Review: Nokia 5300 XpressMusic slider phone: Part 2

Calling - Very good

The Nokia 5300 is quite capable when it comes to handling calls and contact lists. Voice quality was good, though callers complained of background noise as we made our way through the packed, noisy streets of Manhattan. Signal strength was always strong in New York using a T-Mobile SIM card. The speakerphone is among the loudest we've used, but while the phone sports speaker-independent voice dialing, we found performance on voice commands to be very poor; the phone didn't recognize a single name we spoke. Bluetooth and push-to-talk capabilities are present, and conference calling was not difficult. The contact list accommodated plenty of fields, though you must add them one at a time if you want more than a single name and number per contact. Through the Nokia PC studio, the phone syncs your desktop-based Outlook contacts.

Messaging - Very good

Messaging functions on the Nokia 5300 are better than expected. Text on the clear, bright screen looks rounded and clean, not blocky, and the SMS viewer shows up to 128 characters on incoming messages, just shy of the 160 we prefer. Typing on the phone is comfortable, with its wide, rubbery keys. Messages can be sent from your contact list, but the while-you-type searching requires you to search for surnames and will not find first names in your contacts. We would also prefer to be able to search directly from the ''To:'' field in the messaging app. E-mail setup was easy, especially with a range of preset accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL, though the phone can also handle manually entered POP3 and IMAP4 accounts.
10/31/2006 12:46:43 PM
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