Nokia 5610 XpressMusic  

Our upcoming article will be entirely devoted to Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, summing facts up that one is very close to 6500 classic, while Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is designed after Noki 6500 slide. Such an expansion of the company's portfolio is extremely profitable, the developers only need to introduce a few changes to an existing concept proven by time, which means much lower development costs. This both reduces the resulting market price of such models and approximates the release dates.

Player controls
Nokia was the first company to pioneer the usage of dedicated player controls back in times when they were lagging behind SonyEricsson with their Walkman series. Since then Nokia pays a lot of attention to the comfort of player controls, this stands true for music and non-music solutions a like, camera and business phones included. Most model come with additional buttons whose dedicated purpose is that of providing a more straightforward control of player and multimedia elements. It's pretty obvious that pressing a dedicated button is much easier than doing a number of menu manipulations with the regular navigation buttons. All of the Nokia music phones sport dedicated rewinding buttons as well as those performing Play/Pause and player launch functions. The presense of such extra controls is an important factor influencing the consumer's choice in a big way. Another important feature of the dedicated controls is that you can switch between playing tracks without having to quite the menu you're currently in. There are a lot of possible locations used for placing these buttons, varying from the backside of the rotating block or the slide panel to positioning them along the sides of the screen or around the navigation buttons. But one thing that always remains true is that having dedicated controls regardless of their ergonomics and location is much better than having none at all. The MIDP 2.1 update to the Series 40 platform now enables extended usage of the dedicated media controls as supplementary controls in miscellaneous applications like Java applets and games.

The extra buttons aren't the only thing that the company's engineers can offer as a means to improve the ergonomics and usability. Easy player launching is another important feature of Nokia phones. Some models come with a special player launch button (N91, N72, N81, 5200) which is equally helpful for minimizing the player window, others use the play/pause button for the same cause (5300XM, 5310XM), and a minority use exotic means - for instance, the 3250 and 5700XM models launch the player on rotating the bottom block. Nokia 5610 XpressMusic is unique in this sense, as described below.

Right below the screen you can see the brand new control element - a three-position slide button. Sliding it left or right launches or switches to the already launched mp3 player and radio respectively. This effectively brings in a one-touch activation for the music application regardless of the menu you're currently in. On the other hand, the functionality of this button is rather limited in the other spheres. It would be wonderful if the slide button could also serve for rewinding the track back and forth in the player window or switching between frequencies in the radio mode. Unfortunately, this can't be done with this handset - the button only does what it does, that is just activating either the player or the FM tuner. No customizable settings for this element are available, but we can guess this aspect will be improved to a full-blown functionality in later models from the experimental stage as seen in Nokia 5610 XpressMusic.

On the both sides of the slide button sit two LED lights which blink at a fixed interval. This can be optionally turned off. The slide button also acts as a finger rest when opening the slider.

Design and Ergonomics
Nokia 5610 XpressMusic utilizes the slider form-factor, the dimensions are 98.5 x 48.5 x 17 mm. The body of the phone is made from black plastic, glossy from the front and matte texturized on the backside (while the casing of 6500 Classic was made from steel). The back panel feels much like SonyEricsson W850i - a similar dotted pattern can be observed, functioning in a similar manner to prevent scrathing. The aluminium pieces are integrated into the side edges of the casing - two thin metal strips painted red or black. Similar to 5310, to color variants of the casing are available: black and red or black and blue, both combinations express equal harmony and don't look too flashy. The red variation also sports differently colored pieces along the sides of the screen while the more strict blue variant has none. The physical dimensons are quite comfortable - this model can neither be called slim nor bulky.

The build quality is on a very high level, the sliding mechanism is very smooth and precise, no play between the parts can be observed, just like with Nokia 6500 Slide. Most of the device's surface has a wet asphalt texture - matte, hard and resistant to fingerprints and worn spots, which also makes a good practical use. The face panel of the handset looks quite appealing. The buttons look as if they were of the touch-type, since no physical borders between them can be observed and they look absolutely flat. However that's not true, the buttons are quite traditional mechanical ones. All the keys have a good keystroke and respond to the touch quite accurately. The glossy plastic of the keypad is the only disappointing feature because it's easily soiled. This problem is common for all glossy surfaces in general, especially plastic ones. The navigation button is marked with a play/pause symbol in the center, it's quite comfortable to use. The numerical keypad looks quite traditional, the keys slightly stick out above the surface, they're made of a black plastic just like with the 6500 Slide. The keypad backlighting is of a bright and even white color.

