In 2008, the Nokia 5610 was released. It had a well-equipped music player and high-quality sound. Nevertheless, at that time, the company offered a higher resolution camera and phone support around the world in the slider design in the model.
Although its navigation and dashboard are a bit inconvenient to use, the Nokia 5610 is a good alternative for music phone enthusiasts who can't handle the weird controls. For the current year, the model is not officially available for sale. However, over the long period of its existence, she received many positive reviews and fans around the world.
Overall design
A quick look at the design of Nokia 5610 will show that the phone seeks to surpass previous models in many ways. While the 5310 has a traditional candy bar design, the 5610 is a slider phone with unique controls and navigation. It is attractive, and at the same time it looked fresh.
With a size of 9.8 × 4.8 × 1.7 cm, the gadget is between 5300 and 5310 in size, but weighs almost 20 grams more. The extra weight may be noticeable to some users, but according to reviews, the phone was considered compact and lightweight.
Model innovation
Moreover, the slider mechanism was durable, but not steel. The manufacturer sold Nokia 5610 in two versions:
- Black with red frames.
- Black with blue frames.
On the front panel is a brilliant 2.2-inch display. With support for 16 million colors (240 × 320 pixels), it offered stunning graphics and readable text at the time. Menu icons can change, and the interface is intuitive. You can set the sleep mode and select the font size and color. The phone could not change the brightness, but the display, according to users, did not shine in the sun. It was the matrix that was considered an innovation from the manufacturer.
Control Panel
As mentioned earlier, the Nokia 5610 offered a unique navigation unit. But the result of its use was not always effective. On the other hand, the owners liked the music control panel, which is located just below the display. Essentially, it replaces the highlighted music buttons with the 5310 and 5300, offering one-touch access to music features. It’s enough to slide the panel to the left to instantly open the menu of the music player or move it to the right, and this will start the FM radio. This innovative and easy-to-use feature has been liked by many. Additionally, there was a block of buttons that limited random starts.
Unfortunately, the rest of the navigation controls were not so smart. Switching in five directions is quite tough and unplastic. Many owners said they would rather see the central control of the OK button, which is physically different from the rest of the switch. This is due to the fact that there were cases when people accidentally clicked on the side of the switch when trying to select the desired item.
Inside the music player, the switch becomes a control for controlling the tunes, so it was important to master its use. Fortunately, there are plenty of 5610 quick access options. In standby mode, the left soft key opens a customizable context menu, and you can set the switch to gain access to four user functions with one touch. And if this is not enough, you can select a few quick keys on the screen.
Button Programming
The Nokia 5610 phone in the case had many controls. Around the switch were two soft keys and Talk and End / Power buttons. Although these controls are conveniently located, they are completely flat and look pretty cheap.
The keyboard buttons of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic are hidden behind a sliding surface, but they have a certain tactile grip. Phone owners rarely had errors when making calls and sending text messages, although they speak unflattering about the durability of the smooth and plastic buttons. The numbers on the keys are small, but the backlight is bright.
Volume control and snapshots
The gadget's appearance is completed by the volume control and camera controls on the right side, a micro-USB connector and a charger port on the top of the phone. There is also a 2.5 mm headphone jack. The 3.5 mm jack is only available on the supplied key. Version 5310 has a 3.5 mm jack, so many were wondering why the Nokia 5610 did not do the same in the phone model.
The volume key is small, but you can easily find it with your finger even when talking. On the back are a camera lens, flash and a small speaker. No need to open the phone to take photos, which is quite convenient. To access the microSD card slot, you must remove the back cover and remove the battery.
Key features of the model
The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic phone has a large phone book, which contains 2 thousand contacts, each entry has a place for five phone numbers, an email address, a URL, a company name and position, an official name and a pseudonym, a mailing address, a birthday and notes (SIM card may contain an additional 250 names).
You can combine contacts into groups and combine them with an image and one of 23 polyphonic ringtones. In addition, you can select a video, but this will replace the ringtone. Additional and basic functions include vibration mode, call timers, call recording, text and multimedia messaging, alarm clock, calendar, to-do list, notepad, calculator, countdown timer and stopwatch.
Connect and sync
For more demanding users, the phone offers many of the same options as the 5310. It has full Bluetooth with stereo profiles and information exchange, synchronization with a PC, voice recorder, world clock, unit converter, USB storage device and instant messaging. Email is limited to Yahoo and AOL POP3 accounts. To work with it, you must enter a web browser to access messages.
