Nokia 5320; First Impressions

....Got the phone yesterday.

First thing to notice, the design and build... which is pleasant, nice and solid. It's very similar to the build of the 6120c. No creaking, no loose batt cover - and that shiny surface is, as you guessed it, a fingerprint magnet. But I guess all shiny gizmos are like this anyway. It's not as "slippery" to hold as the 6120c - those tiny dots at the back and sides of the phone really helps in giving this phone a nice grip and 'feel'.



Sound is good, in fact, it's very good - it's a tad better than the both the n82 and n95. Although they do have the same equalizer setup, and audio settings (loudness and stereo widening). A few days ago I had extensively tested a 5310 - and comparing the sound of that with this one, I think this one's a little better (more base). The loudspeaker is very loud - but it aint as loud as a 6233 though. Sound at full volume is okay so far too - no cracking noises. But the headphones that came with it, while good enough for that occasional sound trip, in my opinion is not as good as 3rd party high-end headphones. Good thing that this phone has a 3.5mm jack - just plug in a good set of Seinheissers or Bose headphones - and you're rockin!!

I "sound tested" it too with these two headsets:

motorola S9

motorola HT820

The sound rocks! In fact, both bluetooth stereo headsets pumps out nicer sounds than the included headset of the phone! The built-in controls on those headsets (A2DP) works flawlessly on this phone - enabling you to control the songs being played. Once it's paired, you can just keep it in your pocket, and not bring it out - if you want to change anything. You can just pause, rewind, forward, play - using those headsets.

Still haven't tested the "say and play" feature... and Im not sure if that feature will work with a bluetooth headset on, but I'll try to test it in the ff days.

The keys are a little stiff, I'd say, they're about as stiff as that in the n82. But they're more comfortable to use - coz they're bigger. If you're used to the keys of an N95, these could take some gettin used to, owners of 6120c's will feel right at home though.



The camera isn't that great though. It's about the same as that in the 6120c - in fact, I'd say they're identical in photo quality. Even has the same adjustments (white balance, color tone). What it lacks in quality it makes up for in enjoyment. Yup, it's fun to use - especially that panoramic mode (another thing from the 6120c), and it's quite fast too. There's no noticeable shutter lag. In other branded phones, which I wont mention (hehehe..), the sound is heard before the actual shot is taken - which makes for an irritating photographing experience. Especially if you're taking pics of people. How annoying would it be to tell them to 'stay still and dont move' because the phone hasn't taken the shot yet.

The quality of its black and white shots seems to be better than the quality of it colored shots. (I'll try to post comparison shots). It seems to be more noise-free and better rendered than the coloreds.

There's no AF on this camera though... and there's no macro mode too. Which is a turn-off coz even the older N73 had a macro. Pictures taken with 'flash on', at close distances, seems to be very bright - kinda' overexposed. I guess there's no question that the 2-LED flash is very powerful indeed. And unlike its xpressmusic cousin, the 5310, the 5320 does have a night-mode.

This cam is well suited for that occasional shot ....that spur-of-the-moment photo that you just had to take. If you're into making somewhat serious and composed photography (macros, landscapes, portraits, etc... ), better set your sights on other phones (n95/n82).

What about general overall speed? I'd have to say that this could be the fastest fp2 yet! Opening of apps are fast. Opening of the menus, phonebooks, playing games are all fast. There's none of the eye-candy fancy transitioning effects of the N78 and 6220. Which I think is a good move by nokia. Those were the things that turned me off from buying those phones - coz they're slow.



The gallery viewing is another matter though... unfortunately, it's not as fast as the other menus. On an n95 classic, for example, opening a high-quality 5mp photo is instant ... but if you transfer that same photo, and open it on the 5320 - you'd notice that there's a small rotating circle on the screen first (meaning that it's "opening"), before it opens.

But this is only a minor issue - and it would be okay for most, I think. But I guess Im a speed freak, so it's not okay with me, hehehe. :D Hopefully, future firmware versions, which tends to make phones faster - will solve this.

There's also a slide-show feature... but it aint as great as the N's. One curious thing about the gallery is that it automatically rotates the pics to the horizontal. In other phones, you'd have a choice to view the pics vertically or horizontally (talking about the screen orientation)... on this phone, it's all horizontally. Which could be a good or bad thing - depending on how you view your pics. There is a built-in thumbnail view though, good for those who micro-manages their photos a lot on their phones.



Video taking on this phone is not that good. It manages around 20 to 21fps max speed... so it's pretty much the same as the video capability of the 6120c. Although unlike the 6120c - video playing is smoother, nicer. There are some animated gif's... large ones, that are slow and dont animate very well on that phone, those same gif's show up nicely and animate well on this one.

All the games that you have on your N-series phone will probably work on this phone... maybe except those that require an accelerometer. It also includes N-gage game functionality... but there's no N-gage game demos included. You have to download the games from the N-gage site.

Playing games with the phone is quite nice actually - those stiff keys give a reassuring 'click' when you press them.



Voice quality, signal strength, batt life .... are all quite good. Im on my 2nd day already, still on the factory charge, and I've been playing with the phone almost the whole day yesterday.


cheers!