Nokia 5730 XpressMusic
Nokia's 5730 XpressMusic is like the mullet of mobile phones; business up front, party out the back. This mix of business and consumer features will be welcomed by some, but could leave the 5730 in a techno-limbo.
Seeing pictures of the 5730 with its full QWERTY keyboard exposed had us thinking, "Haven't we seen this somewhere before?" Oh yeah, it's the same as the E75 Nokia announced just three weeks ago.
Upside
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. The fact that Nokia has taken its new flagship E-Series phone, painted it with glowing blue and glossy black, and paraded it as a "new device" offers a range of people the opportunity to own a smartphone fitting out with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and push email, while maintaining their street cred.
This range of smartphone tools also includes the latest version of Nokia Maps, plus the 5730 will feature the Ovi suite of online services, notably the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage gaming. The home screen design has also noticeably changed. It features some elements of the Series 60 design we're accustomed to but also makes use of changes seen in the 5800 XpressMusic, with favourite contacts pictured for quick access.
The XpressMusic definitely supersedes the E75 as a music-playing device. Nokia is expected to bundle the phone with an 8GB microSD card, though the phone is capable of using 16GB memory sticks. It also comes with the all-important 3.5mm headphone socket, so your favourite Senheisser's can easily replace the bundled set of 'phones. The 5730 also includes Nokia's "Say and Play" voice-control for the built-in music player — just press the button and say the name of the track or artist to skip to the songs you want to hear.
Downside
With its full set of features the only thing that separates the 5730 from some of the high-end N-Series devices is a top-end camera. The on-board shooter is a 3.2-megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics, but this isn't a patch on the 8-megapixel cameras we're starting to see on the all-in-ones from Nokia and the rest.
The inclusion of smartphone components will also put strain on the battery life and we're not sure the 1000mAh battery in the 5730 will have enough juice to keep the phone powered for days at a time.
Overall
Mixing business functions and a QWERTY keyboard with the features we expect in an XpressMusic handset is interesting in concept, but we're not sure Nokia is onto a winner with this one. People looking for a business phone will likely turn to the E-Series, and those looking for a music phone will, and should, check out Apple's iPhone. Mixing business with pleasure seems sure to leave the 5730 in limbo.