Nokia 5730 XpressMusic - side-sliding qwerty for music lovers

Published by Rafe Blandford, Steve Litchfield at 9:01 UTC, March 11th 2009

Running S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, Nokia has launched the 5730 XpressMusic, with E75-style side-sliding qwerty keyboard. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and GPS, plus the “Say and Play” feature first introduced in the Nokia 5320. It has the same customised home screen to directly access contacts and Ovi services, as seen in the Nokia 5630. More below, including photos.

The 5730 shares a form factor with the recently announced Nokia E75. The specifications are very similar and they are based on the same hardware platform, but the focus and target market of each device is very different. The 5730 has a strong music and messaging, but, in contrast to the business orientated E75, is aimed squarely at consumers. QWERTY devices have become more popular in the mid-tier in the last year (e.g. LK KS360) and Nokia research indicates that half of QWERTY device owners are non-business users suggesting there's a good sized target market for the 5730.

The music credentials of the 5730 include integration with the Nokia Music Store, dedicated music control keys, Say and Play music finder, 3.5 mm audio jack, comprehensive format support (MP3, WMA, AAC, and eAAC) and 8GB memory card included with the device. In select markets the 5730 will also be available as a Comes with Music device and I would expect the 5730 to be a key device in Nokia's music line up for Christmas 2009 lineup.

The key component of the 5730's messaging focus is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Software is also an important component; the device will ship with Ovi Contacts, Nokia's combined presence and instant massaging application, and Nokia E-mail, Nokia's push email solution for consumers. Other software experiences improved by the QWERTY keyboard include text-based search in Music player (quickly find the track you want), entering information on the web and any other text-entry heavy applications.

It's worth pointing out that, at launch prices, the 5730 is 95 Euros cheaper than the E75. Some of this difference is down to the cheaper materials (plastics instead of metal) used in the 5730 and some may be down to the different segment being targeted. As such the Nokia 5730 will offer great value for money for those looking for a full QWERTY device for messaging purposes, be it personal or business.

The Nokia 5730 XpressMusic will hit the shops in the third quarter at a price of EUR 280 (before taxes and subsidies). It will be available in four colour variants: red, blue, pink and monochrome.

5730

Key hardware features of the Nokia 5730:

Slide-out full QWERTY keyboard (four lines of keys, with layout similar to the E75).
Dimensions of 112 x 51/80 x 15.4mm (82 cubic centimetres) and a weight of 135g.
Connectivity options include quad band GSM (800/900/1800/1900), and tri band WCDMA (900/1900/2100) with HSDPA, WiFi, USB and Bluetooth.
USB charging with simultaneous USB connectivity, including support for HiSpeed USB 2.0 data transfers.
3.2 megapixel (2048 x 1536) camera (focal range: 10cm to infinity) with a LED flash (range 1m, ~ 40 Lux) and support for VGA resolution video capture at 15 frames per second.
2.4 inch QVGA (240 x 320) TFT screen, 16 million colours with backlight and ambient light sensor (automatically adjusts screen brightness to optimise power consumption).
8GB memory card included with the phone (enough room for 3000 tracks at optimal encoding), with support for microSDHC cards up to 16GB in size.
Around 100MB of internal memory (i.e. amount that's free after system usage from 256MB total flash memory). 128MB of RAM for running OS and apps.
Dedicated music controls of the left hand side of the device with a 3.5mm Nokia AV port (3.5mm audio jack) and an integrated FM radio (Internet Radio supported via software).
Integrated A-GPS with Nokia Maps 2.0. The 5730 also includes a magnetometer (compass) which will automatically turn the map in pedestrian mode.
BL-4U (1000 mAh) battery. Web browsing time: 6 hours, video playback time: 5.8 hours, video recording-time 2.7 hours, music playback time: 25 hours (offline).
In box contents includes: Nokia 5730 Xpress Music, BL-4U Battery, Wired stereo headset (HS-83) and remote control plug with music controls (AD-54), microUSB cable (CA-101D), 8 GB microSD card, travel charger (AC-8), short user guide and Mini DVD.

