Connection
USB, Bluetooth
USB. The Nokia 5310 comes with the microUSB socket, housed on the top edge of the phone. This socket is used for plugging in a data cable (the phone starts charging up), headset or charger.
The vendor says that the handset supports USB 2.0, and it does indeed, in USB Mass Storage mode the connection via USB cable puts up medium data transfer speed which makes up about 500-600 Kb/s. This is slower than the Motorola RAZR2 V8, which also comes installed with microUSB-socket.
Upon successful connection you can pick one of the following modes: USB Mass Storage, PC Studio, or modem mode. There is no support for MTP mode, music tracks have to be moved onto the phone manually. The selection of folders, where you will be able to locate music tracks, is limited to a number of presets, no word on whether this restriction will remain in the 5310’s commercial version.
Bluetooth.
The handset comes with EDR-enabled Bluetooth 2.0.
The Bluetooth implementation is, as always though, nothing to complain about, we encountered no issues with handling this type of connections. The stereo-headset also works fine. Unlike the Nokia 6500 Classic, the 5310’s Bluetooth speed tops out at 78 Kb/s, whereas the Classic’s speed is around 1700180 Kb/s

Memory

The 5310 XpressMusic comes with thirty Mbytes of built in memory & the phone supports MicroSD™ memory cards which allow the user to add a memory card up to 4 Gbytes
With MicroSD™ memory cards you can add all the music you want and listen to it in where

Camera

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is mainly Music Phone , so you can’t expect top quality photos and camera from It

The user can capture photographs & video clips using the integrated 2 megapixel camera feature. The camera comes with a useful zoom feature which allows the user to get closer to their subject when taking a shot. The zoom is a 4 x digital zoom & the user can view their subject on the 2 Inch high resolution screen. The phone supports video capabilities which allow the user to view & record their video clips.
The following resolutions are supported:
• 1600×1200
• 1280х1024
• 1280×960
• 800×600
• 640×480
• 320×240
• 160×120
The camera is a less positive story. It has a 2-megapixel lens which puts it squarely in the average camp. It lacks autofocus, self portrait mirror or flash, and when framing photographs you have to hold the phone still to avoid your subject looking very blurred on screen.
It took about 12 seconds to save photos shot at two megapixels on the high quality setting. Not only was the wait really annoying during the testing period, it means there is no chance of you being able to capture a succession of candid shots of friends or family.
Images themselves are disappointing. The coloured dish, which I always photograph under normal household lighting and with the camera set to auto modes, looks washed out. Its colours are a lot more vibrant than the photo suggests. The chair lacks definition and there’s evidence of lens distortion along the top of the picture.
Unfortunately, the 5310 does not have a dedicated shutter/camera key like a lot of phones tend to have these days.
The white balance was not exactly great during my tests, giving a bluish hue to all the photos taken.
The end result is always good enough for candid shots, but never good enough for prints, which isn’t surprising for a fixed focus camera like the 5310’s.

Video recording :

The 2-megapixel camera can also be used to record video clips in two resolutions - 176 x 144 pixels or 128 x 96 pixels. The length of these videos is limited only by the amount of memory that is available. The biggest flaw of the 5310’s camera is its speed. Shutter lag is about 1 second, and it takes about 5-10 seconds to snap and save a photo, which is a painfully long time
Two lower resolutions were added for creating photos that would fit as wallpapers for display. Three JPEG compression types are supported: basic, normal, high. Considering the fact that photos do not blow your imagination away, it is better to go for the top quality, it won’t get any worse after all.
The shutter sound can be disabled, also there is a 8x digital zoom, but there is no reason to use it. You can save photos in the internal memory or on the memory card.
Some effects can be applied to the already made photos, should they be used initially – it is up to you to decide. Such effects as False Colours, Greyscale, Sepia, Negative, Solarize are available.
For those who love to shoot a lot of photos at once, there is special mode for you – camera makes up to 3 shots at a time, all settings remain similar to those selected for the single shot mode, including the resolution. There is an auto-timer for self-shots

Multimedia
The 5310 XpressMusic is a member of the XpressMusic family which includes other music orientated stylish handsets including the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic & Nokia 5700 XpressMusic.

