Nokia 5310 Cell Phone Review - Software

The Nokia 5310's software is pretty straightforward to use and get around, though T-Mobile has implemented some carrier-specific tweaks that eliminate shortcuts we'd rather have to get to some applications with fewer key presses. Navigation relies heavily on the D-pad since numbers can't be used to get quickly to menu items. You'll be limited to the software and games that T-Mobile wants to sell you and not much more since even popular apps like the Opera Mini web browser and Google Maps won't run on the Nokia 5310. But you can customize it with themes, wallpapers, ringtones, and more, so the 5310 will satisfy most people looking for an uncomplicated music-focused phone.

OS (4.0)
The 5310 uses Nokia's, formerly Symbian's, Series 40 operating system. This is not a smartphone platform and is used most often in consumer-oriented, multimedia-focused mobile phones. T-Mobile has implemented some carrier-specific features, such as the myFaves links on the home screen, so the 5310 is not running a "vanilla" version of the operating system. We view this as a proprietary OS as a result, and score this accordingly based on our view of its ease of use, stability, and general user-friendliness.

Main menu

Overall, it is fairly easy to navigate, though it does lack some keypad shortcuts we like to see. For instance, many non-smartphones allow you to press a number key to jump to a menu item and select it, but the 5310 does not offer this. If you're in the main menu you scroll around in the main menu using the D-pad, you will see a number show up in the top right of the screen that corresponds to the placement of the menu item that's currently selected, but entering that number doesn't do anything at all. On the LG Chocolate 3, pressing the corresponding number key would open that menu item and was a valuable way to get around quickly.

The locations of some apps are not quite where you expect them to be, either. For example, when looking for the calculator application that we expect most phones to have these days, the main menu has a Fun & Apps option, and opening that reveals the following list: Gallery, Games & Apps, Media, and Organizer.  Since the calculator would be an app, you might go to Games & Apps to find it, but it's not there.  Further hunting reveals it's in the Organizer folder.

Home Screen Score (4.0)
The 5310's home screen is dominated by T-Mobile's myFaves feature that allows you to designate 4 favorite contacts to which you have immediate access to call or message right from the home screen. The left soft menu key then gets you to the main menu, and the right soft menu key takes you to T-Mobile's T-Zones, their portal to browse the web and purchase ringtones, music, and more. At the top of the screen, you see pertinent status information for the network and phone, including signal strength, battery level, profile type (Normal, Silent, etc.), and small icons representing new voicemails, messages, Bluetooth on or of as appropriate. No notification of upcoming calendar events or tasks are shown on the home screen. Overall, it informs you of the standard necessities that are typical of basic cell phones.

Home screen

One thing we don't like is how the myFaves feature takes away 2 potential D-pad shortcuts by default. With the myFaves feature, using the left and right buttons on the D-pad scroll through your designated favorites. The Settings menu will allow you to turn the myFaves feature off, which does turn these D-pad keys into shortcuts to a new SMS/MMS message and the voice recorder application.

Extensibility (0.0)
The Series 40 platform is extensible, but carriers implement their own repositories/stores for users to get new applications. At the time of this review, the T-Zones store accessed from the 5310 displayed a "Coming Soon" message when we accessed the Applications area in the Games & Apps section of the store. There are games you can purchase, and they offer the option to buy a monthly subscription to the games or the full version, like Verizon. We purchased the Moto GP game full version for $6.99, and a monthly subscription would have cost $2.99.

Normally, we'd expected a Series 40 phone to be able to run Java-based applications, but our attempt to download and run some failed, indicating that T-Mobile has disabled this ability, most likely to focus users on purchasing apps through the T-Zones store only.

Customizability (4.0)
The main Settings menu allows you to change a number of things about the look and feel of the phone. There are 3 themes total that change backgrounds and colors throughout the menu system, and you can download more themes as well. You can also change the wallpaper of the home screen, the order of menu items, font sizes and colors, along with ringtones, message alerts, the screen saver, and more. You can also purchase wallpapers and icons from the T-Zones store. There's no shortage of ways to quickly customize the look of the phone's interface to your tastes, and you can do even more with items from the T-Zones store if you're willing to spend the money.

OS Responsiveness (7.0)
The 5310's operating system responds to key presses quickly, with no real delay getting through the menus or in most of the applications. The T-Zones store can be a little slow, but this is largely dependent on the quality of your network connection. This kind of speed in navigating through a phone's interface is typical for non-smartphones that don't have 3rd-party applications or extensions to load.