5730 5730

Key software features of the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic

Runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian OS 9.3
Features a customised homescreen with a 'Contacts Bar', which provides direct access to up to 20 contacts and includes a communication history/log for each person, which is shown when the contact is highlighted. The homescreen also offers application shortcut bars with quick access to Music Player, Radio, Web, Search, N-Gage and Photos, as well as the usual homescreen plug-ins for music (current track information), Calendar (upcoming appointments) and WiFi.
Music software features include 'Say and Play' (voice controlled music search), access to Nokia Music Store on the device and music management with Nokia Music for the PC (drag and drop/sync transfer via MTP). In selected markets, the 5730 will be sold as a 'Comes with Music' device.
UPnP capable device with DLNA Certification. This enables you to control and playback music, videos and images on other UPnP devices such as the XBox 360, Playstation 3, or Nokia Home Music appliance. This is done through the Home Media application.
N-Gage compatible device. The phone will likely ship with an N-Gage voucher in the box, giving everyone who buys the device a free game.
Widgets to access social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, and Hi5. These are shortcut widgets rather than 'full' application widgets. They act as shortcuts to the mobile web site version of the social network concerned. Other shortcut widgets are available for YouTube and other web services.

News Discussion

talhamid

Nice phone, but if they were giving it a QWERTY, they should have toned the looks down a bit. Some business users might prefer it over the E75, but will be scared by all the red accents.

And - WHEN ARE WE GETTING THAT HOME SCREEN FOR THE 5800?? When, Nokia?

Delta737

It will also be available in black/grey, so that's good for business-users. I really don't see the advantage off a E75 anymore.

This looks like a nice succesor too my E71. A shame it doesn't have a more decent camera, but then again, it's not an N-series, and rather cheap.

UKJeeper

As long as its the same 3.2mp sensor they've used in previous phones, and they put on the right software to back it up, the camera will be just fine.

talhamid

@Delta: you are right. I am not saying that it won't be GOOD for biz users, I am just saying they might not get over their prejudice over carrying an XpressMusic branded device into their fancy offices. Thats where E75 comes in I guess. Clever move by Nokia IMHO.

Unregistered

Hello, why does Nokia use S60 3rd Edition instead of 5h Edition? I know 5th Edition is for touchscreen, but didn't Nokia say, that 5th Edition can also drive non-touch-phones? So they have to maintain only one Operationsystem. AFAIK 5th Edition can be used for this phones because its UI is scalable and have all softkey-buttons and so on.

Is "say und play" also aviable on Nokia N85?

Thanks, best regard, sorry for my poor english.

Unregistered

They must have increased the screen to 3.2" like 5800 which I would prefer....

Unregistered

Would be nice to get this particular home screen with a mixture of contacts bar and calendar/shortcuts in a future firmware update for the 5800XM! Can't be that hard to implement surely?!

Tzer2

This is a pretty experimental device really, I don't think there has ever been a QWERTY phone aimed at music-lovers.

Quote:

Nice phone, but if they were giving it a QWERTY, they should have toned the looks down a bit. Some business users might prefer it over the E75, but will be scared by all the red accents.

I don't think this is aimed at business users at all, IMHO it's meant more for ordinary users who want to do a lot of texting, e-mailing and other kinds of messaging.

Tzer2

Incidentally, tucked away on the same press release is a non-Symbian phone with an interesting feature:

Nokia 5030

Nokia 5030 is the company's first phone with an internal FM radio antenna, which eliminates the need for a headset or external speakers.

Finally a phone radio which doesn't need an external aerial!

Unregistered

Nice,nice,nice..wifi n gps! 100mb internal memory, 128mb ram! That qwerty's gonna great for ngage.

Tzer2

Quote:

Hello, why does Nokia use S60 3rd Edition instead of 5h Edition? I know 5th Edition is for touchscreen, but didn't Nokia say, that 5th Edition can also drive non-touch-phones?

Probably because 5th Edition wasn't ready when they began developing this phone.

The changeover from 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition was gradual too, they released a few more 2nd Edition devices after first the 3rd Edition devices (for example the N72 was 2nd Edition).

Unregistered

LED FLASH! HURRAH!

