Nokia 5300 XpressMusic Black Phone (T-Mobile, Phone Only, No Service)

After spending over 5 minutes trying to get the back off (don't know if it was defective or not), I noticed that I had one bar for a signal (where I normally have 3-4). That was the first sign that I was going to have problems. I finally removed back and put battery in. The menu is not user friendly, too much to do to get to one place. I was not able to receive messaging (which I had subscribed to) and upon transerring my card everything just went haywire. After being on the phone waiting for tech support, I was able to finally use the phone. Not happy with reception. The phone is small and lightweight and that's good. I'm going back to my Treo and the 5300 is going back to Tmobile.

I like this phone. It is easy to use and is a good size for me. I like the fact that you can use your own mp3's to use as ring tones instead of having to buy them : )

Battery life is not great but that is a minor draw back. I find myself hanging up on people accidentally sometimes because the slider is sensitive when on my shoulder between my ear.

Overall I think its the best phone I have had to date.

I've had this phone for about a month now. I didn't like the looks of it when I saw it, but then I went into the t-mobile store and tested it out and it's pretty good if you want a music player/cell phone combo.

Music from the speaker is pretty loud. Drains the battery like crazy, but most people would probably use it with headphones anyway. This phone comes with headphones that are decent. You can use your own headphones, as this phone also comes with an adapter, but there is a hiss in the background. It's only noticeable during the quiet parts of songs, so I wouldn't say it's too much of a big deal. Using the headphones it comes with does not make the background hissing sound. This player can play songs randomly, where you're not listening to the same random songs over and over like other music players. Uploading songs is easy, all you have to do is drag and drop. It records your most listened to songs, favorites, etc. I haven't used the play list feature, but it's a nice option to have. It also has an equalizer to improve whatever style of music you listen to (and it does make a difference). Buttons are easily accessable for music playing. A bt hard to press, but that's better than accidentally pushing them in your pocket or something.

As a phone, I'd have to say I have a preference for Samsung over Nokia and maybe that's why I'm not totally in love with this phone. The voice quality is pretty good, BUT it can be a bad thing when you're in a noisy environment (it picks up a lot of background noise). Sometimes the phone gets really static-y or the sound quality does poorly, but that's a less frequent thing. I don't like that there is only one alarm (no multiple alarms like Samsung has), but that's not such a big thing. The speaker phone option is handy, and the buttons on the outside of the phone are great for easy access.

Now for the bad... This phone doesn't feel durable at all. It's made of plastic and the slider slides too easily. Seems like a small amount of pressure on the screen will crack it, so I wouldn't recommend it to those people who don't take care of their phones.

The best thing I can say about this phone is that it comes with a free 1GB of space for your songs, making it better than other mp3 players for the price. It's a good music player, especially for the price, and it's a decent phone. Nothing too fancy here.

Nokia 5300 is my third phone till now, I am not very crazy about phones, and I give more importance to the basic functionality of the phone rather than other features, I never used any phone apart from Nokia phones. In all other phones battery life used to be simply awesome, but for this phone I am really disappointed with the battery life, I need to charge it every other day. Overall this phone is good. no other complains.

Confidently walked intothe store to buy a pre-shopped/selected titanium slider; walked out with this one, which I had never seen before and didn't initially love the looks of.
Why? I know you're thinking. How strange!
Answer: More phone for the money, great reception and xcellent service.

First things first: It's not a sexy slim thing; while it's fashionably small, it is bit chunky and marshmallow white where it's not black. Not fiercely slick at first glance.

But what is it that you most want in your phone?
Looks or function?

This is what I loved immediately: The slider is smoothly satisfying, display is crazy, colorfully nice, the keyboard is well laid out/lit with good feedback, the interface is completely toss-the-manual-in-the-corner, and it takes pix and video with great zoom and the storage is generous - 1 gig transflash pre-installed, thank you very much. (Oh, and you can replace the included stereo headset with a bluetooth one if you like. Or use your own audiophile earbuds with the included jack adaptor. Choices! Ever looked at the proprietary jack at the top of the titanium slider? Ew.) In other words, it's a really friendly phone on many levels. If you've ever used a Razr, you know the other end of the usability scale.

Then someone at the store let me hear the MP3 player through earphones. I heard beautiful jazz.
Crisp. Clear. Sweet. Penetrating bass. Ahh.
That is some -seriously- good sound!
It also sounds pretty darn good through the external speaker.

At home I discovered that, as I'd hoped, loading it was as simple as dragging and dropping your (MP3/WMV/AAC) files. Which is as it should be. Do I need a phone to frustrate me? No.

