Nokia 5310 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Marianne Schultz Published on September 23, 2008 Comment on this |
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| Starting up the phone to make a call and dialing can go very fast on the Nokia 5310, but it falls down in ring volume with one of the lowest volume levels we've seen. The vibrate function is weak, to boot, so the Nokia 5310 won't do well in environments where loud noises will compete with it for attention. | |
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Dialing Speed (6.80)
It took us an average of 2.94 seconds to dial a number on the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. You can see below that this is faster than average and amongst our comparison phones, only the Samsung m520 came the closest at 3.02 seconds. We were quite happy with the 5310's performance on this test. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Send and End Buttons (3.0)
The send and end buttons on the Nokia 5310 are located to the left and right of the D-Pad just above the keypad. The buttons are amongst the biggest on the phone, which means that they're still smallish compared to many other phones. Still, they're big enough that we don't think that you'll hit surrounding buttons on accident too much. One thing we found odd is that Send and End buttons are the same size as the soft menu that are right above them - usually the soft menu keys are slightly smaller and often have some raised markings to help differentiate between them. Unfortunately, key travel and tactile feedback are both are almost completely absent. We were not very impressed by the send and end buttons on the Nokia 5310.
Send and end buttons
Call Management (6.0)
The Nokia 5310's call log can only be accessed via the menu, unlike most phones, and you can't hit the send button from the home screen as this will call the currently selected myFaves contact instead. In the log you can view all calls, missed, received, and dialed. Unfortunately, once you're in a view you can't quickly switch to another view using tabs as many other phones allow. Instead you'll have to return to the main call log screen and choose the filter you want from there. When looking at the call log you see the date, time, and phone number for each entry. Using the left soft key menu you can save numbers, change them or delete items from your call log. The 5310 also offers data counters and call timers.
Call log view
During a call the right soft key is assigned to the loud speaker while the left soft key opens an Options menu that lets you put the call on hold, mute it, make a new call and conference, record the call or access other phone features like your phonebook. This is a good selection of features during a call and we especially like the ability to record a call as this is something you don't see on all phones. Overall we were pretty happy with the 5310's call management features though we just wish that there was a tabbed interface for filtering your calls.
Startup to Call (5.10)
It took us an average of 19.6 seconds to start the Nokia 5310 and make a call. You can see below that this is pretty speedy, faster than average and amongst our comparison phones, only the Samsung Beat performed better. This means that if your phone is completely off, it won't take you too long to get it going and make a call. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Ring Volume (8.47)
The Nokia 5310's maximum ring volume was only 84.7 decibels in our tests. You can see below that this is significantly below average and quieter than any of our comparison phones. With a maximum ring volume this low, we have to be worried about whether you'll hear the Nokia 5310 ring in a loud setting.
Ringtones (8.0)
We were very happy to see that the Nokia 5310 allows you to use any music or sound file on your device as a ring tone. This includes WMA, AAC, and MP3 files, and recordings you've created on the device. There's no support for editing music files down to be more appropriate for a ringtone, but we'll take what we're getting here.
Non Audio Alerts (5.0)
The Nokia 5310's vibrate alert was not very impressive, not surprising given that it's a very small device. We weren't able to notice the 5310's vibrate alert in our pants pocket, and you can forget about it if it's in a jacket or bag. The on-screen indicator for an incoming call is a flashing screen with information about the call, and if you're looking at the phone when it rings, you'll probably catch this.
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