The 5610 music player is similar to the 5310, which is good given the lack of restrictions and the simple but intuitive interface. Features include equalizer, playlists, random and repeat modes, stereo expansion and flight mode. The 5610 phone supports album art, and you can choose from five different skin colors. Supported file formats include MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC + and WMA. Additionally, you can use the tracks as a ringtone.
Music recording
The synchronization service makes it easy to receive music on your phone. To do this, simply connect the 5610 to the computer using the USB cable or transfer the tracks to the mini-SD card. No software is required, and the computer should immediately recognize the phone if the user has chosen the data storage mode. Then access to the gadget as an external storage is opened, and media files can be copied in both directions.
Tracks will automatically sync with Windows Media Player 10. When listening to tunes, you can minimize the player to access other functions, and the player will pause when you receive a call. The device also offers an FM tuner with radio presets.
Photo quality
Photo Nokia 5610 did much better than other models on the market. The gadget is superior to version 5310 with a 3.2 megapixel camera. It accepts JPEG images in six resolutions, from 160 × 120 to 2048 × 1536. Camera settings include three quality modes, three color effects, night mode, landscape mode, self-timer, sequential mode for quickly capturing six photographs, adjustable white balance and brightness, and 8x zoom.
The flash is very bright, so strong that it almost completely illuminates the space around it, but it had several quirks. For example, when the flash is in “on” mode, some options, such as night mode, image sequencer, and white balance, will not work.
Shooting video
The camcorder shoots video in three resolutions with sound. Other parameters are similar to those of the camera, and if desired, it is possible to mute the sound. The short mode lasts about 30 seconds, but there is a function to shoot longer clips, depending on the available memory.
Video quality is not something special, but it is typical for camera phones. And in any case, the camera can only shoot clips at a speed of 15 frames per second. Since the video player can support video at 30 frames per second, higher resolution clips can look very good.
Menu personalization
You can change the firmware of Nokia 5610 using a variety of screensavers, animations, wallpapers, themes and lighting effects. The developers provided the ability to download additional parameters and much more from the T-zones service T-Mobile through the WAP 2.0 wireless web browser. Games include demos for AMF Bowling Deluxe, Diner Dash 2, Surviving High School, Dance, Dance Revolution, and Guitar Hero III. Full versions were necessary to buy.
Device performance
Users in the reviews noted that the signal from the mobile operator was relatively strong, but sometimes there were problems with reception at subway stations and in the back of buildings. On the other hand, there was no static interference or noise arising from the conversation.
The gadget model is a quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) international phone, which was a long-awaited improvement over the Nokia 5310 series. While Nokia originally announced that 56120 would support 3G UMTS networks, this version already worked on EDGE.
The reviews indicated that the speakerphone calls were pretty good. Despite the speaker facing the back of the phone, it provided impressive sound output and clarity. Users could hear conversations, even if they were not near the phone. Handsfree negotiations in very noisy places were also clear, but this is not uncommon for the manufacturer in terms of technology. Calls to the included headset were in order, like calls to a Bluetooth device.
Playback quality
The quality of the music met the usual XpressMusic standards. The external speaker is improved compared to 5310. Its volume is quite large to attract attention on the street of passers-by. It is not surprising that the speaker does not have an impressive range, but in general the owners were satisfied. A headset, wired or Bluetooth, provides the best listening experience.
Battery life
The Nokia 5610 battery was hardy for that time. The gadget had a nominal battery life of 4 hours in talk mode and up to 10 days in standby mode. According to tests, the average talk time was 5 hours 46 minutes.
User reviews and overall results
Since the release of the phone began to diverge around the world in millions of copies. There were a lot of reviews of the Nokia 5610 (otzyv) on the net. Users had a genuine interest in the model. The owners of this phone have noted many advantages.
From the main ones, based on reviews, users identified the following:
- Compact size and light weight.
- Convenient music management system.
- Bright screen.
- Stylish design and color scheme.
- Camera and support for third-party applications.
In the comments from the owners there were also negative points when using the device:
- The slider screen cable was frayed and required to be replaced every few years.
- The back cover is fragile.
- Inconvenient system for installing a memory card.
Despite the presence of negative aspects in operation, the 5610 takes pride of place among the models produced by Nokia and is still recognizable around the world.