My first new cellophone...finally !!!

I recently got a new cell phone for myself after much pestering from friends and family. So in comes the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music phone and out goes the good for mostly nothing Sony Ericsson (referred to as SE henceforth) T610. Initially I was in favor of buying the SE (again!) W580i Walkman phone. But I gave the Nokia brand an edge over SE although I liked the W580i more. Both phones have similar features like a 240*320 screen, a decent camera (2MP), are music oriented, look sleek and stylish, are priced around 10k, and that’s more or less the features I need in a phone. Here’s why I chose 5310 over W580i…

1. Money. The 5310 cost me at least 1k less.
2. Memory. The 5310 has a 1GB card while the W580i comes with 512MB.
3. Slider. W580i is a slider phone which is a strict no-no for me.
4. Width. The 5310 I suppose is the sleekest Nokia phone available in the market and is definitely a lot thinner than the SE.
5. Brand. Nokia is to phones what Maruti Suzuki is to cars. Just like you might chose a Swift over a similar priced and similar features Getz, same way I chose a Nokia over a SE.
6. Experience. It tells me a blind man can use a Nokia phone coz we are so used to it. An SE on the other hand takes eons to get used to (it took me a few months to figure out how to insert numbers while messaging with the T610, and that too by accident).
7. Looks. The Nokia certainly has an edge in this department and the black and red edition looks simply stunning.
8. Music. The Nokia has pretty hopeless speakers but sounds real good with the headphones. I won’t say it’s better than the SE though. The Walkman tag on the SE is enough proof of its sound quality. I suppose that’s the only department where the SE beats the Nokia hands on.

But the Nokia does have its share of negatives too…

1. A super slow-mo camera with no flash. If you’re looking to click a few quick pics, just forget about it coz it takes almost 15 secs to recover from the “shock” of clicking a picture. The picture quality is good only when there’s enough light around.
2. Screen brightness and contrast not adjustable. My daddy dear has a Nokia 6300 which has a more vibrant display with the same resolution and colors as the 5310, and when I compared the two, my heart almost sank. But I’m getting used to it now.
3. No search for music. You have to scroll all the way to the song you want to listen to.
4. No cover provided like the Nokia 6300 making the body (screen in particular) prone to scratches.
5. FM radio reception is as good as when you’re sitting in a bunker even when you’re out in the open.

And few positives…

1. Great sound through earphones. I’ve almost stopped listening to my iPod since I got the 5310 and that’s how good it is. The standard Nokia earphones supplied with the phone are simply hopeless. I tried listening to the music with my iPod earphones and the result was pretty encouraging. I’ve since given away the Nokia earphones to someone who can put it to better use.
2. Fast enough interface. Files stored on the memory can be accessed quickly even when it’s almost full.
3. Looks real cool and stylish in your hand, partly due to the red and black color scheme and mostly due to the real sleek body. I got an all black edition though.
4. Has a decent battery life even though some of my friends said otherwise.

So its 4 positives and 5 negatives. But believe me it’s not that bad. I’ve grown really fond of the phone over time and it’s probably the best phone that you can get for 9k, period.