And here's another bit of the 5320's review.
Last night, I discovered that my phone is actually pretty nifty when it comes to searching for files and folders. And for free, too! Click on the post to read more.
Showing posts with label Nokia 5320. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nokia 5320. Show all posts
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
N-gage on the 5320
The N-gage service works like a charm on the Nokia 5320, another reason to buy the phone. Since N-gage's decline, Nokia decided to take a bold step: make it available on other devices. From what I've read, this is the only music phone WITH a keypad to support not only the S60 platform, but N-gage too.
Visiting N-gage's site will give you details on whether your phone supports the N-gage platform, and where you can download it. Since my phone came with it preloaded with two N-gage games (SIMS 2: Pets and Creatures of the Deep: Hooked On), I managed to get my hands dirty - except there is a caveat - the games were trial only. Some games let you play for a certain number of levels, others didn't.
There are cracked versions of the N-gage games, but not all work with this phone. Some may give an error, others won't. It's a trial-and-error, and the reason cited for this is because the phone is a feature-pack 2 phone, and the games haven't been cracked for this software release as of yet. (In order to play cracked games, you need to go through a process called "hacking" on your Symbian phone, which involves installing a program. A firmware update or a phone reset erases those "hacks").
While I go on hunting for more (trial) games, I guess you can wait for another segment of the Nokia 5320's review.
Visiting N-gage's site will give you details on whether your phone supports the N-gage platform, and where you can download it. Since my phone came with it preloaded with two N-gage games (SIMS 2: Pets and Creatures of the Deep: Hooked On), I managed to get my hands dirty - except there is a caveat - the games were trial only. Some games let you play for a certain number of levels, others didn't.
There are cracked versions of the N-gage games, but not all work with this phone. Some may give an error, others won't. It's a trial-and-error, and the reason cited for this is because the phone is a feature-pack 2 phone, and the games haven't been cracked for this software release as of yet. (In order to play cracked games, you need to go through a process called "hacking" on your Symbian phone, which involves installing a program. A firmware update or a phone reset erases those "hacks").
While I go on hunting for more (trial) games, I guess you can wait for another segment of the Nokia 5320's review.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The (Xpress)Music in Nokia 5320
(I know it's later than a day, but it was unavoidable).
The Nokia 5320 is an XpressMusic (XM, from here onwards) phone, and it does boast a pretty nifty musical experience. For starters, here's what I noted.
When you hook up the phone to the PC, you have the option to either go into the PC Suite mode, or a hard disk mode. There are two others, but not related with music. The hard disk mode will work everywhere (and when you are in the hard disk mode, the phone doesn't go offline, as was the case with some N-series phones).
After putting in your music, when you launch the music player, it sometimes detected new music and asked you to refresh - sometimes it doesn't, and you have to manually refresh. This takes around a minute or so if you've used alot of the space on your memory card (I have a 1GB card that came with the package).
After scanning, you can create playlists or listen artist-wise or all songs, or listen to the podcasts (separate service). The music plays fine, without glitches, although the response isn't instant when you forward/rewind (it takes up to half a second to act upon... maybe because it's symbian). If you forward a track, it takes almost a second to start playing the next track, but if you leave the player alone, it takes a split of a second to switch to another track.
The main screen has album art view in it, and you can set your own equalizer settings, amongst from a few other choices. On the track listing view, you can scroll either in normal speed, or a faster speed (press the button again, and it scrolls quickly). Or if you want, search by typing the name of the song!
The N-gage button, if pressed and held, is a "Say and Play" feature. You say the name of the artist, the song title, album or playlist, and it'll play the first track in the pop up list that follows. The speech settings may need to be tweaked in the phone settings before you can get good matches. Since I listen to English music only, I didn't have a problem with many tracks, though some were not recognized.
When forwarding, rewinding or playing/pausing while not in the music player nor on the desktop/standby screen, a small pop up appears telling you what it's doing. A helpful feature if you want to know what the title of the current song is, but it doesn't appear when the songs are in their normal playback.
The phone features a 3.5mm headphone jack - you could use either those pair of earphones that came with the phone, or use your own. I don't like the set that came with the phone because they don't fit in my ears (!), although if you can get them to fit in your ears, the sound quality is quite good indeed.
Nokia says they added a separate audio chip in the phone, and that audio chips certainly shows good results. The loudspeaker doesn't work well with loud volume, as I noted there's a bit of hiss. Lowering the volume a bit solves the problem.