Now to the phone: Simple to use. Have not dropped a call since I switched to this phone, and have not had calls go straight to voicemail either (grrrr!) So it does what a phone should do, too. Refreshing.

Texting/MMS-ing is a pleasure instead of torture on this phone, and there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many the phone can store. (Whew!) Who knew?

IM'ing is also simple, but do buy the message bundle before you fire that thing up.

Pictures and video (with sound and banging zoom) look fine; the quality is a bit better than most and there are a million effects (that I would never inflict on anyone.)
The phone is customizable to a T, including different MP3 ringers of your choosing for allllll of your friends (and frenimies too. And you do not have to cut the length or bitrate.)

Finally, called customer service with new-customer questions a few times .... never waited more than a few minutes to reach a live person. They were always helpful, and I felt like my business was truly appreciated. This is in sharp contrast to my previous carrier, which sounds like "swindler" to me. Now.

Naturally, nothing is without its issues/limitations and this phone obviously is no different. I would be in remiss if I did not mention the following. If you need a best in show phone, keep moving 'cause this ain't it - it has an idiosyncratic appeal all its own that grows on you. And don't bet the rent on the voice dialing - you'll lose. (But really, who are you calling with that?!)
Note that if you need very loud earpiece/speakerphone volume, this is not your phone. It's adequate; it's just not a bullhorn. And it's likely you'll have to charge this baby every night, depending of course on your use. Screen uses juice.

So that's what I know about the Nokia 5300, a phone I'd never heard of that, lucky me, suits all my needs. Give it a look.
Who knows? It might be for you, too ....






This is basically a beta-phone, not worth anyone's hard-earned cash. Nokia should give these away for free, get customer feedback, then produce something decent.

Encouraged by the positive feedback given by others and Nokia's reputation (I had one of their phones years ago, but switched back and forth between Motorala and Samsung for a while), but forewarned by the cons others noted, I got this one to replace a Motorola Pebl.

It's great because it's a slider phone and feels good in the hand. It's not so great on T-Mobile's network and gets poorer reception than the Pebl. It has annoying quirks that just keep me from exploring it more. It doesn't reset itself (at least, mine doesn't) after I have used submenus, voicemail and the like. So, when you delete a message for example by pressing "7," the "7" stays on your screen no matter how long you don't use the phone afterwards, until you press "Clear" a few times. And when you press "clear" too many times, it starts loading T-zones which is the last thing I want to do after I have exited voice mail.

When you bring your SIM card-loaded contact list over, know that every name entry that is spelled the same (Motorola let you have multiple entries with the same name as long as other info, like a phone or email address, was different), is being randomly deleted from your phone book.

The camera is hard to activate, sometimes I have to press the button four times instead of the usual two. The "off" button is so illogically placed at the top of the phone that I always forget how to turn the darn thing off. I should have returned this phone within the money-back period, but the form and slider factor made me hesitate too long. Fortunately, I didn't spend a lot of money on it.

This phone is really cute. You can customize it out the wazoo. I recorded all of my own ring tones and assigned them to all of my friends so each of them has their own song. I also customized the desktop and all the menu icons. There are web sites online to help you do this. With the SD card there is plenty of memory to store as many ring tones and pictures as you like.

Much of the time I don't even have to open the slider. You can call, read messages, answer the phone, play music, and take pictures without opening the slider. The only time I have to open the keyboard is to type in a message or call someone who's not in my phone book.

One thing that is disappointing is the quality of the construction. Although the buttons feel very nice and the display is bright and crisp, the slider seems a little low-quality-- there's not enough friction, so unless I'm careful the phone will open when I slide it into my pocket. Also, the plastic on the screen is easily scratched... I've only had it a week and it already has a .5" scratch on it.

This phone EATS power. You definitely have to charge it every night, even with a brand new battery. I wish there was an extended life battery available, or a standalone battery charger (so I could always have a battery on standby) but can't seem to find one online. Also, the phone does not charge when it is connected to a USB port... you have to use the AC adapter.

The USB connection is great. Nokia PC Suite is free and when the phone is connected I can drag and drop files just like the phone is a jumpdrive. The ability to edit contacts on your PC is rather limited, though... you can't change caller groups or assign pictures or ring tones from the PC.

My favorite feature is the "my favorites" configuration. I'm a writer... I often have ideas at random times and I need a voice recorder at my fingertips without having to fish through menus. No problem. You can assign your favorite function to a button on the main screen. I have the phone set up for one-touch voice recording. You could do the same with the calendar organizer or any of the other mini apps in the phone.

This phone does NOT have an email client (despite the product description on Amazon) and cannot send SMS email, only regular SMS text messages.