Browser Features (8.0)
The 5310's browser handles WAP and HTML pages easily, and can also view Javascript and Flash elements. It does not support Java, frames, RSS feeds, or password management. In the Options menu accessed via the left soft key, the Page Options selection offers an Images Mode that instead brings you to each image on a page when you scroll instead, and you can choose to save images to a folder of your choice or send it in a message or via Bluetooth. It's also possible to enable or disable cookies, clear the browser's cache, and turn auto-fill on or off. All in all, the 5310's browser does offer a fair number of features, more so than even the iPhone 3G, though it's not nearly as pretty or easy to use as the iPhone's browser.

Browsing Interface (5.0)
Web pages are more viewable than we expected. Many non-smartphones render pages horrifically such that they are barely recognizable. The 5310 renders pages as they should be seen, for the most part, but it just takes a lot of scrolling around using the D-pad to see the entire page. A *lot* of scrolling. By default, scrolling with the D-pad takes you to each link in a page sequentially.

Browsing a web page

You can also change the font size between 3 levels, save bookmarks and organize them, send web links in a text message. You can view your browsing history, but once you exit the browser, the history is automatically cleared.

Clicking on T-Zones in the Main Menu brings you to some built-in handy shortcuts to go right to your saved bookmarks, the option to enter a web address to go to, the ability to go to the last web address you viewed, and clear the cache.

Browsing the web on a small screen is never a joy, but the 5310 provides a okay browsing experience for such a small device. There are no advanced browsing features like tabbed browsing or the ability to have multiple pages open at once, but it will do just fine for quick browsing on the go.

Browser Access (10.0)
We test how easy it is to access the browser by counting the number of steps it takes to get to a pre-determined website. This goes pretty quickly on the 5310 - from the main menu, the 3rd menu icon in the main menu is labeled T-Zones and clicking on this brings you to a menu where your 3rd option is "Go to Address" for a total of 4 clicks to get to the targeted site.

Gaming (2.33)
The 5310 does come pre-loaded with trial/demo versions of several games: AMF Bowling, Millionaire Music, Surviving High School, and WSOP Pro Challenge Poker. As is typical of trial versions, you have limited time or turns to play before the game stops working and you are prompted to buy the full version. With its small screen, you're not in for games with stunning visuals on the 5310, but you'll still be able to kill time with games easily. Of course, you'll need to purchase some once the trial versions it comes with have expired.

Installed trial and purchased games

We downloaded the full version of MotoGP08 from T-zones for $6.99. Using the keypad or D-pad to control movement is fine, but the small screen is really the biggest negative in terms of playing games on the 5310. T-Mobile does make it easy for you to buy games from their T-Zones store and they offer a decent selection of games, so you'll have many options to play games if you don't mind the prices.

Calculator (10.0)
The 5310 includes a basic calculator in the Organizer section in the Fun & Apps menu. At first glance, it looks like a very basic calculator that will help you calculate tips or the sale price of an item and nothing more, but the Options menu accessed via the left soft menu key offers a scientific calculator and a loan calculator. This is more functionality than we expected in the Nokia 5310. Using any of the calculators is straightforward, and it's clear when you use the D-pad to navigate or select functions, and the numbers on the keypad do exactly what you expect. The 5310 scores well in this area.

Calculator application

Alarm (6.0)
The 5310 includes an Alarm application, also found in the Organizer section in the Fun & Apps menu. While many phones offer the ability to create more than one alarm at a time, the 5310 offers only one alarm. In addition to setting the time for the alarm, it can be repeated on selected days of the week, and the alarm tone can be selected from the built-in FM radio, any sound or song stored on the phone or Micro SD card, or you can choose to buy and download a new tone through T-Zone. You can also set the alarm to snooze for any length of time you'd like up to 59 minutes. What it is missing is the ability to set the alarm for a specific date in the future - you are limited to specifying the day of the week only if you mark it as a repeating alarm.

Creating a new alarm

We do like the level of customizability allowed with the single alarm available on the 5310, though we do wish it could be set for a specific date in the future.

Document Software (0.0)
The 5310 does not come with any document viewing or editing software.

Other Software (0.0)
The 5310 does not come with any additional software that significantly adds to the feature set of the phone.

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