The top end of the casing hosts the 2.5 mm headset jack, the miniUSB and the charger slots. The small button found nearby is the battery cover holder. The right edge of the casing hosts the camera rocker and the volume controls. The left edge is free of any control elements, and the bottom edge has a hole for fastening the wristband. Supplying a music phone with a non-standard headset jack only seems a bit illogical, for instance Nokia 5310 comes with a standard 3.5 mm jack. The bundled adapters differ accordinlgy: the 5610 model comes with an AD-56 while 5310 has an AD-57. The headset is same for the two - it's a HS-45.

The camera lens resides on the back panel, it's almost the same with Nokia 6500 Slide save for cheaper optics - the actual difference in the image quality is present yet it's not critical. There's no lens guard, so the lens is prone to greasing. As a matter of fact, the camera is what makes Nokia 5610 truly unique among the rest of music phones available on the market today, even the top Nokia phones (N81) as well as phones by competitive brands (Samsung i450, SonyEricsson W910i) come with worse cameras (2 Mp without auto-focusing).

The screen of Nokia 5610 is also the same with Nokia 6500 slide, based off a 2.2 inch matrix with a color palette of 16M colors. The screen quality is quite high, even in the broad daylight the information on the screen remains perfectly legible. Along the sides of the screen the CIF camera lens and the luminance sensor are located (so the phone auto-adjusts the brightness level depending on strength of the ambient lighting. Unlike the latest Samsung handsets, there's no way to turn the sensor off.

Battery
Below the battery bay lies the microSD memory card slot with full support for hot swapping, and the typical package includes a 1Gb memory card. As specified by the manufacturer, the maximum supported card capacity for this model is 4 Gb.

Nokia 5610 utilizes a BP-5M (Li-Ion, 900 mAh) battery. The same one is used in 6500 slide. As stated by the manufacturer, the maximum talk time for this one is 6 hours and the maximum standby time is 320 hours, this are almost the same results with 6500 slide (6 and 310 hours). In our tests the device endured about two days and a half of moderate duty (up to an hour of talk time, an hour and a half of photo shooting and menu oprations and 2-3 hours of listening to the player and the radio).

But when it comes to mp3 playback, the results become way more impressive. The thing is that 5610 (and 5310 alike) are the next-gen music phones which sport a number of energy-saving features never seen before. In other words, during the music playback the device does its best to waste as little charge as possible. The dedicated DSP (Digital Signal Processor) besides its main function (which consists in providing a better audio quality) also sports an extra chip serving to reduce the power consumption rates. Nokia 5610 can stay as long as 20 hours of continuous music playback cycle without recharging. (Nokia themselves claim 22 hours) which is more than just fine. This will surely satisfy the majority of consumers. Now Nokia music phones can challenge the same class of products by competitive brands while just a few months ago similar solutions by Nokia suffered from dramatically short battery lives.

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Battery Characteristics

Communications
The type of interface slot used in Nokia 5610 (just like in 6500 Slide and all the newer models) is microUSB, the slot is placed at the top edge of the body. The MicroUSB data cable is found in the sales package. The slot isn't protected by a flap or something. The data transfer rate is comparable to the majority of devices utilizing the microUSB standard, for instance a simple file copy test produced a result of 650 Kb/s. The USB protocol version is 2.0, the Mass Storage mode is fully supported, you can choose out of the following modes: Mass Storage, PC Suite, Modem Connection. The handset doesn't go offline when used in the Mass Storage mode which is an evident plus. Unlike 6500, the phone doesn't recharge when plugged to the PC via cable.

The device is designed to operate in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks as well as in WCDMA 850/2100 ones, there are no differences from 6500 Slide here. Both GPRS and EDGE Class 10 are supported.

The Bluetooth protocol version is 2.0 + EDR, all of the main profiles are supported: AVRCP, DUN, FTP, GAP, GAVDP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, OPP, SAP, SDAP, SPP, A2DP. The availability of the A2DP profile allows the usage of a wireless stereo headset - a feature standard for a modern handset. The extras include the adjustable Bluetooth visibility timeout (varying from one minute to one hour), however there's no setting that would allow to automatically shut down the running Bluetooth service completely after a specified period of time.