I got this phone becuase I was eligible for an upgrade and was sick and tired of my Razor that I think is entirely over rated. This phone gives me every thing that I can ever need in a phone and more. I can't get over how many features this phone has, I use it for everything.

I recommend this phone to ANYBODY. I absolutely love it. I have had it for three months now and not a problem so far. The music player is great, and I swear...the camera looks ALOT better than 1.3 mega pixel. The handset is wonderful, and so is the headset included with it. If you buy this phone, it WILL last you a long time.

But yeah..so far, no problems whatsoever. I love it. [..]

I am in love...with my phone! I know that sounds absurd, but it's true. Originally, I had suggested a friend to upgrade their handset to getting this one; seeing how I had already done so with the Motorola V3T.

Ironically after being displeased with 2 different Motorola's V3T RAZR handsets (both for having them freeze at startup), I called customer service and told 'em I wanted this handset instead. With a minor contract extension/handset upgrade, I was glad I made the switch to NOKIA. I've only had it for 24 hours and I'm totally satisfied with it. Below is a list of "pro's and con's" for you to consider:

Pros:
- Bright and visible LCD screen.
- MP3-ringtones enabled (make sure to cut your tracks to about 25 seconds if doing so).
- Video ringers.
- Pretty fast charge, even while messing around with it.
- Bluetooth and infrared-enabled making for quick file transfers.
- Dialing keypad is raised for easy input.
- Date can be enabled on screen (which the V3T lacks).
- Comes with "headphone jack adapter" which enables use of any standard headphone that you may have.

Cons:
- Vibrate functionality is disabled with handset charges (by default).
- Power button is somewhat small and difficult to execute.
- FM radio plays with static (this may varies by area).

As you can see, the pro's outweight the con's with this one, so give it at try. Also, if you decide that it's not for you, return it to T-Mobile within 14 business days of your purchase and get a full refund. As for me, I won't returning it because it's definitely a keeper! :)

I purchased this phone to replace my land line and have not been disappointed. I haven't used all the functions yet (downloading music), but haven't had any problems with anything else. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros
1-Colorful/Clear Display
2-Good Volume (ringer volume is loud enough and I can hear callers just fine)
3-Easy Menu Navigation

Cons
1-No shortcut to get to main menu (have to keep pressing "back" button)
2-Battery access (it's really hard to take the casing off to get to the battery and SIM card-could be a good thing though)
3-On/Off Button (it's very small-basically have to use my fingernail)



I was rather startled by the numerous negative user reviews of the 5300 on Amazon and wanted to help even-out the feedback.

While I can't deny some of the accusations (no savable custom song playlist, slight hiss when 3.5mm adapter is used, no custom voice tags when voice dialing) I feel these little issues are far outweighed by the phone's positives: Good reception, great sound/volume, lovely features, nice tactile feel/handling, and an extraordinarily intuitive UI.

I'm really pleased with my 5300 and its little design flourishes continue to impress me. I encourage potential buyers to do more research (the reviews on Cnet, for instance) before they dismiss their consideration of the model. It's nagging issues could likely be fixed with firmware updates (installation of which are made very easy within the phone interface) and really, who expects the in-box headphones to be up to audiophile standards, anyway? Picky listeners like me already have their favorite 2.5mm headsets. Happy shopping!

I just bought this phone not even a week ago and I love the phone's features . . . but when you are making/receiving calls, the volume is horrible. I have a boyfriend that lives in Hawaii and I couldn't hear a thing he was saying because the volume is too low. It wasn't just with him but even with other phone calls. After going to the T-mobile store, and checking out a few other Nokia's, I noticed the volume was the same in those phones as in this one so I'm assuming it's just a Nokia thing.

Also, the slider seems a bit flimsy. I wish they would have made this metal because the plastic comes off rather cheap.

I'm giving it a 3 because the main point of a phone is to make/receive calls and if you can't hear, that's a big problem.

I am not exchanging it for the Samsung T629.

I got a chance to play with one of these last week. The external speaker is very loud, the controls are easy to use and best of all, it comes with a 1GB card. My only gripe is the slide feels a little loose; I felt like I was always going to open it up by mistake. All in all a killer phone and the MP3 capability/software is a lot better than my KRZR.

I purchased this Nokia 5300 Black at the T-Mobile store. It does come with 1 GB memory card and I was able to easily load up 160 songs last night with no problems. Phone comes with USB cable to connect to your computer. I have a Mac so this was easy to do. You will not be able to download songs bought from iTunes but you can load up AAC files and mp3 and mp4. You can hold up to 500 songs if they are all 3.5 minutes long and compressed to 128 kps. My music is usually remixed and/or longer than 3.5 minutes each.

