One of the latest additions to Nokia’s XpressMusic series is Nokia 5220. The phone catches the eye with a unique vision and affordable price. Like the rest of the devices of the line, it targets the young music fans who want to enjoy their favorite tunes everywhere they go with a good sound quality.

Design

The most impressive element in the design of the 5220 is its asymmetrical shape, which is a really nice solution and we like it a lot. The materials feel good to the touch and the it doesn’t slip off your hand.The device is compact and relatively light (78 g) which makes it pocket-friendly.

The entire front is covered by a shiny material which is transparent on the edges and creates a nice effect. The 2” QVGA display is below it and we are a little disappointed because it supports only 262k colors and not 16 million like the previous entries in the series (the 5610 and 5310). Nevertheless, indoors the picture is still good and there’s almost no difference, but outdoors, in direct sunlight, it becomes difficult to read. Although all buttons look small, they are very easy to use and have a good tactile feedback.

The music controls- characteristic for most XpressMusic models- are located on the left side, and not near the display. They have light indicators, which can flash in the rhythm of the music if you activate the Music lights option. The opposite side houses the volume controls and the microSD slot. On the top we find the microUSB and 3.5 mm jacks, as well as the release button for the back panel. The last one is not very handy, because it doesn’t open the lid in full but only raises it and then an enormous amount of force is needed to remove it.

User interface

One of the benefits of the S40 UI is the active standby mode. Instead of looking at a plain and boring wallpaper image, you can opt for a more practical layout that turns the standby screen into more of a PC desktop.

The active standby mode consists of several parts that can be edited or relocated to match the user preferences. In the most common case, the top area is reserved for instant access to favorite functions. The central area provides instant access to the music player. And at the very bottom you will see the calendar events set for the current day. A cool S40 feature, that even Nokia smartphones lack, is the possibility to add a note to the active stand-by. The two soft keys' functionality can also be altered if necessary.

The main menu in Nokia 5220 classic can be visualized in four different ways: a grid of icons with or without captions, a list of items, and tabs. While each of them has its pros and cons, our personal choice remains the typical grid view with legends, showing a matrix of 3 x 3 icons. If you prefer more icons to appear on screen, you can go for the grid view without text, as it displays a 4 x 3 icons grid.

As usual, the menu items are intuitively accessible through keyboard shortcuts. The color background of the entire menu, as well as the wallpaper on the display, can be easily modified by changing the active theme.

There are six predefined ringing profiles on Nokia 5220. These should be enough to suit practically any situation you could possible face. The seventh profile is the Flight mode, which turns off all transceivers on the phone. This can turn out very convenient if you decide to use your phone as an MP3-player-only for example.

Furthermore, as opposed to some other brands of phones, the flight mode can be used without a SIM card inserted, which we find convenient.

Phonebook

The phonebook on Nokia 5220 offers space for up to 2000 contacts. Each contact can be assigned a variety of fields but the phone numbers are limited to 5. First names are separated from last names eliminating problems, which may occur with synchronization. Ringtones can be assigned to each contact. Naturally, you can also assign personal pictures or videos that will run on an incoming call.

There are three available view modes for your contact list: List-of-Names, Name-and-Number and Name-and-Picture. It can display either the SIM card contacts or the phone memory contacts - having both at the same time is also an option. The phonebook font size can also be modified, should this be necessary, and it's an option that will be widely appreciated. Searching is done by gradual typing of the name of the corresponding contact. And that's not all: contacts can also be organized in groups and these can subsequently be used as call filters.

Another application to mention here is the voice dial: no pre-recording of voice labels is necessary. There is also a training application that helps for better results when using voice commands and/or dialing. A nice extra is the Find-on-Map option which locates the contact's address on the new Nokia Maps application for S40 if it is entered correctly.

XpressMusic player

Without doubt, the music player is among the most important applications in Nokia 5220. No wonder Nokia have put some effort to its development. Not that they have made any great improvements to the functionality but the new looks are really nice and go well with the overall design of the handset.

The dedicated music keys are also a boost. They are used for controlling both the music player and the FM radio, their functionality at a given time depending on the last used application. As we already said, the keys backlighting blinks to the rhythm of music if you enable the music light effects option. Besides managing all the typical functions, the music player also sorts songs by artist, album and genre. The player is customizable through a number of skins.

