone and it has
* great form factor
* great battery life
* excellent call quality
* Amazing Music player and sound quality
* Great music streaming app
* WiFi allows me to enjoy mobile internet without paying thru the nose for a data plan

There were some instances that I faced reboot and hangs when using the phone earlier, after updating to latest software I have no complaints yet.

I bought this phone as a Christmas present for my mother. I had it in my possession for a little over a month and decided to try it out before I wrapped it up. The software on this phone is rock solid and is probably the best S60 5th Edition phone on the market (when considering stability). The only other phone that can be argued to be more stable is the Samsung Omnia HD, but that is in a different category due to its $600+ price tag.

The 5530 has the same processor and RAM as the N97 and Nokia 5800, but none of the issues of the N97 (buggy software). In day to day use it was very excellent as a phone. Reception and audio quality were superb. Web browsing was great and the browser never crashed (unlike other S60v5 phones). Its built in stereo speakers are actually quite surprisingly good. This phone will never be a boom box, but you can listen to music without headphones pretty decently. Another nice side effect of the speakers is superior speakerphone quality. I was able to use the speaker phone in the car without any headaches and the people I was talking to reported good audio quality.

I understand that this is supposed to be a cheaper S60 smart phone, but the older 5800 is only $20-$50 more expensive than this phone and has 3G and aGPS. It would have been nice to include these features on the 5530. If these features were included I would have no issue rating this phone 5 stars. The 3.2MP camera is adequate for a phone in this price range. It takes wonderful pictures in moderate to decent lighting but very poor photos in low light. The LED flash doesn't do much in low light other than provide just enough light for a grainy photo. Still an LED flash is better than no flash at all.

When you consider the features the 5530 does have vs the rock solid software and price this may be the best value on the market. I would highly recommend this phone to anyone looking for a cheap unsubsidized (unlocked) phone.

Pros:
* Price is cheap for a brand new smart phone with these features
* WiFi makes up for lack of 3G (at least in areas where you can use WiFi)
* Solid firmware (software)
* Comes with a stylus that is stored on the device itself
* Easy to use

Cons:
* No 3G
* No GPS abilities
* LED Flash

I bought it for my 13 years old daughter, just having read the technical specificactions and some reviews, but trusting Nokia reputation. And it came to be exactly what it said it was !!! Very easy and friendly to use (no need to read a single sheet of the manual)and - really important to someone that doesn't live in USA - every function worked perfectly from the very start.
Size, weight, touchscreen sensibility, aspect (I got the not so common white model ) have to be rated 100%.
And, also very important, I found the phone with the exact amount of features I wanted for my daughter: not more than the ones you want to pay for(no GPS, no 3G, no a super-camera)but not less that the ones you do want (rather good camera, WIFI, very good music performance, touchscreen, rather good batery life ...)
So, if those are also your needs, I highly recommend the 5530 for you

I love this phone, It's very small for a touchscreen phone, and you can work everything with one hand. It has a lot of features and very user friendly if you are a Nokia user and It has multitasking.

The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic phone is absolutely beautiful when you have it in front of you. I bought this phone for my fiancee and I had the urge to keep it! The phone is not one for the super tech-savvy individuals so I don't know what the purpose is of comparing it to the high-end, high-tech phones. What you have with this XpressMusic phone is looks + what I consider the new-basics of cellular use. The "new-basics" include: Great Call-clarity, Music-playing capabilities, excellent sounding speakerphone, memory card storage, a vibrant touch-screen, sturdy phone casing, and smartphone enhanced features like social networking, etc.

If you are looking for a phone that will provide you with a lot of features, at a moderate price, with beautiful looks, then this is the ONE!

I bought it for myself for 150 bucks and was using since 3 months. Its a nice phone with all the necessary features.

Pros:
The phone is very light, and easy to use, The music quality is awesome, it comes with earbuds unlike other nokia phones which provide earphones. Easy to customize the main screen for necessary applications. Good fone for music lovers

Cons:
The headset wiring is very sleek, can be torn easily, didnt like the mic provided for the headset and it doesnt suit well. Using wifi for browsing internet is difficult, have to go through many menus to connect to wifi. Removing the battery and the sim is THE MOST difficult task.

If you are a music lover, this phone is perfect else its not recomended!