Nokia 5310 Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Marianne Schultz Published on September 23, 2008 Comment on this |
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| Since it's not a smartphone, the Nokia 5310 does not have the full complement of software and capabilities to keep your personal information in order with a minimum of fuss. You'll have to hunt down the software needed to sync your data with a PC, and Mac users may be out of luck. You'll be able to keep your contacts in order, remind yourself of things to do with text or voice notes, and manage your calendar if it's not a complex one. If you need more than this, the Nokia 5310 may not be for you. | |
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Synchronization (0.0)
The Nokia 5310 can make use of the Nokia PC Suite software that can sync your contacts, calendar, notes, and to-do items with your computer or a remote server. This software is not bundled with the phone, and the manual asks you to go online to find it and more information on how it works - you can find the relevant page on Nokia's site here. This software is for PC's only, and Mac users are referred to Apple's iSync application, although the Nokia 5310 is not listed as compatible with iSync though many other Nokia phones are.
Alerts (4.0)
In the calendar application, you can set alerts for a several different types of events to give you audible and visual reminders. When you create a calendar event, you can choose from creating a Reminder, Meeting, Call, Birthday, or Memo. All events are set to sound an alert, though the default start time of the alert varies by the type of event. For Call and Meeting events, the default alert time is 15 minutes before the start time. For the Reminder event time, the default alert is set at the next hour relative to the time you're creating the event. For the Birthday and Memo event types, the default alert is set to 9:00 am on the selected date. You can change the alert sound in the calendar application Settings, but this is a global settings change that will apply to every alert for every event type. When alerts go off, you have the choice to view the event or to exit. Viewing the event allows you to see the event details and choose to snooze the alert, causing it to go off again in 10 minutes. Choosing to exit turns off the alert completely and returns you to the home screen.
Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The Nokia 5310 does not support synchronization of your information over the air with any services.
Adding Contacts (5.56)
To test in this area, we time how long it takes to add standard contacts, including first and last name and one phone number, to the phone. We could do this in a respectable 17.99 seconds on the Nokia 5310. This is slightly faster than our overall average for all phones, but slower than the Samsung Beat with a time of 16.06 seconds and the iPhone 3G with a time of 16.40 seconds. Entering contacts is somewhat hindered on the Nokia 5310 by the lack of a default keypad shortcut to the new contact entry screen. The closest we can get with a keyboard shortcut with the default settings out of the box is by using the down button on the D-pad to get to contacts list, and then using the left soft key to get to a Options menu where Add New Contact is the second selection. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Looking/Sorting/Search (2.5)
Contacts are listed alphabetically by first name by default, but you can change this to alphabetically by last name in the Phonebook Settings menu. You can search using multi-tap on the keypad, but using the first name only, or by last name only if you've selected this sorting option in the Settings menu. You can also change the Phonebook view beyond the default names-only list to Name and Number or Name and image. If you create groups in the Contacts list, you can search for your contacts by the name of the group - once you enter the group's name, you can scroll through the resulting list using the D-pad or opt to search again using multi-tap.
Fields (3.2)
When you add a contact, you are presented with a limited number of fields to start with: First Name, Last Name, and Phone Number. The left soft key gives you the Options menu where you can choose to Add Detail, which then gives you a list of additional fields that can be added: Number, E-mail address, Video, Tone, Web address, Company, Job Title, Formal Name, Nickname, Street address, Birthday, Note, and Image. There are no fields that can be customized to be whatever you want.
New contact entry
One small annoyance is that if you want to add multiple fields to a contact, you must go back through this menu system each time for each field, since there is no way to select multiple fields to add at once. But we do like the number of additional fields available, which should be sufficient for most people, though probably not so much for business users.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.67)
Numbers 2 through 9 on the keypad can be used for speed dialing, and assigning these numbers to contacts is easy in the Phonebook Settings menu. Once you've assigned speed dial contacts, you simply hold down the selected key for a few seconds until it begins dialing assigned contact. As is typical, the number 1 key is reserved for dialing your voicemail box. You can also dial by voice without needing to add voice tags to each of your contacts, but it's best if you train the system to your voice first since we found that it doesn't work very well until you do this. Fortunately, the first time you activate the voice command feature by holding down the right soft menu key or the volume down button while in stand-by mode, you have the option to do the training right away, defer it to the next time you activate the system, or never be prompted to train it again.
Once trained, the voice command system recognized all of our test contact entries with no problems. Once a command or name is recognized, it is repeated back to you in a computerized voice, and shown on the screen at the top of a list of commands - the other commands on the list are other possibilities for you to choose from in case it misunderstood you. If you do nothing for a few seconds, the system will automatically dial the contact or carry out the command you spoke, allowing true handsfree use.
Adding Calendar Items (5.61)
To see how easy it is to add a calendar entry, we time how long it takes to enter a test appointment for the following day with a 15-minute alert. The 5310 did not score very well in this area since getting to the Calendar takes some time, and the menu system to create calendar entries is a little cumbersome. There is no default shortcut key that will take you to the calendar, so you must go to the main menu, then Fun & Apps, then Organizer, then Calendar.