I'd say this is probably better than the walkman phones in the sense that there's a standard headphone jack in the phone (and not as an adapter), and if you use any other pair of earphones, the phone's microphone can be used to answer and make calls - something that many new phones lack capability of. I'd give this a 9/10 for the music, and not full because there are a few (minor) glitches (such as the slow response while changing tracks manually)
The Nokia 5320 is an XpressMusic (XM, from here onwards) phone, and it does boast a pretty nifty musical experience. For starters, here's what I noted.
When you hook up the phone to the PC, you have the option to either go into the PC Suite mode, or a hard disk mode. There are two others, but not related with music. The hard disk mode will work everywhere (and when you are in the hard disk mode, the phone doesn't go offline, as was the case with some N-series phones).
After putting in your music, when you launch the music player, it sometimes detected new music and asked you to refresh - sometimes it doesn't, and you have to manually refresh. This takes around a minute or so if you've used alot of the space on your memory card (I have a 1GB card that came with the package).
After scanning, you can create playlists or listen artist-wise or all songs, or listen to the podcasts (separate service). The music plays fine, without glitches, although the response isn't instant when you forward/rewind (it takes up to half a second to act upon... maybe because it's symbian). If you forward a track, it takes almost a second to start playing the next track, but if you leave the player alone, it takes a split of a second to switch to another track.
The main screen has album art view in it, and you can set your own equalizer settings, amongst from a few other choices. On the track listing view, you can scroll either in normal speed, or a faster speed (press the button again, and it scrolls quickly). Or if you want, search by typing the name of the song!
The N-gage button, if pressed and held, is a "Say and Play" feature. You say the name of the artist, the song title, album or playlist, and it'll play the first track in the pop up list that follows. The speech settings may need to be tweaked in the phone settings before you can get good matches. Since I listen to English music only, I didn't have a problem with many tracks, though some were not recognized.
When forwarding, rewinding or playing/pausing while not in the music player nor on the desktop/standby screen, a small pop up appears telling you what it's doing. A helpful feature if you want to know what the title of the current song is, but it doesn't appear when the songs are in their normal playback.
The phone features a 3.5mm headphone jack - you could use either those pair of earphones that came with the phone, or use your own. I don't like the set that came with the phone because they don't fit in my ears (!), although if you can get them to fit in your ears, the sound quality is quite good indeed.
Nokia says they added a separate audio chip in the phone, and that audio chips certainly shows good results. The loudspeaker doesn't work well with loud volume, as I noted there's a bit of hiss. Lowering the volume a bit solves the problem.
I'd say this is probably better than the walkman phones in the sense that there's a standard headphone jack in the phone (and not as an adapter), and if you use any other pair of earphones, the phone's microphone can be used to answer and make calls - something that many new phones lack capability of. I'd give this a 9/10 for the music, and not full because there are a few (minor) glitches (such as the slow response while changing tracks manually)
Monday, August 31, 2009
"Please stay on the line"
It's a little late, and I haven't written anything more about the Nokia 5320. What I did want to write was about the music features and capability. It's near 1 AM, and I have to wake up early for fasting, and my university starts tomorrow.
So I shall write about the music features in the 5320 tomorrow (technically, today).
Till then.
So I shall write about the music features in the 5320 tomorrow (technically, today).
Till then.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Nokia 5320: a breakdown
As promised, here's a broken-down review (read: parted review) of the Nokia 5320.
Briefly, these are the specs. I'll write more details in the following posts.
Briefly, these are the specs. I'll write more details in the following posts.
- Symbian S60 9.3 with the feature-pack 2 operating system
- Approximately 50MB user memory, with around 80MB free memory for RAM. MicroSD card supported (I got a 1GB one with my pack)
- It's an XpressMusic (XM) phone, meaning you get the rewind/forward/play functionality
- It's also a device that supports the N-Gage gaming platform (you have to unlock the games for full functionality)
- It features a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an environmentally-friendly charger which consumes approximately 10% of the energy typical chargers consume when not charging the phone (but connected in the wall socket)
- The USB is not a micro-USB port, but rather, something even smaller. So if you're planning to use your digital camera's wire, don't; it won't work. They've supplied a cable with it.
- Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and Audio Profiles
- The phone supports 2G/2.5G/2.75G/3G/HSPDA with two-way camera (one of them is a 2 megapixel camera).
- Battery life, on the other hand, isn't quite up to par. If you're using it for music and basic calling and texting, it should last you around two days or maybe up to three, but if you'll be running applications heavily, make sure you recharge atleast every night (the typical Symbian problem)
- Because this is a FP2 phone, it does include some operating system tweaks and changes (which can be read here, a review done by Mobile Review).
I guess these are the basics. More to come soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe
Posts
All Comments