An MP3 player Radio and also Sometimes a Phone. (Nokia 5510)

Member Name: Meshek

Product:	Nokia 5510
Date:	27/06/02 (2160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: MP3 Player, Keyboard, Radio

Disadvantages: Rubbish Software, Case not Changeable

Introduction
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For those of you that do not remember what this phone is let me remind you. This was the phone that was advertise for a very long time under the slogon "Looks weired, sounds great". The reason for the sounds great bit was thatit has a 64mb mp3 player built in and FM radio the reason for the looks weird bit is that it has a full qwerty keyboard running along it. When I first got it I was apprihencive as to its practicability due to its apparent size in the picture and because no one I knew had it. However after using it for a while I descovered this feeling was largely unfounded and that accept for a few niggles is a very good phone.


Specification and Description of Features
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Availability: Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific in the 4th quarter of 2001
Weight: 155 g
Dimensions: 134 x 58 x 28 mm, 165 cc
Talktime: 2 h 30 min - 4 h 30 min
Standby time: 55 - 260 h
Key features: Digital Music Player and Recorder, Nokia Audio Manager PC software for copying personal CD's, organizing and downloading music files from a compatible PC to the Nokia 5510, FM stereo radio, full keyboard for fast text input, 5 games, WAP, multiple chat, multiple SMS sending
Operating frequency: EGSM 900/1800 networks in Europe, Africa, and Asia Pacific
Colors: Available in two colors : Groove Red and Melody Blue

(Specs quoted are taken from the nokia.co.uk website)

The main thing I have found that has put people of this phone is its apparent size and weight. Firstly the picture shown in the advert makes this phone look a whole lot bigger than it actually is, in truth this phone is only a little bigger than the 3310. AS for the wait this is only a little heavier than the 3310 which is 133g and this phone is 155g. The 'digital music player and recorder' is in fact just a plain mp3 player (a good one with high quality sound
though and with 64mb of space which is about enough for 2 cd's) just that the files need to be converted into a special type of mp3 which cna not be copied. This is done by the bundled software which I will expand apon later. Recording from the radio also produces very good results. Even though the radio does not have an external aerial the reception is allways very good even in areas where one would expect it to be bad. The keyboard I found was much more than a gimic and really did speed up typing into the phone for text messages and e - mails through wap. The talk time and standby time allthough nothing special is still very good and I have found the actual times for these to be at the top end of the range given above. Apart from the musical features this phone is in everyway identical to the 3310 and if you open the phone up one can see it uses most of the same moduals of components. Therfore this phone still has voice recognition, about 5 games (with downloadable add on packs some of which are free), wap, multiple texting, vibrating alert as well as several other less important features.

Bad Points and Missing Features of the Phone
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There are not many bad points about the phone but there are a few. Firstly the software for transmitting mp3's is appauling. It needs a lot of word to work on windows xp and crashes regularly. However it does transmit quickly. Another slight problem is that the back is very hard to take off which is less of a problem because of another problem that you can not change the cover. Being realistic (i.e. not colour screens) the only feature I would like this phone to have that it does not is infra - red. This is so as I would like to get my e - mails via my palmtop. Oh well.


Conclusion
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Overall this is a good phone that has a lot of prejudice against it. Although most people who have seen it have been curious some hav
e been skeptical. However if you are looking for functionality in a phone or simply want an mp3 player or radio to carry arround I would recommend this phone because allthough it might be bigger than most phones, it is smaller than a phone and a mp3 player and of course the phone is cheaper (I got mine in a deal for free).

Summary: