Nokia 5530 XpressMusic announced [Preview]

Although the Nokia’s touch screen offerings like N97 or 5800 Xpressmusic are not that intuitive and revolutionary as Apple’s iPhone is but given the price at which iPhone is available in Pakistan these Nokia’s phones are a good choice for the people who want to have touch screen goodness in their hands. I have been using the 5800 XpressMusic since two months now and I can say I am very much pleased and satisfied with the product. Now Nokia has just announced another model in the line of touch screen phones i.e. 5530 Express music which apparently is a less featured version of 5800 Xpress music (no 3G) but is more suited towards the users in Pakistani market since we have no 3G network here and it has a lot better appearance than 5800 but have 0.3 inches smaller screen and comes with only 4GB memory card.

The devise OS i.e. Symbian S60 V5 is almost exactly the same as 5800 except the contact list on the home screen is not limited to only four contacts, instead now twenty of your most favorite contacts can be saved to have accessed directly from the device home screen and the contacts can be browsed by scrolling like a carousel. See the video below to see how carousel works.

The main area where the device is different is the hardware. 5530 is smaller in size and is slim but looks better since it has a silver metallic finish. The screen is smaller but I am sure most of 5800’s users wont be able to note a prominent difference. In accessories section, a 4GB microSD memory card is a shame since most of the music phone now at least come with 8GB memory cards or internal memory. The earphones on the other hand look a lot better than what we get with 5800, yeah an IEM (In ear monitor) which I have been looking forward to and will see how these earphones compete with my Griffin IEMs.

Other features as expressed by Nokia’s website are

• Touch-screen responsiveness gives tactile feedback and the fastest, most intuitive access to all the phone, web and multimedia features crammed inside – including music, video, gaming, social networking and messaging.
• Contacts carousel – one-touch access to 20 favorite contacts, each displaying their most recent emails, calls or social media updates and a thumbnail pic chosen by you.
• Media Bar pops-up to give quick access to instant messaging like Windows Live Messenger, on-board videos or YouTube, access to other sharing sites like Ovi Share, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, VOX – or just to browse the web.
• Music features include a world-class quality music player for excellent audio quality, FM radio, stereo speakers with surround sound, dedicated full touch music keys, 4GB built-in storage expandable to 16GB for up to 12,000 songs with album art.
• Listen to music – plug in the superb Nokia Stereo Headset WH-205 that comes in the box, and features a great tangle-free lead, or plug your choice of headphones into the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, or listen over Bluetooth stereo audio.
• Synchronize and manage music with Nokia Music Store, upload and download tracks via WLAN, Bluetooth or MicroUSB. Manage playlists on the go, or via PC with Nokia Ovi Suite
• 2.9-inch brilliant widescreen with up 16 million colors brings videos, album art, photos and phone menus vividly to life.
• Accelerometer automatically switches between landscape and portrait format whether you want use the phone, browse the web, watch a video or play games.
• 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus for snapping good quality photos and videos.

With the lack of 3G support, Nokia 5530 might not be a welcomed device in the US or European markets but for the markets like Pakistan, this phone would be a logical choice of many who want to have a touch screen smart phone on a better price, yes a $280 release price means within one or two months the price would be getting down under Rs. 20K here. Heck I would also be interested in switching even if the phone is a less featured version of 5800 but it sure has great looks and and an excellent looking earphone. The device is slated to be released in the third quarter on 2009 so get ready for a review once it is available here.

[Via: Nokia conversation and Engadget]