User Interface
Nokia 5610 Xpress Music, in a manner similar to the rest of the latest Nokia phones, is based off the fifth revision of the Series 40 hardware platform. A series of previous articles contained detailed explanations of the features found with S40v5, and the 5610 is not an exeption. The only thing that differs is the graphical representation of the application interfaces, and for the rest all the features are virtually the same. In order to keep a consistent theme linking the exterior design with the menu graphics, the Nokia designers did their best at picking a style and a color scheme for the menus, the player and the radio skins that would complement the exterior, for instance the black-and-blue version of the handset has the black and blue colors dominating in all the preinstalled menu themes and player skins, and this is perfectly true for the black-and-red version as well. The themes look quite harmonical and aren't to flashy. Each theme comes with a unique screensaver.

Series 40 v5 was announced on May 7, 2007. Among the key features the latest MIDP upgrade (2.1) and JSR-248 support were mentioned. Upon the first glance, the differences aren't that noticeable in comparison with the previous revisions and might appear totally inperceptible to the user, but from the developer's point of view it's a great step forward. JSR-248 was finalized by the end of 2006 (on December, 21 the final build was finished) with the backup of Vodafone who helped to develop a Java specifications package universally compatible with all kinds of third-party software. JSR-248 is also regarded as one of the key elements of the S60 platform effectively providing a high level of mutual compatibility between software developed for the S40 and S60 Series products.

The MIDP 2.1 update also allows the complementary use of dedicated multimedia controls in miscellaneous Java applications (for instance, Nokia 5300 can't have its buttons acting as controls anywhere outside the corresponding media applications, but this limitation won't apply in any of the future models).

The following features were added as compared to the previous revision of the platform: Java APIs for Bluetooth (JSR-82) were updated to v1.1; Mobile Media API (JSR-135) gained access to the radio and a number of other multimedia aspects that can now be fully engaged in Java applications; the introduction of the SATSA-CRYPT0 package in the Security and Trust Services API (JSR-177); enhanced 3D sound support for Java applications (JSR-234); Adope Flash Lite player updated to v2.1.

Series 40
The changes are quite significant, the main focus being the higher compatibility between applications and platforms alike. The software support for dedicated media controls as secondary controls in miscellaneous applications is another great step forward. The future feature packs are estimated to extend the functionality of the fifth revision of the platform even further though no radical changes can be expected.

As for the finished product, it won't appear to the end user anywhere different from the previous versions of the platform. The user interface has undergone almost no changes. The player and the radio get a few extra features though all the controls remain the same, and the Go-To active standby mode isn't changed at all - however its possibilites are already maximized at the moment, so wishing more hardly makes any sense. If you don't like lots of indicators and shorcuts on your mobile desktop during standby, the active standby mode can be manually deactivated.

In the standard view the active standby mode engages a row of icons serving as shortcuts to 5 applications (the number is customizable and the icon bar is scrollable, should there be too many icons to be displayed on the screen simultaneously). It's needless to say that it's absolutely up to the user to select the applications regardless of their native or third-party status. For instance, a custom ICQ client can be as easily given a shortcut on the bar as an embedded function like the Galley. Up to three applications can be set to submit statistical data to the screen while in the active standby mode. By default, these are the mp3 player/radio, calendar and reminders. The player shows the current playback status, the calendar displays the daily schedule and current tasks (and is also browsable with the navigation button without having to interrupt the standby status, just press left and right to scroll through event records associated with the current date). The reminder is just a custom piece of text which stays on during standby. The rest of applications which can submit stats to the screen include the timer, the regular status indicators and the My Presence application. The order in which the data tabs follow is also customizable, and the number of lines can be decreased at will. In other words, everything is fully customizable, ranging from an empty to an info-packed screen in the standby mode. The Active menu is an addition to the active standby mode, which also hosts a number of application bookmarks.

