Nokia 5320 XpressMusic

Nokia's promising N-Gage service started brightly but has faltered over the past few months. The Finnish manufacturer has been curiously disinclined to preload the gaming client onto all of its phones, and those handsets that do boast the service are usually at the top end of the market, frustratingly out of reach for many mobile gamers.

Thankfully this is all set to change with the launch of the 5320 XpressMusic. Although the name suggests a close synergy with aural entertainment, the phone is ably equipped in other areas, too. For starters it runs the Symbian 9.3 operating system with Series 60 3rd Edition user interface, as well as the latest Feature Pack. This means the phone comes complete with several new graphical flourishes which may not be groundbreaking but certainly make using it a more pleasurable experience. Navigation through each menu is smooth and responsive, largely thanks to 369 MHz ARM 11 CPU and a generous 128MB dollop of on-board RAM.

Right, that's the boring stuff out of the way. Entertainment-wise the 5320's most noteworthy feature is undeniably the aforementioned inclusion of Nokia's excellent N-Gage platform. At the time of writing this handset is currently the cheapest option for those of you wishing to experience Nokia's grand vision of 'Xbox Live for mobiles' as it retails for less than fellow N-Gage enhanced phones like the N81 and N95.

Because the 5320 is running the latest version of the N-Gage client you may see improvements if you've previously experienced it on other Nokia phones; everything moves more efficiently and the minor bugs that were reported when the service launched have been squished. The 5320 also possesses a near-perfect interface for gaming - so long as the title you're playing supports landscape mode. When holding the phone this way, the 'My Own' key (located in the top right-hand corner of the phone, above the screen) becomes your main action key, with one of the music playback keys standing in as button B.

Initially this set-up feels awkward, as you have to keep your thumb low down on the phone and angle your index finger around the top-left corner, in a hook shape. However, within a few moments it feels perfectly natural and seeing as many games only make use of the A button, you needn't worry about contorting your finger too much. In an ideal world we would have had two dedicated gaming buttons on the face of the phone, but this is still a damn sight better than the control configurations offered on a large number of handsets out there.

The review unit we were given came pre-loaded with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Dirk Dagger, as well as a smattering of traditional Java games - all of which are made to look particularly poor when placed alongside the sterling N-Gage efforts. Predictably, the two aforementioned games look amazing, although the diminutive two-inch screen is a slight disappointment; while this is arguably a 'budget' handset in Nokia's grand scheme of things, putting such a small display on any phone these days seems almost unforgivable, no matter what price it retails for. Thankfully the high resolution and respectable quality redress this problem somewhat.

When it comes to playing music, the 5320 is a comprehensive success. Things get off to the perfect start when you realise that the phone comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack as opposed to a proprietary connector port, which is the case with most other mobiles. This naturally means you can use your own set of cans with the 5320. Also included is an in-line remote control (which again has a 3.5mm jack so you can replace the bundled Nokia headphones) that clips onto your jacket, or wherever you wish. After all this commendable attention to detail by Nokia we would have been happy with even the most rudimentary of music players but the bundled software is superb. Granted, it doesn't quite match Sony Ericsson's market-leading Walkman phones but it's damn close.

Elsewhere, the 5320 is adequately equipped for all your data transfer needs, boasting 3.5G HSDPA and EDGE. Obviously the word on everyone's lips at the moment is 'wi-fi', but to be perfectly honest we didn't miss this feature on the 5320 and it's probably a bit rich to expect a reasonably-priced mobile to possess such cutting-edge technology. Besides, when surfing the net and downloading content is this smooth, the omission of wi-fi is irrelevant.

So, for the most part the 5320 is a near-perfect example of how to craft an entry-level phone. Sadly, corners have had to be cut somewhere along the line. The screen is perhaps the biggest disappointment but the weedy two-megapixel camera won't win many fans either - surely most serious mobile users looking to upgrade to this handset will already own a phone that shoots in at least two (if not three) megapixels so Nokia's choice of camera is a puzzling one.

The design of the phone is also open to criticism. The 5320 feels like a conservatively constructed piece of consumer electronics. The design isn't likely to turn heads in the same way that phones like the LG Shine will do; there's virtually no metal on the body at all and the rounded plastic finish paradoxically feels both sturdy and cheap at the same time. The keypad layout is somewhat awkward, with several buttons bunched together far too tightly, which predictably leads to texting errors when the going gets tough. Thankfully the music player controls - located on the left-hand side of the unit - are a joy to use and further cement the 5320's position as a seriously decent device for listing to your tunes on the go.

Nokia's N-Gage service may be looking a bit tame in the face of Apple's iPhone onslaught but if the company can make more affordable phones compatible with it then surely they will be able to claw back a significant share of the market. After all, not everyone has deep enough pockets to afford an iPhone. The 5320 might just be the first of a new wave of reasonably-priced N-Gage devices, and while it's not without its faults it comes highly recommended if you want to sample Nokia's innovative gaming service without having to sell a kidney.