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Kinetic Scrolling Arrives for Nokia XpressMusic

Liam — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:11:23 +0000

Nokia’s 5530 XpressMusic makes use of kinetic scrolling, but only for specific menus, the rest of the handset still lacks this very useful touch screen feature. And now, thanks to a new patch from the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, kinetic scrolling will be applied to the whole handset.

It is actually pretty important, as scrolling with a finger can quite be tiring when you have to drag your finger across the screen several times over just to get to the bottom. Aside from tiring your hand out, the friction between the finger and the screen can get uncomfortable. This may seem like nitpicking, but there is actually a significant difference between a phone that has it and one that does not. And the 5530, as the new patch, certainly has it.

For those who missed out on the details of this little Ovi capable Symbian smart phone from Nokia, the XpressMusic 5530 is actually one of the most budget friendly devices in the series. Not only is the device cheap, but it is also packed with the right features. Nothing you would not find in other mobile phones, but a good combination nonetheless.

The smart phone comes with a decently sized 2.9 inch TFT resistive touch screen display, the Symbian S60 OS version 9.4, an ARM 11 434MHz CPU, a 1000mAh battery, and a 3.15 mega pixel camera. For anyone who wants a great smart phone that still stays within a good budget range, the 5530 is an excellent choice.

Aside from bringing kinetic scrolling to the whole device, the update also adds a bit of functionality to the smart phone as well. First off, it frees up a couple of MB of RAM –which is always a welcome thing and some of the music icons have gotten a graphic face lift.

August’s top selling mobile phone deals from all manufacturers

Martin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:57:27 +0000

OK so we know that this is a Nokia blog, but we thought it would be worthwhile providing a rundown of the latest handsets that are available and the best deals to go with them. Naturally we will start with the best Nokia handsets out there and carry on with the best of the rest.
1) Nokia N97 deals – It just has to be at the top doesn’t it? IT has everything that you could possibly want from a media phone. Its contemporary looks make it a winner, as does its QWERTY keyboard and touch screen. The cheapest we can find is £40.00 per month on T-Mobile
2) Nokia 5530 deals – The new kid on the block is the 5530, a cheaper version of the original Nokia 5800, you can get this little beauty for £20.00 per month with 600 minutes and unlimited texts on Vodafone… what a steal!
3) Nokia N86 deals – This is the phone for the gamer, built with N-Gage truly in mind, you can pick this handset up for £30.00 per month on Vodafone with 600 minutes and unlimited texts. A great deal if we may say so ourselves
4) Blackberry 8520 deals – available on O2 at a very respectable price. You can even get £170 cashback at the time of writing, so certainly worth considering if you love to email everywhere.
5) Samsung Jet deals – The Samsung Jet is an Android phone and is particularly impressive considering it is their first foray into the Android Scene. Expect the Apps for the Android platform to come thick and fast this year as more handsets get on board. You can get the Jet for £21.00 per month on Orange.
6) Samsung Pixon 12 deals – a better camera on what was already a very good phone. A lack of tariffs makes it slightly disappointing though. You won’t see this one for under £40.00 per month on either Vodafone or Orange.
7) Sony Ericsson W995 deals – The best Sony Ericsson mobile phone out there by far. The camera does let it down a little bit, but the music features are simply brilliant. Grab this one for a little over £21.00 per month with 400 minutes and 3000 texts.
LG Crystal deals – We were excited about this handset when it was announced earlier this year and now that it’s here, we would highly recommend it, if only for its qwerky looks. 600 minutes and unlimited texts for £35.00 per month isn’t too bad either.
So let us know what you think and of course if you find any better deals make sure you let us know. We are all about saving you money.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. Bad science. Great phone

Martin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:22:27 +0000

There’s probably some stats somewhere to back this up, and if we weren’t too busy playing with new phones all day, we’d probably try and dig them out. But instead, we’re going to make some up instead. So, let’s say someone’s just bought phone X. Phone X has the following functions, and next to each function is how much the new owner uses each function in the first two weeks of buying there phone:

Making / receiving telephone calls - 35%
Sending / receiving SMS messages - 20%
Listening to music - 15%
Taking pictures - 9%
Using the 3G connection - 8%
Using the Wifi - 5%
Using the GPS function - 5%
Everything else - 3%

Then, most interestingly, is what happens after those first two new shiny and exciting weeks, after you’ve bored everyone around you by showing them all the cool apps and noisy fake shutter releases and how look! the phone knows where we are! type things.

Making / receiving telephone calls – 60%
Sending / receiving SMS messages - 25%
Listening to music - 15%
Taking pictures - 4%
Using the 3G connection - 2%
Using the Wifi - 2%
Using the GPS function - 1%
Everything else - 1%

Now, we’re no scientists, but, that seems scientifically sound in every way, right? Okay, maybe not, but you get the point. The point is, there are certain, normally very basic things that we do with our phones every day, and this is never going to alter that much. If you’ve bought a music phone, for example, chances are you’re going to be listening to music as much 6 months after you buy it as you do 6 days after buying it. But is it ever true of features like GPS? Maybe the odd person it works as a revelation, an oh-my-god-how-did-i-survive-without-GPS effect. But we guess (scientifically) that this is true of a tiny percentage of people.

So, the point (we’re getting to it) is that while you might hear story after story over the coming weeks (until its autumn release) about how the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic has lost its GPS, been stripped of its 3G, has had a bit of its screen size lopped off… pause a minute. Ask yourself if you really need the things it’s missing. Then take a look at the 5530 XpressMusic video below, note the size comparison to the fully featured 5800, and tell us you don’t think the 5530 XpressMusic is better for the streamlining. And if you want more details on what’s there (and what’s not) check out this Nokia 5530 review.