BRAND NEW NOKIA 5730 RED 3G 3.15 MP CARL ZEISS OPTICS QWERTY KEYBOARD GSM UNLOCKED WHOLESALE CELL PHONES

Recruiting Symbian for an entertainment job is nothing new really and no, we’re not surprised that yet another handset wants to be the N97 of its neighborhood. The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic doesn’t really shine but it’s fit enough to handle quite a workload. Whether you need a smartphone for the knack or for the fun of it, this all-in-one messenger promises a bit of everything: music, web, gaming and connectivity.

XpressMusic has long crossed the smartphone line but only just starting to take multitasking so seriously. WLAN, GPS and a full QWERTY keyboard go side by side with enhanced music and N-Gage to make the Nokia 5730 so universally appealing. We guess we’ve had enough proof that Symbian can handle it all, so let’s see how the 5730 XpressMusic lives up to its claims.

It’s pretty obvious there will be quite some Nokia 5630 XpressMusic here. It’s virtually the same handset – add or take. So, what’s the deal in the end with adding QWERTY and a bigger screen and taking some processing power?

Key features

• 2.4" 16M-color TFT display of QVGA resolution

• Four-row side-slide QWERTY keyboard

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G (with HSDPA) support

• Symbian OS with S60 3.2 UI

• 369 MHz ARM11 CPU

• 3.5mm standard audio jack

• microSD card slot, 8GB microSD card prebundled

• 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera with a dedicated shutter key, geotagging and VGA video at 30fps

• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with UPnP technology

• Built-in GPS receiver and preinstalled Nokia Maps

• USB and stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) connectivity

• FM radio with RDS plus Internet radio

• Dedicated music keys

• N-Gage support

• Dedicated gaming keys

• Ovi Contacts integration

• Office document viewer

• Smart dialing

• Contacts bar on the homescreen

• N-Series-like gallery

• Nokia Say and Play (voice control to music player)

The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is treating the younger crowd to the all-round skill of dad’s E75. Alright, it may not be as simple as that but the 5730 is only just some corporate email (and plenty of steel) short of Eseries excellence. The XpressMusic QWERTY messenger is heavy on entertainment of course - dedicated music keys and N-Gage-conscious design, along with full pack connectivity. The complete keyboard, elaborate organizer, the office package and GPS are enough to start talking business.

Well, even if the dedicated gaming buttons and the digital-style alphanumeric font used on the keys leave little doubt about the target audience demographics, the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic looks too big for its niche. The first QWERTY messenger in Nokia’s music lineup is a solid smartphone package that’s definitely worth the test ride.

Be you young in age or spirit, you are welcome to stick around. Back with unboxing right after the jump.

Design and construction

The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is a nice looking phone with a very distinct XpressMusic styling. The red frames around the front and the QWERTY keyboard contribute to the familiar feel. Actually, the handset’s front is an almost exact replica of the 5630 XpressMusic. It’s all plastic there, no fancy stuff and that’s no news.

The very solid looking, ample QWERTY keyboard is an excellent performer. It has the same font styling as the alphanumeric one and its handling is comfortable and secure.

The ambient light sensor and the video-call camera are at the top of the front panel of the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic, either side of the earpiece. The secondary camera is enabled for QVGA still shots and QCIF video at 15 fps. Between the screen and the earpiece is a rocker key – those are the two gaming buttons.

Below them is the 2.4" display, followed by the D-pad, which is very comfortable to use. It has a programmable LED in the center that can be set to indicate missed events or simply serve as a standby breathing light.

Whether you call it Eseries in baggy jeans and headphones, or XpressMusic on steroids, the 5730 will raise its QWERTY hand. What are you gonna do? Hit the streets in a cheap sporty roadster (5630) or a budget crossover (5730), which rides like dad's luxury sedan (E75)? We guess the carmaker (Nokia) will be happy either way.

Well, for starters it can't have been too hard to build the 5730 XpressMusic. Just squeeze all the already available technology in an already available design - with a reinforced QWERTY suspension, alright. Well, the QWERTY keyboard makes all the difference between the 5730 and the 5630 XpressMusic. And it may be more than the 5730 is prepared to handle.

The QWERTY enabled XpressMusic handset is a niche version and the niche of all-in-one smart messengers isn't exactly friendly, to say the least. So, if you go around boasting Eseries and Nseries skill, you'd better be ready to take some Eseries and Nseries beating. It's true most of the big fish there are touchscreens and the 5730 XpressMusic is even more painfully out of its league. The good thing is its price is extremely competitive.

In fact, the brand new Nokia 5730 XpressMusic costs a good 100 euro less than a year-old WinMo messenger that's even a few things short of a perfect match in terms of specs. Still, it's almost impossible to imagine direct competition between the conservative and mature HTC S740 and the happy-go-lucky 5730 XpressMusic.

Another important thing to note here is that the XpressMusic lineup feels utterly unchallenged. Even the 5630 XpressMusic was too much already for the competing music-centric phones to beat at such a reasonable price. The 5730 goes even further to add GPS and a full QWERTY keyboard to WLAN.

It feels like the 5730 XpressMusic is trespassing into higher Eseries and Nseries grounds, but perhaps Nokia don't mind as long as it doesn't cost a thing to develop. The 5630 XpressMusic is still more important to them we guess in terms of sales. We're sure QWERTY will make music in the right ears but one 5730 to every ten 5630 units sold sounds like a reasonable target to us.