Loading ... 
Bargain touchscreens seem to be trendier than winkle pickers and laying into Kerry Katona right now. The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is the latest budget offering to appear on our desks after the neat Samsung Blade and the Poundland–worthy Alcatel OT–708. So can it take top spot when it comes to cheapo, proddable blowers? Read our full Nokia 5530 XpressMusic review and we’ll tell you.
The modus operandi of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is pretty basic. Offer a similar package to the million–selling 5800 XpressMusic, but in a smaller, cheaper package. Does it succeed? Well, yes. This is no top notch smartie, but it does have a very capable 2.9–inch touchscreen, down from 3.2–inches on the 5800. Plus it comes with enough extras to keep every music–mad kid as happy as Peaches Geldof when she sees her mug in a London freesheet.
Fire up the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and you’ll find it works just like the 5800. There are dedicated contacts and media bars for easy access to the stuff you need quickly. Both have been given a tickle since the 5800. The contacts bar lets you shove on 20 of your best pals (and your Ma of course) while the media bar s a breeze to set up and comes fired up with Facebook and web radio already.
The screen on the Nokia XpressMusic 5530 is a treat too. At 640×360 its fine for snacking on music videos and the odd TV show, although that 2.9–inch size does mean it’s a tad too small for taking in an entire movie. It’s bright enough, but does struggle once you take it out in beaming sunshine. Fortunately, we don’t see much of that here in Blighty, so it’s a minor grumble.
Read our Nokia XpressMusic 5800 review now
Camera–wise, the 3.2MP effort on the Nokia XpressMusic 5530 is ample, but with one LED light, it does struggle once you get it out at night. Nokia’s weak point on its cheaper phones has always been the camera. That remains the case here.
Overall though, the Nokia 5530 is a steal. With great specs and decent media features for £129 on pre–pay at the time of writing, you’ll struggle to find a phone better in its class.
[...] in Stuttgart next week. The first phone to get the X series name tag will be the recently outed Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, rebadged and with some new specs to [...]
[...] pitting the new iPod nano against its biggest challengers: the iPhone 3GS, Flip Mino HD and Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. Read on, and see all the footage [...]