| Review of the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic |
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I had the opportunity of testing the 5130 along side of the Motorola W233, which was rather fortuitous because both phones have very similar feature sets and are aimed at the same general audience. This of course disregards the claims made by Motorola that the W233 is a carbon-neutral “green” phone. My review is not concerned with such things and is, as always, focused on the performance of the phone.
Available through Rogers and 7-11. Last Updated: 10-Aug-2009 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
Both phones are simple 2G models that provide
minimal data features, but boast music-playing capabilities and they both
support MicroSD cards to provide storage for a large number of MP3 files.
Note that because of the strong similarities of these two phones, and because
the reviews were written at the same time, I have cut-and-paste many of the
remarks from one review to the other. If you read both reviews you’ll get a
feeling of déjà vu, but rest assured that the import facts concerning each phone
are accurate and unique to each model where applicable. However, both phones are
remarkably similar beyond their basic feature sets.
RF Performance
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
RF Sensitivity: (A+) Tests of the 5130 were
performed in the hallways of Square One in Mississauga, where the signal on
Rogers 2G network could be faded to non-existence to get a feel for the ability
of a phone to hang on to the signal. At Square One both the 5130 and the W233
performed identically and they managed to work in places previous phones had
not.
However, I was unable to compare them with my
Nokia N95, because the N95 with Rogers
firmware couldn’t be forced into 2G mode. 3G coverage inside of Square One is
superior to 2G coverage, and so no comparisons between the performances of
phones operating on the difference networks could be made.
I next went to the Ikea store in the south end of Etobicoke. This particular
store is well-known for blocking out signals from all of the networks and
furthermore the 2G performance on Rogers is actually better there than on 3G.
That meant I could easily get the N95 to switch to 2G on its own accord, thus
allowing me to compare it to the 5130 and W233.
The results of this test were a bit puzzling. While the 5130 and W233 once again
came out neck-and-neck, the comparison to the N95 was a mixed bag. The N95 could
more readily find and lock onto 2G signals, plus it could more readily complete
calls when the signal was weak. However, once the call was underway the 5130 and
the W233 could maintain more stable audio than the N95.
The bottom line is that the 5130 appears to have excellent RF sensitivity and
will provide service where other phones struggle (with the exception of the W233
that is, which provides virtually identical performance).
Over-the-road Performance: (B+) When it comes to this aspect of performance
however, the 5130 clearly takes a back seat to the W233. What really ruined the
experience for me were the quite-audible clicking sounds heard at virtually each
handoff.
This isn’t to say that handoff performance on the 5130 is poor, for indeed it is
not. I’ve tested many Nokia 2G models in the past that have performed worse than
this. However, compared to the clean rock-solid performance of the Motorola
W233, it is hard to see the 5130 in quite the same light.
Nonetheless, despite its loss to the W233, the over-the-road performance of the
5130 is still very good, it just isn’t excellent.
Audio Performance
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Tonal Balance: (A-) Like many Nokia phones of the last few years the 5130
provides pretty decent tonal balance, but it lacks the truly rich sound that
I’ve heard from other phones in the past. It beats the W233 quite strongly in
category because it has a slightly richer sound and the audio is in no way
muddy. You’ll find the over tonal quality of the 5130 to be quite good for most
calls.
Sound Reproduction: No problems here. The 5130 has very low levels of hiss and
excellent reproduction of the nuances of speech. However, it wasn’t stellar as
I’ve found in a few Sony-Ericsson models in the past.
Earpiece Volume: (A-) Like virtually all Nokia models of the last 5 years or so
the 5130 has fairly decent earpiece volume under normal conditions, but then the
volume is boosted whenever the phone detects that there is a lot of background
noise where you are. When the volume boost kicks in the 5130 gets to be plenty
loud, but not quite as loud as the W233. To be fair however, the W233 is
strikingly loud and is a standout in this category. The 5130 is more than loud
enough under severe conditions.
The only fly-in-the-ointment here is that the earpiece has a very pronounced
sweet spot. That means you must press the phone to your ear in exactly the right
place to prevent your ear from blocking out the sound. This sort of things is
very annoying, especially for new users of the phone who may not realize there
is a sweet spot and just assume the phone has poor earpiece volume.
Outgoing Audio: (C-) The 5130 sounded pretty darned good when there was no
background noise, but like many Nokia models I’ve tested over the last few years
it copes poorly with loud background noises. In the tests I performed at the
crowded food court at Square One, and the tests made on the highway with the
windows cranked down, the 5130 made no attempt to suppress the noise. Especially
on the highway, the 5130 makes it quite tough for your callers to understand
what you say. The 5130 performs much worse the Nokia N95, which seems to apply a
noticeable degree of noise cancellation (though certainly not as much as the
Motorola W233).
