Xpress your Music, the Smart way

Nokia 5730 XpressMusic
The only slider XpressMusic with full QWERTY keyboard
And probably the only phone with both QWERTY and traditional keypad

Quick Specs:
3.5G/HSPDA
Symbian s60 3rd Edition
ARM 11 369Mhz processor
128MB SDRAM
100MB internal storage
TFT 240x320, 2.4", 16M colours
5-way navigation keys and slide-out QWERTY keyboard
Wifi, A-GPS (original Garmin 1-year subscription)
3.2 mega pixels, Carl Zeiss with autofocus and LED flash
Secondary camera with photo and video functions
3.5mm headphone jack


27th March, 2010
The day I bought the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic
Fortunately the retailer was very kind (and talkative. He went on to complain about his sweaty palms which made his HTC Touch Pro 2 going haywire and the price dropped RM1000 in three months after he bought it) and explained to me almost every details. He believes in honesty when dealing with customers, so he just said everything I needed and wanted to know. He's a good person. The stall is called Connexion if I'm not wrong, situated at Level 2 in Plaza Low Yat, under the mother company called Viewnet Computer Sdn. Bhd.

After a couple of weeks hunting for a suitable phone, from E71 to N97, I found this. Wanted to go for touch-screen, but the retailer said touch-screen is not suitable for typing messages, especially for people like me who prefer messages than calls (cheaper).

First, there was the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

Reason being I don't want to deviate from Sony Ericsson as my last phone was SE W760i. Gotten quite familiar with the GUI of SE phones. Touch-screen and QWERTY keyboard, who doesn't like it? I thought after the release of X2, the X1 price would drop. Yea, it did drop, to RM1200 (-.-"). But according to many reviews and the retailer, X1 is not a good phone. Operating on Windows Mobile 6.1, the X1 has a lot of bugs and problems, and very slow.
Aww... :(

Next was the Nokia E71.

This is the phone my cousin Ah Girl sis recommended me. She knows a friend who is selling phones, so she might be able to get a cheap phone from him. But I was too lazy to wait (waited for 2 weeks without reply from her friend). The retailer also recommended me this when I said I want a QWERTY phone. Feature wise, the E71 is not a bad phone, but I just don't like it's design. It looks so... business-esque. And the screen looks smaller (the retailer proved to me that it's only optical illusion, in fact the screen is almost as large as 5730). It IS a business phone. Features are almost the same as 5730, without XpressMusic.

Then came the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic.

This is the phone which almost completely suits what I need: QWERTY keyboard for fast messaging, A-GPS for lost mice like me, wi-fi for my insatiable internet access, 3.5mm for any earphones (or headphones too), XpressMusic for replacing my Walkman, MSN, Skype, Youtube, Facebook, and a plethora of applications and softwares, 3.5G, camera with flash, and of course, smartphone!

Immediately after that was the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Which is almost similar to the 5730, except without the QWERTY keyboard and it's touch-screen. Not suitable for me, but the touch-screen looks fancy...

At the same time there was Nokia 5530 XpressMusic.

5530 is the cheaper variant of 5800. Both sporting almost the same functions, but 5530 is not 3G compatible. Means no video call for me (although I don't really need it, who knows maybe one day Malaysia will be promoting 3G lines)

So after sniffing and scouting around Plaza Low Yat (twice!), I decided to go with the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic. RM 835 was the cheapest AP set I could get, but I bought for RM 850 because the retailer was very kind to me. Wanted to take the black/red edition, but AP was out of stock, so I took the white/blue one. It does look weird, but then, I realized it's much cooler than the black/red edition! Fortunately it's not entirely white. It comes with some black paint, and chrome rim!

User-friendliness wise, the keypad buttons are a little too small for my average-sized thumb. Sometimes I do accidentally hit the D-pad instead of numbers. QWERTY keyboard is very handy, except the symbols are all jumbled up. Typing a '(' will give you ':', and hitting the '#' will give you '+' instead. Heard the retailer said it's a bug in every Nokia phone with sliding QWERTY. But my friend's N97 is behaving just fine... Hmm~

Anyway, I don't regret getting this wonderful phone. Once again, I want to thank papa for giving me the money to buy this. I'll take good care of it and be sure not to scratch or drop it!

(The writer is still searching for the silicon cover for it at press time)