Nokia 5200, The eXpress Review – Hands On

We had the possibility to test some Nokia models so firstly we would like to thanks those guy for the opportunity and for trusting us. Among the phones we could chose from, was the Nokia 5200. This particular model has been launched on september 26th 2006 in a big ceremony held at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square(New York).

The heart-stopping atmosphere brought by the world’s best DJs couldn’d match the glamour and sophistication of the three Nokia models presented that day: the 5200, the 5300 XpressMusic and the 3250.
The Nokia 5200 XpressMusic is a lower cost version of the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic. 5200 is a something new and innovating model from the Finnish giant manufacturer, it’s a phone that will surely attract young people aged between 14 and 20. Both design and features are embedded together to offer users a fresh and trendy experience. So let’s take a look at them separately and draw some conclusions.
The design of the terminal

Nokia 5200′s design seems to be borrowed from LG’s Chocolate design, but as some of you many know this is a usual thing concerning the hones that were launched after LG’s big market success terminal. It’s an interesting flip-flip model but unfortunately it’s totally made of plastic, which I think a lot of people may not like. The handset was designed as a music phone, so it has music controls on both sides – on the left side, there’s the music button, used for opening or closing the MP3 player or the FM radio, and also the 2.5mm stereo jack for headset and on the right side of the phone we can find other two buttons that control the volume of the music.

The buttons are hardly noticeable, which means they were greatly embedded in the frame. The camera is placed on the back of the handset. We have to be honest with you and mention that we had big troubles opening the back lid. I knew this phone’s specifications and when I was looking for the microSD slot i couldn’t find it so I opened the back lid thinking that it has a motoRAZR-like layout. Evrika , the microSD slot card up was placed on the left side (near the headset port). All you have to do is to open the back lid otherwise you won’t find it.
Pros :
- above-average keyboard with large-enough keys and simple to use.
- light weight and small size (thicker than many small phones)
Cons:
- the back cover is a hard to remove and you have remove it if you want to add the memory extension card
- the CSTN display doesn’t compare to most cell phones today (images are pale and when you type a number, the digits are blury as they move from right to left)

Processor and Memory

We were used to find a lot of Nokia’s mobile phones that featured a processor , but Nokia 5200 is just a simple music phone which means it has no processor at all. It supports only 5MB worth of internal memory, so if you don’t use a microSD card (to expand the memory up to 2GB) you won’t be able to reach the phone’s full potential, meaning you you’ll be able to upload just a handful of mp3s. I think the internal memory is definitely too low for a music phone. Anyway, the menu is user-friendly and anyone will be able to handle the phone no matter what.

Pros :
- software performance and simplicity are just average, we’ve seen better softwares
- the Nokia 5200 comes with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Instant Messenger
Cons:
- i’m sure the camera software has a bug or something because it occasionally refuses to take a picture without any specific reason other than this error message: “Unable to save”, followed by “Camera on standby”.

Multimedia

We’ve tried to figure some unique features, but couldn’t find any. Anyway, here’s what you can do with Nokia’s 5200: play MP3, AAC and AAC files, listen to the radio, or take photos with its VGA camera. We have to admit that the sound’s quality is very good good but the reception of different radios is rather mediocre, and camera is not too good (in fact it’s useless can see too much on its 128 x 160 pixels CSTN display).Like I’ve said, the handset has a specific target and doesn’t need any high-end features.

Pros:
- the music player is satisfying-enough (you can use an Equalizer and a few other tweaking options)
- music sound quality is acceptable, especially the sound generated by the phone’s speaker, which sounds surprisingly good.
Cons:
- the Nokia 5200 fetures only a VGA (640 x 480 pixels) camera and its image quality was above our expectations even if it’s a VGA camera (it produces a brighter, sharper image in low light conditions)

Communication

5200 features a GPRS connectivity and it also include an EDGE connectivity which will probably help users to download ringtones faster. There is also a 2.0 Bluetooth necessary for multiplayer games or fast data transfers. For synchronization with the PC, the handset features an USB 2.0 port, and there’s also the infrared.

Call Quality

Sound volume coming out of the earpiece is appropriate but not excessively high and the speakerphone is very efficient in cutting out ambient noises and my calling parties wouldn’t complain about the sound quality. Its output volume was above-average but still, some phones offer an even higher speakerphone volume. Sound quality was above-average and I did not experience any weird signal reception issue.
Anyway a common annoyance with most Nokia phones is that, in order to activate the speakerphone, you must first dial your call, wait a few seconds so that the right soft key shows “loudspeaker” as an option. That’s stupid but that’s the way it is unfortunately.

Nokia 5200 Specifications And Features

Basics:
- Weight: 3.66 ounces
- Dimensions: 3.62 x 1.89 x .79
- Form Factor: Slider
- Frequency Band(s): 1800,1900,900
Technologies:
- Cellular System: GSM,GPRS
- Downloadable Applications Format: J2ME

Telephony Features:
- Built-in Speakerphone: yes
Memory:
- Phone Book Entries: Variable
- Internal Memory: 5MB
- Memory Expansion: TransFlash
Display:
- Color Display: yes (262,144)
- 3D Graphic support: yes
- Display Technology: CSTN
- Display Resolution: 128 x 160
Customization:
- Custom Ringtones: may not be free
- Custom Graphics: yes
- Polyphonic Ringtones: 0.90
Communications:
- Bluetooth: yes
- Infrared communication: yes
- wap: WAP 2.0
- PC data synchronization: yes
- Wireless Data Protocol: HSCSD,EDGE,GPRS
Entertainment:
- Included Games: yes
- File Formats Accepted: AAC+,MIDI,MP3
Photos And Video:
- Camera: VGA
- Video Recorder: yes
Music:
- Music enabled: FM radio,aac,MP3

- Stereo: yes
- A2DP Stereo Bluetooth: yes
Messaging:
- Predictive text input: T9
- SMS: yes
- MMS: yes
- EMS: yes
Tools:
- Calculator: yes
- Alarm clock: yes
Accessibility:
Battery Performance:
- Stand-by Time:263 hours
- Talk Time:180 minutes
- Battery Type: Li-Ion
- Battery Power: 760 mAh
Other Features:
- Stopwatch: yes

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