I wasn't able to sync up with Bluetooth to my iBook but I was able to pair with my Motorola T305 that I will be using in my car. Apple has not approved the Nokia 5300 yet to sync. I am sure it is a matter of time since the phone is rather new.

Overall, I love the feel of this phone, has wonderful 2 in screen, color is great, camera is cool, and it is very intuitive to use.

I have been with Samsung over the last three years and I was concerned about going back to a Nokia. However, the speakerphone is absolutely great compared to the Motorola 195 that I originally got but returned.

Once you load up your songs, the speaker is impressive. This morning, I had the phone playing music in one part of the house, and I had to go get something at the other end of the house, and I could still hear the music perfectly.

Calling on the phone was better than expected. I was talking to my friend during busy traffic and lots of people/background noise and I was able to carry on a pleasant conversation with her unlike my Samsung that was difficult to do this with.

The phone is quite sturdy. And I am happy to have a phone that not everyone has - a Motorola Razor. This Nokia 5300 looks a bit chucky compared to that phone but I feel like I have a very unique phone that is more than a phone.

Who needs an iPod mini when you can get this and your phone all in one?

I just ordered the Boxwave Frost Case for this phone. There is very little to chose from at the T-Mobile store as far as accessories and Nokia.com didn't have much either.

*****

The alarm feature to wake up is cool too. You can choose to wake up to your favorite song that you have downloaded and you can program it to slowly increase the volume of the song for your alarm. It also comes with programmable snooze. What a dream!

*****

You can make calls without even having to slide the phone to dial. As long as you have the number you want already stored in your phone book, then all you have to do is look up and press the green button!

*****

When you are playing your music, if an incoming call comes in, it will stop playing the song and then alert you with the normal ring tone that a call is coming in. Once you are done with the phone call, you can resume playing your music.

*****

As I said, this phone is a gem in all areas - speaker, sturdy, colorful, I think it is contemporary and an acquired taste for sure but nonetheless appealing, call quality is great even in loud areas, and lots of little creature comforts.

Definitely consider this phone if you really like to have music and bluetooth and speakerphone. Else, this may not be the phone for you.

I think this is the worst Nokia phone I have ever had. It just doesn't seem like it's Nokia quality to me. I would get the Samsung slider if I could do it all over again. Battery life is subpar, slider seems cheap and breakable, speakerphone is not loud enough. The interface is pretty smooth, but that's about it. If you have to have a simple interface, then this might work, but otherwise I'd get the Samsung.

I got this phone cause I thought it would be a nice little phone. Wrong. Yes it plays songs. Yes it is little. Too little!!!! This phone is not made for someone who has med to large fingers. The voice dialing DOES NOT WORK! It is hard to use. I returned the phone after only 2 DAYS! I got the Samsung T629. TOTALLY better. Does almost everything the Nokia does, but is better, looks better performs much better. If you are a teenager this phone may be good for you. The Samsung even sounds better. Get the Samsung, same price more phone.

I just purchased this phone four days ago and have been impressed with it for the most part. The first thing you'll notice is how crisp and clear the screen is. This is a slider phone, and thankfully you can do most things without sliding the screen to expose the number keys. The only things that I can think of thus far that requires you to expose the keys is to dial a new number that's not in your contacts and to text message.

Next, we go to the features. So we got a 1.3MP camera, camcorder, music player, 1GB microSD card, bluetooth support, and infrared port..and *drumroll please* an FM radio. Now, the FM radio isn't satellite based, so you cannot pick up radio stations from across the U.S., just those stations local to you.

Now I will go into the good and bad things about each feature:

1. Camera - Impressive picture quality. Yes it's only 1.3MP compared to those 8MP digital cameras, but can you show me a camera that does what this phone does? 5/5

2. Camcorder - Not all that impressive. While you are recording, the quality seems perfect. However, once you play it, it turns a bit distorted. Plus, it only allows for 20 seconds of recording time regardless of the size of your microSD card. 3/5

3. Music Player - Impressive. The speaker is of good quality, and very loud. However, I still could not find a way to change the order of the songs without making a playlist. There's play, pause, next song, previous song, fast forward, and rewind features as buttons as shown in the pictures. The buttons must be pressed fairly hard, so your music won't start playing spontaneously in your pocket. Also, I was blown away on how the quality of the music improves once you put on those stock earbuds. 4/5

4. FM Radio - I bet those that have this phone tried to use the radio but stopped short and told you to buy an enhancement. Well, the truth is you don't need to buy anything extra. Just plug in the earbuds that came with the phone, and this will serve as an 'antenna' and will allow you to hear stations. And since you need the earbuds to hear the radio, yes the sound will go to the earbuds. However, there's a 'loudspeaker' option that allows the radio to be played through the external speaker, but you still need to keep the earbuds plugged in, as it serves as the 'antenna'. This means that if you want to hear the radio on your phone, you NEED to have the earbuds with you. You may need to play around with the position of the phone and antenna (or you may have to move) in order to get clear reception. 3/5

Misc. Info:

Only two games to included, and both trials. (Lumines, Texas Hold'em)

You can't transfer games from another phone. You must pay and download them again.