Naturally, the A2DP profile is supported, allowing listening on stereo Bluetooth earphones. If you don't like the headset that comes in the retail package, you can easily change it for another thanks to the standard 3.5mm audio jack. But moving back to the player, we have to say that it offers a large number of configurable options. The sonic experience can be enhanced by an equalizer and a stereo expansion function. There are 7 preset equalizers on Nokia 5220 but you can easily modify two of them to suit your taste.

If you get bored with the music you have on your Nokia 5220 you can try the FM radio. It shares the audio player interface and can be skinned using the same themes as the music player. RDS is supported too. Unlike the Nokia 5310, the FM radio in the 5220 doesn't feature the Visual Radio that enhances the radio experience by adding graphics and visuals to the audio content broadcast by Visual Radio compatible stations.

The video player of Nokia 5220 is compatible with 3GP and MPEG4 formats. Videos can be played in fullscreen mode, as well as fast-forwarded or rewound. The possibility to remove the soft key captions to make better use of the full screen view mode also improves the viewing experience. Still the 2" screen seems inadequate for truly enjoyable video.

Camera

The Nokia 5220 XpressMusic is equipped with a 2 megapixel camera with image resolution of up to 1600 x 1200 pixels. There's no flash, and there's no auto focus. Typical of Series 40, the camera settings are not the richest around but are still reasonable for this shooter. They include white balance settings, three quality levels going form basic to high, and various effects. Sequence shots and shooting in both portrait and landscape mode are also among the available extras.

There are a few things to frown at - there is no cover to protect the lens from scratches, the lack of a flash rules out night portraits, while the fixed focus is sure to ruin any attempt at a close-up. The lack of a dedicated camera button is another downer when it comes to operating the camera. It is quite uncomfortable to use the confirm button of the D-pad for that purpose, especially when shooting in landscape mode. The camera itself is not the best we have seen either, but it's above average and image quality is clearly better than what Nokia 5310 and Nokia 6500 classic can pull off.

Performance

We were happy with the operating speed of the Nokia 5220 XpressMusic and only need to say that there’s a slight lag during the menu transitions and upon starting an application, but that wasn’t annoying. During a call, the voices are real and loud at both ends of the line, but that makes them sharp and unreadable at times. Quality wise, you can get better results by turning the volume down by 1 or 2 levels. Nowadays,  a long-lasting battery is a must for a music-oriented phone. Nokia’s 5220 is not an exception and according to the official data it should last about 5 hours of talks or 406 in stand by. Most importantly, you’ll be able to listen to music 24 hours non-stop, which is very good.

Conclusion

To conclude, Nokia 5220 is a solid performer - it provides pretty much everything as promised in a neat and compact package. Simplicity, affordability and friendly handling are good enough grounds for the likely mass appeal of Nokia 5220 XpressMusic. Nokia 5220 doesn't have 3G support or a fancy camera, but if it's music you are after you're right on target. We are yet to see however how an exciting rivalry will unfold. The recently released and promising Samsung 3510 Beat b is staking much on shake control and might be a worthy challenger if the pricing is right. So, whether Nokia 5220 will beat or get beat is a tough bet to take.

We still guess many of you will be choosing between the Nokia 5220 and Nokia 5310. So, we sat down and ran a quick comparison. It turned out Nokia 5220 outperforms the mighty bestseller. We found that Nokia 5220 has a number of advantages:
Stand-out asymmetrical design
Beefier battery - more standby time, more music time (24 h instead of 20 h)
Nokia Maps
Music lights
Snappier camera
Better low light image quality thanks to NIPS
Noticeably better loudspeaker performance, especially when playing music
More affordable price tag

In fact the only things that put the 5310 ahead of the 5220 are the slightly better display, Visual Radio (not that big a deal) and, finally, the excellent build and more solid construction. The Nokia 5220 seems way too plasticky and the finish is not as refined as the one of 5310 - but all that's a matter of personal taste. So, if you're choosing an XpressMusic handset, the Nokia 5220 seems well worth it and the eccentric styling makes sure it won't go unnoticed.