This music focused mobile phone comes with an easy to access music player which supports MP3, MP4, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA music formats. The user can access & control their music easily using the three dedicated music keys which are situated to the side of the high colour screen
The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic comes with high quality music features including album art, music playlists & an equalizer

You must use the phone end section if you want to listen to the radio as it contains the antenna. It has a 3.5mm connector past the microphone if you want to use your own cans instead of Nokia’s in-ear buds.
The music application is pretty impressive on the 5310. It offers a layout quite like the iconic iPod. Music files can be divided into various categories, such as - artists, song names, playlists, genres and even composers. Adding music files is easy and can be done in two different ways – via PC Suite directly onto the phone, or by using a card reader to simply drag and drop files onto your memory card. However, the latter option requires removing the memory card from the phone. The 5310 can also sync with Windows Media Player 10 and above, enabling users to add album art onto their phones.
The music player can be customized with four different themes. Apart from changing its appearance, there’s nothing much that the themes offer, but I guess users who love to personalize their phones will enjoy this feature. The on-board equalizer didn’t offer much, so I left it switched off during the entire test period
When you get tired of your music library, you can always switch to the built-in FM radio, and the 5310 worked well in this department. Thankfully, the phone comes with a flight mode option that allows users to access all of its multimedia features in areas where radio frequency emitting devices are prohibited.
The 5310 is no different from other models running the S40 5th edition – its player matches them spec-wise. And we are not going to examine it all over again in this write-up, for you can always learn more about it in our review of this platform. The Nokia 5310 comes preinstalled with a couple of unique themes color-keyed to every trim of the device (the red version of the handset has red skins for the music player, plus the default theme, blue)

The sonic experience delivered by the phone is pretty good, thanks to its built-in AIC33 chip, the one found in other latest and greatest XpressMusic offerings or the Nokia 5700. The volume you get in headphones is also pretty much sufficient, and generally the 5310 is a potent music-minded device, although, from my subjective point of view, its sound could be a tad deeper at times. While it can’t stand up to the Nokia N91 or the Samsung i450, the 5310’s sound quality is okay, being in line with Samsug’s Beatz Range and ahead of Sony Ericsson’s Walkman phones (not for all genres, but it does have an edge there).

Audio Quality

With the included earphones, music sounded hollow and the bass was almost non-existent. However, with the included 3.5mm jack, I could swap earphones easily. I tested the 5310 with both my Sennheiser PX100 and Crossroad MylarOne X3i, and the results were pretty impressive. The sound was crisp and bass was more than adequate. Overall, sound quality was actually comparable to my iPod. The dedicated on-board audio chip has surely played a large role in providing this high quality sound from the phone

The user can listen to their favourite tunes over the phones speaker system or simply plug in the headset provided in the kit to experience a private listening experience. This phone will certainly keeps its music loving user entertained with up to 18 hours of music playback time & the 5310 XpressMusic can store approximately 3000 tracks for the user to enjoy

Voice quality was pretty good too, and the earpiece volume was adequate. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the speakerphone function. The loudspeaker isn’t loud enough and I had quite a difficult time trying to hear what the other person was saying. Therefore, using a wired or Bluetooth headset is the best option for handsfree talking

Battery

Talk Time : 5 hours
Standby : 300 hours
Approximally , with average use the battery can keep up about 3 days

A fully charged battery will provide the user with approximately 300 hours of standby time or 5 hours of talk time
The handset comes with a new battery type – the BL-4C, which is a 860 mAh Li-Ion cell. So most users may expect it to stay online about 2-3 days with their usage patterns. The longest music playback time we managed to squeeze out of it (native headphones, max volume settings was 18 hours 50 minutes (radio module enabled). It takes the 5310 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge from empty to full.
The battery is one of this model’s fortes, as it presents the user with battery time which is in line with many stand-alone solutions these days, and this definitely can’t be overlooked.

Conclusion
The 5310 is an attractive, ultra-slim phone from Nokia. Although not particularly basic, neither is it hugely feature-rich when compared to other phones on the market. Instead, it excels at the task it was designed for - being a very pocketable phone that plays music well. The slim form factor certainly caught the attention of my friends, and I enjoyed using it for the entire two weeks that I tested it.
The camera could have been better, but those who are looking for a superior camera need look no further than the 5310’s elder brother, the 5610 - which is in a sliding form factor. The memory card slot offers expandability and the versatility of being able to switch between different music libraries stored upon different microSD cards. The best feature of the 5310, which isn’t found on the 5610, is the 3.5mm audio jack. To me, that alone makes the 5310 a winner.
With good audio quality and battery life, it’s really quite difficult to fault the 5310 and we highly recommended it if you’re looking for a mid-ranged music phone which comes in such a slim candybar form factor. However, Sony Ericsson’s W580i might be a good alternative as well, if you don’t mind slider phones and fancy a nifty motion sensing interface to change tracks.

The volume presented by 64-chord ring tones is average, overall the 5310 is not the loudest device around, so we experienced some difficulties with hearing it in the street, and it lacked volume indoors as well. Actually, this is our major gripe with the handset. In terms of reception quality, the phone is flawless. The vibro alert is middling strength-wise, but you will feel the phone’s vibration while it is in your pocket.
If you are a music buff, you will be better off with the senior models, even though you won’t notice much of a difference between them sound-wise with a pair of custom earphones plugged in. They will come jam-packed with accessories and different form-factors.
On balance, the 5310 is the handset opening Nokia’s music range. It is a potent device, not without some flaws, yet boasting an array of advantages as well. It probably won’t be a best seller, but will generate some solid sales

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