Nokia 5310 Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality
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Marianne Schultz Published on September 23, 2008 Comment on this |
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| The audio quality of the Nokia 5310 was just above average in relation to all the phones we've tested in terms of the audio it sends and receives. It won't blow your mind but will do well enough for you to not notice any issues for general everyday use. It does have some trouble with sidetone, transmitting a bit too much of your voice back to you so that you might think you're talking too loudly, causing you to speak more softly than you need to. | |
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General Audio
Cell phones can multi-task so much these days, acting as our calendar-keepers all the way to handheld gaming devices, but they are phones first and foremost and should perform well in this area. We look at audio performance in three areas - the audio you hear while on a call, the audio sent from the phone, and how much of your own voice is piped back to you, called sidetone, which is how you gauge how loudly you're speaking. We do all of this using guidelines defined by international audio experts and testing equipment and software that cell phone manufacturers use themselves. We use a head and torso simulator (HATS) made by Bruel & Kjaer and the SoundCheck software by Listen, Inc. For more information on how we do our audio testing see this article.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (8.09)
This test focuses on the sound received by the phone. Our testing equipment and software evaluates this by transmitting a defined range of sounds on a test call and then analyzing the sound that the phone puts out from its speaker. In the chart, the red lines show the outer limits beyond which a phone's sound receive frequency response should not go beyond, and ideal performance is represented by a smooth curve through the middle of the area defined by the red limit curves. The 5310 performs fairly well here in the lower frequencies, which means that lower voices and sounds will be heard accurately through the 5310. The 5310 has trouble at the higher frequencies, though, hitting the limits in multiple areas - this means that higher voices and sounds may not be transmitted at all at some frequencies, resulting in "choppiness" in the sound you hear. Also, voices and sounds even higher in the frequency range will be transmitted much more loudly than they should be. Overall, the 5310 did score slightly above the average of all the phones we've tested in this area, so it's not terrible.
| Cell Phone | Nokia 5310 | LG Chocolate 3 (on Verizon) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) |
| Score | 8.09 | 7.73 | 8.13 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | Sony Ericsson z750a (on AT&T) | Samsung M520 (on Sprint) | Samsung Beat (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 7.27 | 9.12 | 8.12 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (8.67)
This test focuses on the accuracy of the sound sent by the phone through its microphone. Our testing equipment and software evaluates this by transmitting a known range of sounds through the phone's microphone on a test call, and then analyzing how accurately the sounds are actually transmitted by the phone. As with the sound receive frequency response test, the red lines show the outer limits which should not be surpassed, and ideal performance would be a smooth cover through the middle of these limits. In this test, the 5310 did fairly well, coming close to the limits at a couple of points in the lower frequencies and at the higher end of the frequency range. This means that sound sent by the phone will be fairly accurate though the volume of voices and sounds, particularly in the lower frequencies, will go up and down and may sound a bit odd as a result. This is still a score above the average of all the phones we've tested, so there's not much to worry about with the 5310 in this area.
| Cell Phone | Nokia 5310 |
LG Chocolate 3 (on Verizon) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) |
| Score | 8.67 | 6.74 | 8.34 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | Sony Ericsson z750a (on AT&T) | Samsung M520 (on Sprint) | Samsung Beat (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 8.80 | 8.21 | 7.38 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Handset Side Tone (6.44)
Side tone is the amount of your own voice piped back to you through the phone's speaker so you can judge how loudly you're speaking and adjust accordingly. If a phone's side tone is too low, meaning less of your voice is piped back to you than the ideal level, you'll think you're talking too quietly and may end up speaking louder than you need to as a result. If a phone's side tone is too high, you may think you're talking too loudly and the person you're speaking with may have a hard time hearing you when you try to adjust. Ideal side tone is defined at -18dB relative to your own voice, and the 5310's side tone is -21.56dB, which means that you'll hear less of your voice piped back to you than the ideal level and may think you're talking more quietly than you need to as a result. This is poorer performance than the LG Chocolate 3 and the iPhone 3G, both of which were much closer to the ideal -18dB level.
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