The main menu, similar to a number of newer Nokia models, has a total of four viewing modes available: list, icons, footnoted icons, tabs. The regular list and icons aren't much of a sensation though the two latter modes are quite interesting and new. The font size is only customizable for the three applications: Messages, Contacts and Internet, just as it used to. Quick jumping between the icons is done by pressing the associated numeric keys or via the voice control feature, which doesn't require any learning curve.

The menu items can be swapped in a custom order (though sumbenu items are tightly fixed so you won't be able to customize the order for them). Almost any function can be accessed through a couple of keystrokes, this is equally true for the active standby mode which reserves three directions of the navigation button for acting as application shortcuts and the fourth direction serves to browse through the Go-To tabs.

Call Service
The phonebook capacity didn't change from Series 40 v5 and is limited to 1000 contact records, each record can store up to 5 phone numbers. The contact memory isn't dynamical, once you add a contact record with a single associated phone number it eats up a full one cell in the memory - just as much as a record with 5 phone numbers would take. However a 1000 record limit practically means no limits for most humans - even the businessmen hardly ever happen to have more than two hundred contacts in their phonebooks. The five phone numbers are Generic, Cell Phone, Home, Video, Work and Fax. The Address field prompts you to specify the street/city/region/ZIP code/country formula, the e-mail field does just what its name suggests, the online/offline status indicator is quite self-explaining, the note field stores a short text note, the image option allows to assign a picture to the contact record, and the video option does the same but lets using a video. Each contact record can be given an individual ringtone.

There are three viewmodes for the contact book - List of Names, Name and Number, Name and Picture. The call icon size is rather large and can actually take up almost the whole screen with the person's name and number displayed overriding this picture when an incoming call pops up. If the picture is too bright, you risk not being able to see those clearly. The VideoID function means that a custom video clip can be set for playing each time this particular person calls you. If both a picture and a video are specified, the video is preferred, and the ringtone is replaced for the video's soundtrack.

Up to 25 user groups can be created in the phonebook, though no group presets are available. A single contact can be a member of more than one group. If a contact has a specific ringtone associated, this will override the group's ringtone. The group affiliation is indicated right in the contacts list, indicated by a corresponding icon. The speed dial is quite a standard feature, the numericals from 2 to 9 are used as the shortcuts.

The call log shows all types of calls, - that is dialed, received, missed alike, - and every call record comes with a small icon which indicates the call type. That's quite practical, you can see all the calls and and the same time be aware of the call type for each individual call record. You can extract the phone number right from a call log record and create a phonebook record based upon that number immediately. Also you can select a call log record to send a message to that particular number, view the call time and date, duration and so on.

Messaging
The Message service includes SMS, MMS and E-mail, audio messages and quick messages. SMS is just the good old SMS services save for the small addition of a shortcut bar for immediate access to the media content. The message view/send interface went through a few cosmetical changes that basically affect nothing. You are still able to insert into the message contact numbers and names, emoticons, change the message type from SMS to MMS and backwards - the overall usability is a bit higher than it used to be, you no longer have to call on the contextual menu. In the message editor you can always insert a text template, an audio fragment, an image or a video clip. Once you add something of the kind to an SMS, it's automatically converted into an MMS.

The message system features a call log of its own, it's a list of the most frequently called people of sorts, so if you write to someone frequently, the corresponding contact record is sure to appear somewhere in the upper sections of the list, so you just have to open this list and select that person prior to sending a message to them, instead of looking them up in the regular phonebook. That's quite comfortable due to the obvious reason that the phonebook's list of contacts is usually much longer and way more complicated than a simple list of people to whom you often send messages. The call log's recent records are also added to this list, which only improves the usability further. A message can be sent to a whole user group. There's also an option that lets you specify a default (a.k.a. 'favorite') phone number to which all the messages will be sent automatically unless specified otherwise by choosing another number.

The MMS-service is quite standard, the interface was changed a bit though the impact on the functionality is equal to zero - a pure aesthetical improvement. The message size limit is 300 Kb. A specific setting will automatically resize the image attachments to fit in, if activated. The voice messages are just automated MMS messages which work in the following manner: first he voice recorder is launched, and then the record is over it's immediately wrapped into an MMS message ready for sending. Then you specify the recepient and you're done.

The integrated e-mail client supports the POP3/IMAP4/SMTP/APOP protocols. Attachments are fully supported and automatically recognized by type. The mail delivery options are: load message headers only; specify the message size limit; the secure authorization method; the default encoding. Image attachments can either retain their original size or downscaled to 1280?960, 640?480, 320?240 or 120?160.