You can't delete the pre-created profiles (those that come with the phone). You can just create your own.

In order to change the phone to vibrate, you must make a vibrating profile. Then to use it, it takes several steps, which is not hard, but inconvenient.

The interface shows the month and date, but not the day of the week.

Only two face templates included with the phone.

That's all for now.

Overall: 4/5

I have had the phone for some days now. It is a good phone overall. However, it seems nokia could have gone the extra mile to make the phone much better. Most people should love it, however some drawbacks might make it terribly frustating to some.

Some pros and cons -

Pros -
1. Good reception/phone quality. Typical of nokia. No problems here
2. Intuitive phone user interface. Again typical Nokia UI. This one has nokia 'S40' interface. Phone is very responsive, and has no sluggishness that was found in some earlier nokia models.
3. Good build quality. Slider is robust and smooth (No loose hinges). Buttons are not as flat as those found on some sliders, thus misdialing should not usually occur. External 'music' buttons can be easily felt by the fingers when phone is inside the pocket, and are hard enough to prevent unintentional pressing.
4. Clear and bright display.
5. Nice assortment of supported bluetooth profiles. Has stereo bluetooth (a2dp).
6. Comes with 1GB card.
7. Music quality is very good (however some noise issues may be experienced - see 'cons')
8. Phone comes with adapter to use regular 3.5mm headphones.
9. External speaker is very loud, and very clear for a phone.

Cons -
1. Music interface is highly frustating. Very difficult to make a custom playlist on the phone. If you want to combine different songs into a playlist (on the phone), the only way I found is to add each of those different songs to 'favorites'. Then open the 'favorites' list and then save as playlist. Even then song order may be lost. Each song from the favorites list then has to be deleted so that a new playlist can be made.

2. Music can be synced on a PC using 'yahoo jukebox' or nokia PC suite software. Yahoo jukebox is a joke, and very confusing to use. 'Nokia PC suite' is a better option, but you may come across occasional bugs in the software. You can also simply drag music into the 'music' folder on the memory card, but you cannot create playlists through the computer that way. Mac users only have this last option to put music on the phone, and so they cannot 'sync' music but just upload it.

3. When the headphone adapter is used (for the standard 3.5 mm jack), there is a slight but definite background noise (a slight hissing) that creeps in. This is not there when the provided earphones are used (which plug in directly into 2.5mm jack). And so though the music playback quality is excellent, the adapter is far from perfect. The provided headphones are functional but stock earbuds. Audiophiles may not like their options in either case. I exchanged the adapter at the store after a few days to see if my adapter was the problem, but the noise still remained. I shall get my phone exchanged to see if only my unit has this problem. Note - inline microphone cannot be used with the 3.5mm adapter.

4. If you are using the phone with the provided headset, and you pull out the headset pin "slowly" (to switch to talking through the phone directly), the call sometimes disconnects. Somehow if you do not pull out the headset jack in a clean swift motion, the pin grazes the inner leads causing the call to disconnect. I realized this problem after my calls disconnected whenever i when tried to pull out the jack using just one hand. I went back to the store and pulled out the headset pin 'slowly' on every phone on display. Sure enough, almost every call disconnected. Even the t-mobile floor rep was surprised to see this, and lodged a trouble case with t-mobile.
If you are careful and take out the pin swiftly, then it never happens.

5. Battery life is very disappointing. The phone has the same battery as in older Nokia phones. However with the large display, bluetooth and music playback, the talktime suffers greatly. Some users might find themselves not using bluetooth for longer periods just to save some battery charge. You cannot afford to forget charging this phone at night.

6. Voice dialing is a joke on this phone. You cannot save your own voice tag. A text to speech algorithm tries to match your voice with the address book entries and fails miserably. It is guaranteed to misdial almost every time.

Other thoughts - Camera is 1.3 MP, and nothing good or bad about it. You can find better and worse cameras on phones.
Mac users can buy isync plugin from [...] for a full featured phonebook and calender sync over bluetooth.

EDIT - My friend bought a 5300 and her phone too has the problem of background hiss through the 3.5mm headphone adapter. So, its there in all phones.