Nokia 5700 XpressMusic

Having an MP3 player is one thing and I think it’s extremely sensible to have one in your mobile phone so you don’t have to worry about carrying too many gadgets with you. The 5700 hasn’t accomplished something new in that field however. It’s not the first nor will it be the last. But what phones like these have that can be construed, as distinguishing factors, are their designs and how user-friendly they are, from transferring your files and data to even the speed at which the phone operates. Let’s see how the 5700 holds up with regards to these and other factors.

Form Factor
The design concept of this funky phone I can’t say is unique. It’s a reinvented and sleeker, or should I say rounder, (for want of a better word) version of the Nokia 3250 and a little bit of the 5300 I’d have to say as well. On the top and bottom you’ll find the Power switch and 2.5mm earphone socket respectively. At first I was quite disappointed to see the 2.5mm socket but like the 3250 model, this one comes with a converter as well that’s attached to a control clip. The controller has everything to control the music player, voice dialing and taking and ending calls. So you can attach any other earphones to this if you don’t like Nokia’s ‘In-your-Ear’ earphones that come bundled


What you may find a bit odd is that there’s one speaker on the left at the top and the other on the right side at the bottom. The reason is when you twist the bottom all the way round to the media mode keypad, both speakers will be on the same side. Ingenious. Half way around is the 2 megapixel camera of course. The bottom can also be twisted the other way although it won't go all the way round but the camera will point at you in case you wanted to be a narcissist and take a shot of yourself.



On one side of the phone are the volume/zoom keys, and on the other side underneath a flap just below the infrared sensor is what houses the charging port, the microSD slot and miniUSB port. The 5700, like most of Nokia’s new models also has a light sensor located at the very top near the headset. What it does is gauge how much light is present and adjust the settings in your phone so the keypad doesn’t light up. If you cover it or if it’s dark enough the keypad will light up. The ‘Clear’ and ‘Menu’ buttons on either side of the screen would seem oddly hard and unworkable till you realize that the button itself is located just above the symbol. On the whole the keypad itself is extremely easy to use for messaging or otherwise.