The text copy and paste function first emerged in Feature Pack 1 devices like Nokia 6132, 6233. The access to this function is only granted from the the contextual menu because there's no dedicated text edit button that is inherent to most S60 smartphones, which is far from being comfortable, yet the very possibility of text copying and pasting is a big plus.

The message settings (global parameters, SMS, MMS, E-Mail settings) include such features as sent messages saving, the possibility to change the font (tiny, small, normal and large), support for smilies and icons. An MMS message has a resolution limit for image attachments of 640x480, though you can always start an MMS-plus message which sports no limits at all.

On the whole, the messaging service is quite good, everything's up to the modern level, we were never able to spot any serious problems on this front.

PIM
The personal information manager comprises the following applications: Calendar, Tasks, Reminders, Timer, Stopwatch. The calendar supports viewing the data either by month or by week, the latter variant also submits hourly schedule for each weekday. Five types of events (meeting, call, anniversary, note, reminder) are available, recurring events are supported, any event can be given an expiration period ranging from one day to one month, after which it will be automatically deleted.

The tasklist is just a regular schedule with an option to set the priority status for each task and specify an expiration period. The reminders are even simpler, just pieces of text limited to 3000 symbols per each. The alarm clock supports both one-time and weekday-scheduled action. Any sound file can be assigned as the alarm signal. The stopwatch, the timer and the world clock service are quite standard, there's nothing special to be said about. The currency converter supports 7 kinds of monetary units.

The calculator had gone through some serious improvements, in addition to the few cosmetical improvements in the interface, a bunch of advanced functions were added to expand the application's functionality, including the Loan Calculator module.

Multimedia features
The mp3 player is the key feature of Nokia 5610 XpressMusic. The phone is in essence an alternate music flagship standing on par with the older Nokia 5700. It's not only the positioning that makes 5610 a music phone, but also a number of exclusive features amalgamated into a self-sufficient audio system.

Nokia are placing their bet on the dedicated DSP unit utilized in all of the XpressMusic models. The Digital Signal Processor offers improved sound processing algorithms and allows for the wanted signal to be efficiently separated from the noise, so the when the signal comes to the output point crystal clear. The DSP operates such sophisticated characteristics as the dynamic range (the ability to reproduce both high and low frequency sounds with equal quality), the frequency range, the noise levels, non-linear distortion and so on. Combined with the multitude of customizable settings, the sound quality of the 5310 and 5610 stays on an unmatched level. These two are among the best music phones ever, as far as the objectiveness of such a criterion as "the best" goes (since tastes differ). Some of the consumers are only concerned with the maximum loudness, some prefer the high quality of sound and so on, some are keen on equalizer settings and some care mostly for the long battery life. The notion of a perfect music phone comprises a multitude of factors, and keeping with all of them won't ever make product with a price easily affordable to its target audience.

However Nokia did their best to realize most of these features in the 5310 and 5610 model at the same time keeping the price on a tame level, the principal advantages are the long-lasting battery charges (18:50 and 20:20 hours of continuous music playback cycle respectively and the unmatched sound quality - as for the latter aspect, the two Nokias are clearly leading in the whole segment. The Walkman phones produced by SonyEricsson have a worse audio quality, less loud speakers, they lack dedicated player controls and are generally inferior in the realization of musical features except the player interface. The new Samsung F330 and i450 phones pose a worthier challenge to the 5610, sporting some advantages and disadvantages as compared to the former.

Getting back to DSP, let's check out that besides just having one stuffed inside your phone, a great amount of technical adjustments and preparatory work is required to provide a high audio quality. The smart and well-orchestrated coherence between the software and hardware parts is what in facts stands for the high quality of audio signal in music phones, but in some cases the manufacturer does little effort to force their high-quality sound processing units to do their utmost (also in order to provice an artificial field for advancement of further models). Not all of the DSP functions are necessarily engaged in a single model, a device is only given enough audio quality to justify its price and positioning so it can successfully participate in the market competition. Artificial software-side downgrades can be introduced as well to differentiate the lower-ranking solutions from the top one.