Speakerphone: (B-) The single back-mounted speaker of the 5130 provides fairly
decent reproduction of MP3 files (if you insist on playing that way) and it also
provides reasonable sound quality for phone calls. The lack of sympathetic
vibrations in the housing makes it useable for a conversation if there isn’t
much background noise. This compares favorably to the W233, which provides very
poor audio quality.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: (B-) To test this feature I uploaded my standard
Loud Ring MP3
file into the phone and I compared its volume to that of the N95 (which has a
very loud ringer indeed). If the N95 represents a 10, then the 5130 is at least
an 8. That puts it slightly ahead of the W233, though both phones do a fairly
good job in this respect.
Keypad Design: (C+) The keypad of the 5130 is laid out in a fairly traditional
manner, but at the same time the keys are flush and they lack any tactile
distinction. This forces you to look at the keypad while dialing and there is a
strong likelihood that you’ll press the incorrect key. However, during use I
found keypad accuracy to be fairly good, but I still found it very annoying to
use. It made the N95 keypad seem almost stellar by comparison, and the N95 is
hardly a model of excellence in this category.
Display: (A-) The 5130 wins big in this category with a lovely 320 x 240 pixel
display that just screams quality, especially compared to the tiny low-res
screen provided on the W233. One might argue that the W233 doesn’t need this
sort of screen because it doesn’t have a camera, whereas the 5130 does. Beyond
that however, the overall crispness and readability of the 5130 screen was
excellent and it made the W233 look like a throwback to the old days.
Unfortunately the screen is nearly impossible to see in direct sunlight. This no
worse than the W233, but it compares poorly with the type of screen used on the
N95, which can reflect sunlight and provide a readable (though washed-out) view
of the display.
Icing on the
Cake
Camera: (C+) The camera on the 5130 is a fairly pedestrian 2 megapixel
unit with average image quality. Fortunately it doesn’t suffer from the problem
that plagued many Nokia models a few years ago, in which grey looked green and
there wasn’t much you do to fix it after the fact. The color on the 5130 camera
is about what you’d expect. So, while you could use this camera to take the
occasional snapshot when you didn’t have your full-fledged digital camera with
you, it’s really meant for taking photos to be viewed on the phone’s excellent
320 x 240 screen.
The delay time after taking a photograph is excruciating. I don’t know if this
is because the phone has a really slow processor or what it is, but expect to
wait 4 to 5 seconds after taking a shot before it completes the processing.
Music Player: (A-) This particular feature is really the high point of the
phone, given that it carries the XpressMusic name. It’s a much more capable
player than the one found on the Motorola W233. The speaker does a fairly good
job of playing the audio, but it’s only in mono and of course there is no bass
whatsoever. In a pinch (when you don’t have a stereo headset with you), the
overall quality of the built-in speaker is good enough to allow you to listen to
music through it. It has more volume and somewhat better tonal quality than the
W233.
Another thing that makes the 5130 music player better than the W233 player is
that the 5130 has a standard 3.5 mm headset jack. This means you can use any
stereo headset you like. The W233 uses a proprietary 4-pin 2.5 mm jack that
requires you use Motorola-provided headsets, or a bulky adapter.
Operating System: (A-) The Series 40 operating system in the 5130 is nicely
designed and it’s loaded with features. It is light years better than the
operating system in the Motorola W233, and so if this is an important feature to
you, the 5130 is definitely the way to go. However, if you are really serious
about having a flexible operating system, you should really be looking at a
full-fledge smartphone.
Conclusions
The 5130 is a good choice for a
low-end music-playing phone. It has excellent RF sensitivity, very nice incoming
audio with good earpiece volume, a terrific non-smartphone O/S, a really
wonderful screen, and a useable speakerphone. However, it has slightly
less-than-stellar over-the-road performance, a nasty sweet spot on the earpiece,
and horrible outgoing audio when there is loud background noise present.
If I had to choose between the 5130 and the Motorola W233 based solely upon
phone performance, I’d be hard-pressed to make up my mind. The W233 beats out
the 5130 in over-the-road performance and I find that a solid plus. On the other
hand I’m not too pleased with the muddy audio of the W233. Still, I’m no fan of
the nasty sweet spot of the 5130, but I like its keyboard better. Actually, I’m
glad I don’t personally have to make this choice, because the two phones seem to
offer conflicting pluses and minuses.
So it seems that my bottom line is no bottom line at all. I don’t think I’ve
ever encountered two phones that have so much pull in opposite directions. All I
can recommend to you is that you sum up your own personal preferences concerning
the strengths and weaknesses of these two models and decide which one for you is
the best (or, if you’re a pessimist, which phone is the lesser of two evils).
At the time of this writing the 5130 XpressMusic sells for $100 from Rogers on Pay-As-You-Go, and through 7-11 for $139. However, 7-11 has a promotion running where buying a $100 airtime voucher gets you the 5130 for half price. Note also that 7-11 calls the phone the Jamma. Both Rogers and 7-11 include a 1 GB MicroSD card with the phone.
