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Nokia 5800 classic has been highly successful, so Nokia comes with something like that, but at a lower price. Nokia 5530 XpressMusic uses the Symbian S60 5th Edition platform and has touchscreen. The producer took out some equipment from the list of specifications, to be able to offer it at a lower price. With the release of this model, Nokia hopes to win some customers who are moving towards cheaper touchscreen phones like LG Cookie and Samsung S5230. What more can Nokia 5530 XpressMusic offer? Well it is a smartphone.

The phone dimensions are very good; it is only 13 mm thick. It has a length of about 104 mm and a width of 49 mm. The weight is excellent for a smartphone with touch screen: 107 grams, 2 grams less than 5800 classic. It stays better in a pocket than a 5800 classic, because it is thinner and shorter. It is available in a multitude of color combinations: black and red, blue and white, gray and black, pink and white and yellow and white.

The front side is obviously dominated by the 2.9 inch touch screen, which offers a 16:9 image aspect ratio. That means watching movies in fullscreen mode will be a delight. Under the screen, we find 3 touch-sensitive buttons: dial key, reject calls key and the menu key. Just like in 5800 classic case, the multimedia key has the same position above the screen, along with the proximity sensor and with the speaker. The top side has only one button: the one, which turns the device on or off. The bottom is a little more crowded. Here you will find the microphone, the 3,5 mm audio jack, the plug charger and the microUSB port. The microUSB port is protected against dust. In the upper right you will find the stylus. An unpleasant surprise can be the fact that this phone cannot charge using the microUSB. On its right side you will find the volume control key, the button which locks and unlocks the screen, and the camera button. When you lock or unlock the screen, a short vibration will confirm your action.

On the left side you will find two slots, one for the microSD memory card and one for the SIM card. Both are protected from dust by a single plastic lid, but it is a little hard to open. Although you have access to the SIM card by side, you have to disconnect the battery first to get to the SIM card. That is because it must be pushed inside, otherwise you cannot pull it. The backside hosts a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, which is equipped with a dual LED flash. Under the cap we find a 1000 mAh battery; it does not seem too much at first. The producer says the battery resists up to 336 hours on standby and up to 4 hours and 54 minutes of talk time and the time you can spend listening to your favorite music is approximately 27 hours with the battery fully charged.

Exactly as Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5530 XpressMusic uses Symbian S60 5th Edition platform. The user Interface is well optimized for the touchscreen. It has a good respond time; we did not have any blocking problems. This is where the 434 MHz ARM11 processor and 128 MB RAM contribute. I still felt the need to use the stylus when I was writing a longer text message. The virtual keyboard is good, but the letters are too small. The menu respond time is very good.

You have access to most frequently used functions from the standby screen. It takes only one simple touch to access the calendar, the profiles and the clock. You can immediately check for any unread message or email. All indicators are positioned on top of the screen, exactly as in Nokia 5800 classic. The TFT touch screen has 2.9 inch and offers a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels and 16 million colors. The proximity sensor automatically turns off when you speak, to save energy and not start any application by mistake. Unfortunately you do not see the screen very well in direct sunlight or in bright light.

There were no changes made to the address book in Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. It is the same one you find in Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. You can store in as many contacts as you want. You can add to each contact the details you wish to add. The phone gives you the possibility to display contacts from its own memory or from the SIM card memory. Searching for a contact is very easy; just type the first few letters of name or surname.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic knows how to send and receive all types of messages, and by that I mean both text and multimedia. It uses the same editor for SMS and MMS. When sending an MMS you have the possibility to instantly record an audio message and attach it to the message. The editor recognizes handwriting, but is easier to write using the virtual QWERTY keyboard.

The email client is well formed. Settings are automatically made for known email providers, so you just need to enter a name and a password and you sign in to your account. It supports POP3 / IMAP and SMTP. You can download attachments without problems. The editor is not the same one as the SMS / MMS, but you can use the same virtual QWERTY keyboard, which is pretty good.

The phone has a 3.5 mm audio jack and comes with some very successful headphones. It has about 70 MB of internal memory, so you need a microSD card for saving music or videos. The file manager is remarkable. Once the memory slowly becomes full, you will need the file manager to make some order. You can create, move and rename the folders where you save your music files, your photos or your videos. The search function enables you to find both files and folders.

The audio player offers you almost everything you could possibly want. The songs are organized by name, artist, album, genre or composer. The sound quality is very good no matter you use the headphones or the external speakers. With a 3.5 mm jack, you can use any headphones you want. The video player is the same we know from Nokia 6630. Although it does its job well, the DivX and Xvid support is missing. Almost every movie uses these codecs, so it is a shame you cannot watch them. Nokia PC Suite helps you convert movies in a format supported by the phone (3GP or MP4). The FM radio has RDS, and a nice interface. It knows how to search and save channels available in your area.

The camera has 3.2 megapixels and it can take pictures at a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. If the ambient light is not enough, the double LED flash helps a lot. The user interface allows you to do many manual settings, if you are an expert in photography. The camera is able to record videos too. It can record at a VGA resolution of 640 x 480 pixels with 30 fps.

Although it has WiFi, the 3G technology is missing. That means you will have a good internet connection only in areas with hotspots, otherwise you must use GPRS or EDGE

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is a smartphone with rich functions and with a low price. It is suitable for those looking for music phone, movies or for surfing the Internet occasionally. If you want more pictures or need you need HSDPA connectivity, than this is phone is not for you.