We’ve been saying for a long time that phone’s having been overreaching, trying too hard to cram too many mostly superfluous features into one handset at the expense of quality. Nokia seem to have taken a bold step in the opposite direction recently after announcing details of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, the follow-up to the massively successful 5800. Against what might seem like commonsense, Nokia have stripped out, cut down and otherwise trimmed that success story. But what’s left is all the better for it, as far we’re concerned.
The 5530 XpressMusic, as Nokia have rightly recognised, is primarily a phone. That thing you use to keep in touch with people. Talk to them. Send them messages. That kind of crazy thing. To this fantastical end, they’ve updated the homescreen and contacts bar, adding a cool revolving carousel feature to the latter that give you a spinning wheel of the 20 people you like most in life (or the ones you need to phone in sick to, at least). We only hope other “phone” manufacturers see the light and remember that they too are primarily phone manufacturers too.
Secondly, of course, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is a music playing device. And, well, Nokia didn’t need to do much here. Like its predecessor, this things plays music better than anything else you’ve ever heard (in the portable world, that is). And that includes dedicated music players.
The handset does other things too, but less than it used to. And because of that bold choice, it does the things it still does all the better. Check out this Nokia 5530 review for some info on what else it does, and watch, if you dare, the painfully silly video below.