The interface of the Nokia music phones is traditionally smart and versatile - both the radio and mp3 player can have separate skins independent from the main menu theme. Comparing this functionality to the interface of the third revision of FP2 (which is the same for all FP2v3 devices regardless of positioning) makes you think that this personalization feat is something that will be highly appreciated by all the users since no alternate solutions is available from the competitive brands. The preinstalled interface themes come in keeping with the color version of the phone itself, for instance the blue version features themes where the blue color is dominant. In the playback mode it's possible to assign an album picture to a track or a number of tracks so it will displayed during playback. Depending on the selected theme, this logo will be displayed either in the center or to the side of the track title and performer name.

The following music player themes are available on different Nokia phones based on Series 40 5th Edition as well:

The following audio formats are supported: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, (SP)MIDI, (WB-)AMR, WMA, XMF. The equalizer has five bands and two user presets. Keeping up with the main player interface, the control elements of the equalizer are few and easy to use, the interface animations are rich and amusing. The enhanced stereo setting resides in the Multimedia submenu, though no radical changes are introduced on activation.

A variety of miscellaneous options are available: sorting content by performer, album, genre, repeated and random playback. Switching between tracks and performers is done by pressing the navigation button, the controls didn't change from the previous versions. The player application submits a summary of the current playback parameters to the screen during standby and can function in minimized state, at the same time a single Java application can be functioning parallel to it.

The FM tuner has an equally comfortable and appealing interface, the headset audio output sports a great quality. The FM tuner can be customized with a selectable skin independent from that of the mp3 player, the RDS feature is fully supported as well as the auto scanning, a memory sufficient to store up to 50 frequencies and a selectable favorites folder.

Summing things up, we'd repeat that all the XpressMusic are extremely able in terms of audio functionality. Hardly any feature gives a reason for reproaching, the audio quality is on an almost unmatched level and so is the maximum volume, the controls sport great ergonomics and the battery life is extremely long, - by saying 'long' we mean it's just as long during music playback as in other modes. The only (and hardly explainable) drawback is the bundled headset which is of a poor quality and no remote control is found in the package, though it includes an AD-56/AD-57 jack adapter with a response button on it.

Applications
Four games come preinstalled on the phone: City Bloxx, Music Guess, Snake III and Rally 3D. All the games sport nice graphics and are in fact rather involving.

Besides the games, the device sports a variety of preinstalled applications which include a downloads manager which lets automated purchase and downloading of extra content. The interface is rather simple, three folders are available (downloads, subscriptions and facorites) to which the selected files go.

Opera Mini was first introduced as a full-blown Java-based web browser in Nokia 6300, is the most powerful Java-powered web browsing application up to date. The very fact that Opera Mini comes as a preinstalled application can hardly be underestimated. In real life, very few phone users trouble themselves with downloading, installing and configuring third-party software for their cell phones. Thus such a versatile, comfortable and absolutely free addition as Opera Mini makes a brilliant selling point for the 5600 handset. The Yahoo! Search feature comes as an integrated feature, and so does the Wikipedia Search feature. All the standard page viewing parameters like the font size are fully customizable.

The Yahoo! Go! application is optimized for comfortable viewing of web pages, sporting web search and Yahoo! mail support and so on.

The search feature can be optionally integrated into the standby mode (as an additional screen bar), this function's name is quite self-explaining. An important difference from the Nokia smartphones is that you can only perform web searches, but you can't do a search in your local content.

The phone supports all Flash Lite applications, the only thing you need to install one is just to copy it to the ROM storage area. No actual installation process is required in fact, the only necessary operation is just sending the .jar file via Bluetooth or the data cable in the Mass Storage mode. After doing so, you can launch Java applications right from the gallery without any preparatory proceedings. The bad side of this feature is that you can't minimize a Java window without having to terminate the process completely, the only exception being the mp3 player application, and the Java multitasking isn't supported. The maximum size of a jar file is 1 Mb, the heap size is limited to 2 Mb.

Performance
The performance is up to the modern level, quite characteristic of the most Series 40 v5, the results are quite comparable to Nokia 6300, 6280, 6500c - nothing too unusual about it, the test results aren't outstanding but the overall performance level is quite good. It's quite natural to expect a performance improvement in the fifth revision of the platform due to the MIDP 2.1 upgrade and the introduction of the improved JSR, but in reality this difference is virtually imperceptible.

