The fellows over at AllAboutSymbian have gotten their hands on the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic S60-powered smartphone, and thus far, they like what they’ve seen. The 5320 XpressMusic was announced earlier this year and offers a h0-hum 2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm audio port, dedicated music playback keys, and an innovative ‘Say and Play’ music system which allows you to speak the artist or song you’d like to hear.
Recently launched in Finland, this small smartphone only costs EUR 195 (plus tax) which is about US$303. As you can see, also, it’s quite the small handset, making even the Nokia E51 seem a bit large. Since the FCC reminded us of the US 3G version, I wouldn’t be surprised to see AT&T pick up this low-end smartphone.
I’m glad to see prices dropping on S60-powered handsets, as that makes it easier for more people to join in the S60 community. Aside from the 2 megapixel camera, the 5320 XpressMusic actually looks like it’d be a great backup phone. It’s also one of the first non-Nseries handsets to support N-Gage, with dedicated gaming keys and all.
Of course you shouldn’t be surprised to see at&t pick this up! Since they decided to carry Nokia smartphones, and T-Mobile didn’t, Nokia has basically decided to crush T-Mobile, selling unlocked devices with locked 3G, leaving all T-Mobile customers on the outside looking in.
I’m looking into whether this is an American Antitrust violation. Nokia should be ashamed! Unlocked means network neutral, but they’re only supporting their retail partner.
If this adversely affects T-Mobile, and causes them to financially fail, at&t will continue to be a monopoly, as usual. And as usual, they’ll exercise control over users application choices, hardware, and available services, and continue to charge exorbitant prices with too strict credit policies to keep the minority population from broadband, keeping it for the financially privileged.
Shame on you Nokia! Ruining GSM’s cross network neutrality by locking the 3G access in an unlocked device when you just helped T-Mobile build their WCDMA network. They knew better than anyone the other network would be available around this fall. They just used their partnership to steer money from anyone not looking to sign retail deals with them. Pretty predatory if you ask me. All customers who bought unlocked NAM versions deserve full subsidies or refunds!
@christexaport – Dude, T-Mobile doesn’t currently *have* a 3G network, and it’s not Nokia’s fault, it’s the FCC’s. Nokia is building handsets for the networks that exist.
Also, if you’ve got any idea of the history, you’ll know that AT&T is far from Nokia’s ‘retail partner’, specifically when it comes to S60 handsets in the U.S.
Also, unlocked does *not* mean network neutral, but means that it will work on any network which the chipset supports. There’s a big difference there.
This is no different than the tri-band GSM handsets that were so prevalent in the past. Only this time, it’s 3G.
What The Guru said, totally agree.
Nokia’s gone out of their way to make their devices work on as many networks and frequencies as possible, they’re even bringing in Wimax compatibility soon. It’s in their interests to do this because more network compatibility = more hardware sales. Nokia only get their money from hardware sales, they don’t get a share of your phone bill.
If anyone is in need of an anti-trust investigation it’s the phone network operators who lock phones, as there is no technical reason for doing so. The only reason they do that is to reduce competition, exactly the kind of thing that anti-trust laws are meant to stop. I know this for sure because I’ve lived in a country where phone locking was illegal, and the phone system didn’t have any problems because of it.
If you want to buy a car in installments you don’t have it locked to one brand of fuel, so why should a phone bought in installments be locked to one brand of network?
Very good points Krisse.!
I saw that device when I was over in Finland on my vacation, and I kinda like it. Seeem to be a nice device, and with a good price on it we will pbably get a lot more people joining the S60 community for sure.
I agree that this phone can make up for a nice backup device.
I’m not quite fond of the “sparkling” colors though.
But maybe I should start being more colorful?
Offtopic:
The discussion about the phones being locked to a specific carriers wireless technology is quite doubtful.
However locking it into one operator is more likely.
From what I know US don’t have this system about subsidies on the handsets from the operators in which locking it seems a bit unreasonable.
(I might be totally wrong on this one)
Here in Norway the operators can choose to lock the devices due to subsidies on the handset. However we can unlock our phones anytime by paying the amount of the subsidies.
As I’ve never owned a operatorlocked device I have no experience of that. (Only some of my family members have)
The locking of the hardware, is however (no matter how small chance) possible.
Just look at some of the HTC phones (HTC Touch Diamond?) which had some of it’s 3G functions locked down. This was possible through software.
Another interesting thing I heard from a podcast (from twit.tv) was that the iPhone had their firmware sent to AT&T to get it approved, before putting it into the handset.
So all in all I don’t think that christexaport is totally on the wild here.
From my experience of Nokia phones this is very unlikely from Nokia’s side. I can’t say that for other vendors.
Operators should’nt be any different from ISP providers. Maybe a few more years and we should be seeing Operators turned into data pipes.
Speaking of back up phones… I am looking out for a good deal on a used phone.. which could play the role of a back up phone for me.
This is my list…
Color screen
Memory (even 256mb will do)
Bluetooth
Preferably a Nokia (with the thin charging pin, so I don’t need a separate charger for it)
To my surprise… no phone company is present in this segment!
This makes me wonder, Is this segment so small that no handset maker is present?
Until somebody comes up with a decent offering I shall continue my pursuit of a good second hand phone!!!
What The Guru said, totally agree.
Nokia's gone out of their way to make their devices work on as many networks and frequencies as possible, they're even bringing in Wimax compatibility soon. It's in their interests to do this because more network compatibility = more hardware sales. Nokia only get their money from hardware sales, they don't get a share of your phone bill.
If anyone is in need of an anti-trust investigation it's the phone network operators who lock phones, as there is no technical reason for doing so. The only reason they do that is to reduce competition, exactly the kind of thing that anti-trust laws are meant to stop. I know this for sure because I've lived in a country where phone locking was illegal, and the phone system didn't have any problems because of it.
If you want to buy a car in installments you don't have it locked to one brand of fuel, so why should a phone bought in installments be locked to one brand of network?
I am music Liker..My hobby is to listening the music..So that i bought the Nokia 5320 EXPRESS MUSIC mobile.The internal memory and external memory are enough to load the music files so that i bought the mobile.I now waiting to get the unlock code to unlock the mobile from the T-Mobile network USA.I already unlocked my Nokia 9000 communicator mobile using the unlock code got here in the site http://www.mobile-unlocker.com/unlock-your-phone/rs2wp2/ at free of cost..
I am music Liker..My hobby is to listening the music..So that i bought the Nokia 5320 EXPRESS MUSIC mobile.The internal memory and external memory are enough to load the music files so that i bought the mobile.I now waiting to get the unlock code to unlock the mobile from the T-Mobile network USA.I already unlocked my Nokia 9000 communicator mobile using the unlock code got here in the site http://www.mobile-unlocker.com/unlock-your-phone/rs2wp2/ at free of cost..