/sarcasm

viipottaja

Unregistered, you expected a Xenon in an XpressMusic device? REALLY?!

MaterAos

Why would I buy E75 over this?

METAL!!!

Did Nokia learn anything from plastic double sliders (written on my N96)?
Well obviously no because then they'd know that plastic sliders get weak.

Unregistered

Want to know 1 think
can we view system files in s60v3 by any means as its possible in s60v2

viipottaja

MaterAos, I gather the slider mechanism itself may or may not be plastic. But hey, they have to cut the cost somewhere to take the price point down and still maintain strong margins. And also to differentiate the product lines a bit more clearly.

Trust me, they DO know plastic sliders get weak.

Unregistered

Is it just me or does it seem like Nokia intentinally keeps certain features off certain devices just to add selling points to other devices?

For example, why don't they push out the "Say and Play" feature to all S60 phones via firmware upgrades? What's the point of restricting it to select (read esoteric) models while the rest of us, sporting the higher priced devices such as N95, N85 etc. are stuck with the useless rudimentary "launch application" voice commands? (yay, I can launch my music player with a voice command while driving. Now what?)

Williamoni

'.... Ovi Contacts, Nokia's combined presence and instant massaging application'

Did not realise the full capabilities of Ovi Contacts until now. Would definitely benefit from the instant massaging it offers.

Tzer2

Quote:

For example, why don't they push out the "Say and Play" feature to all S60 phones via firmware upgrades?

Because "say and play" is a load of rubbish which doesn't work properly. :-)

Before I get accused of being a troll/hater/unreasonable pessimist, I should point out I did AAS's review of the first "say and play" device, the 5320. Generally it was a good phone for the price, but say-and-play was not one of its best points.

It works sometimes, perhaps most of the time depending on your voice, but not enough of the time to depend on it. Essentially it's just a marketing novelty that very few people would actually use in the long term. My current phone doesn't have "say and play", but I don't miss the feature one bit.

To be honest I don't think any voice control systems work reliably enough to be used in mainstream products as anything but a novelty. That's just my opinion of course, I know some are a lot more enthusiastic about it. :)

Unregistered

Why, oh why, oh why does the term 'business user' keep coming up! It's a weird term that actually means nothing. Even Nokia have finally realised that this is a misnomer. Mobile phones are taken to work or taken home afterwards depending on how you look at it.

Music, text or email, photo - seem like better ways to differentiate between phones or simply by cost.

I still think they should just concentrate on making a decent phone at a given price point. I would like to listen to music, watch videos, play games, find my way around, have wifi, take photos (with a proper flash), browse the internet etc all with my phone. Just because I might enjoy taking photos more doesn't mean the other things are not important to me.

The 5730 might be ok but is probably too much of a compromise to be really good.

Unregistered

Too much of a compromise? Oh come on..look at the price point man. Its as good as the N82 with the exception of the camera n the lack of graphics accelerator. We're not talking about what features you or I need to have in a phone for it to be good enough. What you want will probably be catered with by the N86 or the N97. We're talking about the 5730 and what it can do! PRICE PRICE PRICE!!! Thats what matters! Look at the features, then look at the price. Look at what it has intstead of what it doesnt, coz of the price limitations! Its pretty damn fu****g good for its intended market!

N/A

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tzer2

This is a pretty experimental device really, I don't think there has ever been a QWERTY phone aimed at music-lovers.

Actually, there has been such a thing. The 5510: http://www.nokia.com/EUROPE_NOKIA_CO...ish/index.html It was released some 6-7 years ago.

hindermath

Hi folks! Thats the phone I have search for a long time. Now it comes to market. It's a music specialist, the N-Gage plattform is included and Nokia Maps. And it has a quwerty keybord, if I would write longer Mails or SMS - with T9 it's not really fun :-D. And it has ca. 100 MB phone memory free and it can drive 16GB microSD cards.
This phone replaces my then 2 year old N81 8GB. It was a very good device, but the low phone memory was a bad idea from Nokia

Unregistered

can nokia 5730 write alphabat with qwerty key by just slide open the qwerty keyboard? i have try, it can write numbers but not alphabat.

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