New event creation
To create a new calendar entry, you must first designate it as a Reminder, Meeting, Call, Birthday, or Memo. Later, when you are setting the time, the default time for a Meeting is set to A.M., so you have an extra step to go to the Options menu to select P.M. if this is appropriate for your event. For Meetings, the default alert time is already 15 minutes before the start time. Our time to enter this simple calendar event took 17.81 seconds on the 5310, slower than the average time of every cell phone we've ever tested, and slower than all of our comparison phones except the Samsung Beat. If you have a busy calendar that you want to keep track of on your phone, the number of steps and time it takes to do this on the 5310 could be annoying for you. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Calendar Views (3.33)
The default view mode for the calendar is the monthly view. You can change this in the Options menu accessible through the left soft key to Week view or Day view. You can also define the start date of the week for the calendar - Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. In the month view, any current-day events are shown at the bottom of the screen in list format, though the titles are a bit hard to read since the start and end times are shown first, leaving little room to show the title text.
Default month view
Viewing event titles is much easier in the single day view since they are shown on a separate line from the start and end times, and a small icon on the left of each item in this view gives you a clue as to what type of event it is - 2 hands shaking for a meeting, a gift box for a birthday, etc.
The week view gives you the most information about your free time since your busy times are clearly shaded in another color. Although there is a To Do application, there is no agenda view in the calendar that shows you both your upcoming events and to do items.
Week view
There is no way to view events by category or group since these can't be specified for events to begin with. Unlike some of our comparison phones, there is no way to search calendar items for specific events - the best you can do is Go To Date in the Options menu if you happen to remember the specific date of an event you want to find. This calendar application is definitely not one for those with busy schedules and a lot to keep track of.
Day view
Fields (6.0)
As mentioned in the Adding Calendar Item section, you must first designate a new calendar item with a specific type before you can enter any details for it, and each type has different fields. For the Reminder event type, you can enter a title, the Date, Repeat (not repeated, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly), turn an Alarm off (the default is on), and set the Alarm Time. For a Meeting, you can type in the Subject, add a Location, specify the Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time, the Repeat schedule, Alarm Type, Alarm Date, and Alarm Time. For a Call, you can specify the name of the person to call, their Number, the Date, Time, Repeat schedule, Alarm Type, and Alarm Time. For a Birthday event, you can enter a Name, Date of Birth, Year of Birth, Alarm Type, Alarm Date, and Alarm Time. For a Memo event, you can enter a Subject, Start Date, End Date, Repeat schedule, Alarm Type, Alarm Date, and Alarm Time.
You cannot add or remove fields from these field sets for each event type. While it's nice to be prompted to enter the "right" information for a certain event type, like the Date of Birth for a Birthday event, being required to select the event type first is an additional step that's not necessary. Having just one form to fill out for every event with the ability to fill in only the fields needed from a larger selection would be less involved and is the way that calendar event entry is handled on most cell phones.
Adding ToDo/Task (7.26)
The tasks application is a little buried in the 5310's menu system and has no keypad shortcut set by default. To get to it, you must go to the main menu, then Fun & Apps, then Organizer, then the 3rd option in the resulting list is To-Do List. Despite this, entering a simple task is fairly fast on the 5310, taking us 13.77 seconds.
New to-do
The actual text entry is not too bad - the 5310 has its predictive text function on by default, unlike the LG Chocolate 3, and does a reasonably good job of guessing the words you want to type, though you still must type out the entire word. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (3.5)
Tasks can be sorted in one of two ways, and you can only toggle between the two with no way to apply them at the same time: Due Date or Priority. Note that the default priority for every new task is Medium, and if you don't change this for each task you enter, sorting by Priority will have no meaning for you. You cannot set a group or category for tasks, so there is no sorting option according to these parameters.
Fields (4.0)
When you create a task, you can enter the Subject, change the default priority from Medium to High or Low, enter a Due Date and time, and turn an Alarm on. The alarm can be Silent or With Tone and a different alarm sound cannot be chosen. There is no way to add notes or other details to tasks beyond these fields or assign groups or categories. This is fairly limited functionality, though it is nice to at least have a tasks application, unlike the iPhone 3G or LG Chocolate 3.
Adding Notes (3.54)
To test how easy it is to enter Notes, we time how long it takes to create a new note with standard content used with every phone we test. Despite being buried in the menu system like the tasks application, the Notes application doesn't take too long to get to and we could enter a new note in 14.13 seconds. This is slightly less than our average for all phones we've tested, though slower than the Sony Ericsson z750a. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Note Interface (5.0)
The Notes interface is pretty basic - in the main view, all notes are shown in a list format with the first 17 or so characters visible, and you cannot search through notes or filter them in any way. Creating a note gives you a blank screen where you can enter up to 3,000 characters. You can choose to insert the time and date or a symbol from the Options menu, but you cannot change the note's format, assign a group or category, change the font, or anything else. One handy feature is that you can choose to mark selected text in a note for deletion or copying into another note or even another application entirely. You can also choose to send a note in a text message, to the Calendar, or via Bluetooth.
Notes main view
Note Formatting (0.0)
When you create a new note you can enter text, of course, and use the Options menu to insert the time and date or a symbol. There is no way to change the format or text of a note or any other media items, such as a voice recording to supplement any text you enter.
Sample note
Voice Memo (7.0)
By default, the right side of the D-pad gets you straight to the Voice Recorder application, and starting to record a voice memo is a single click away from there, so it's quick and easy to get to this feature and use it. Once you've created a voice memo, the Options menu accessed via the left soft key allows you to replay the memo you just recorded or send it via MMS or Bluetooth. The Options menu can also get you to the list of all recordings you have saved, which you can choose to sort by name, date, format, or size, and also set any of the recordings as a ringtone or alert for new messages, alarms, calendar alerts, and more. The 5310 scores well in this area given the flexibility you have to use voice memos as ringtones and alerts and its sorting features.
New voice memo
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