Camera
As it was already mentioned, Nokia 5610 XpressMusic stands out against the background of the same-level competitive products in the music segment due to the unusually powerful 3,2 Mp auto-focusing camera. Manufacturers tend to curb down the functionality of their music phones to make the solutions more accented on the music side and avoid inner competition with the camera phones, but the 5610 model is not the case. The well-orchestrated positioning and design helps to differentiate the company's products so that the audiences don't cross over.

Regardless of the intense functional similarities between 5610 and 6500 slides (save for a few less significant points), the target audiences of the two handsets hardly have any crossovers. The principal matter in this case is design. The strict steel casing of the 6500 and the bright youth plastic of 5610 will hardly attract the same people.

As for the camera, there's also a certain difference between the two. The 5610 doesn't utilize the Carl Zeiss optics, for the rest the camera characteristics are the same. Subsequently, a certain difference in quality is present, yet it isn't critical. The 5610 still retains its status as having the best camera in the whole camera phone segment. Probably the only competitive product to challenge this status could be the W960i model by SonyEricsson, but firstly it belongs to a higher price section and secondly it hardly makes a decent music phone due to an inferior audio quality. As comparing to the direct competitors like Samsung i450, SE W910i is the absolute winner.

Samples of pictures taken at maximum quality:

The camera lens sits on the back panel, no lens guard is provided. The resulting risk is obvious: the lens may get damaged or soiled. The camera rocker is found on the right edge of the casing, it's quite comfortable to use. The button is neither too tight nor too loose. Some people may find it discomforting its position being a bit too low, towards the bottom of the body. The right edge hosts the volume controls, which in the camera mode serve as the zoom controls (up to 20x). The LED flash is found just nearby, its effective distance being about a meter and a half.

The camera interface is all the same with Nokia 6500 Slide along with the whole rest of functions and options. The interface utilizes the landscape orientation, but you can switch to portrait any time, for there's such an option. In the viewfinder mode, the screen features the follwong status indicators: the photo/video resolution, the storage location, zoom factor, timer setting and the remaining number of shots allowed by the free space, flash status icon and so on.

By pressing the left soft key the user gets to the settings tab, consisting of the following items:

• Shooting mode switch (photo / video)
• Portrait mode engage
• Brightness setting (ten-point scale)
• Nighttime mode
• Flash (on, off or auto)
• Auto timer (3, 5 or 10 second)
• Multi shot
• Effects (grayscale, sepia, negative)
• White balance (auto, daylight, glow lamp, fluorescent lamp, horizont)
• Show previous photo
• Proceed to Gallery

Only a few options are available, the number of effects is minimal, but that's still great for a music phone. The extra settings include:

• Image quality (High, Normal, Low)
• Viewing delay for taken photos (no delay, 3, 5, 10 seconds)
• Camera sounds
• Default filename
• Storage folder selection

• 1536?2048
• 1600x1200(UXGA)
• 1280x960(SXGA)
• 640x480(VGA)
• 320x240(QVGA)
• 320x240(QVGA)

The photo can be instantly sent over attached to a text message, via Bluetooth or sent for printing. The photo can also be set as a wallpaper, logo, call image for a specific person or a user group. There's also the scaling option, functions like Rotate and the contrast settings (a ten-point scale).

The acquired image can be instantly transferred to the graphics editor (which has only the very basic set of functions)

• insert Text
• Frame (selectable from the 7 preinstalled ones)
• Graphic clip (selectable from 7)
• insert Picture
• Picture trim (Portrait Size or Custom)

As a result, the phone's extras in the aspect of video editing are rather modest, being nothing beyound the basical required level.

Things are even simpler when it comes to the video, there are no editing options but the functiona that allows you to strip the sound away from a clip completely. The video record length is only limited by the remaining amount of free memory, three quality presets offer you a choice between High, Normal and Low, the supported resolutions are 640x480, 352x288, 176x144 and 128x96. The video quality among the best found with the today's camera phones, and within the music phone segment 5610 is the absolutely unqestionable leader, the only disappointment being the relatively low framerate of just 15 fps. On the whole, the video acquisition quality is on a level with Nokia 6233 and similar models.