Linksys NAS-200

We’ve reviewed a couple external hard drives here such as the Seagate FreeAgent and the Western Digital My Book but what do you do if you want to share your drive between a number of computers.

When you want to share your drive between multiple computers at once (or even over the internet), the easiest way to do so is to put your drives into a Network Attached Storage device. The Linksys NAS-200 is a great little device that does just the job.

Connecting the Storage System to your network is simple - just plug it directly into an available 10/100 Ethernet port on your router or switch, and the storage is instantly accessible by your whole network.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the NAS-200:

• Street Price: $179.99
• Two drive bays and two USB ports
• Automatic Backup software included
• More USB ports to add additional external drives
• 10/100 Ethernet port
• Ability to share your files on the internet through FTP or HTTP

Things I like
The thing I like most about the NAS-200 is how easy it is to set it up. The install utility works well with all versions of Windows including Windows Vista, sets up the drives, and automatically maps a network drive. After this you can do everything you need either through the software provided or online so you have total control over the device. The final thing I like is the price. Coming in at just under $200 the NAS-200 is one of the cheapest network attached storage systems available. If you’re on a low budget this is definitely for you. Unfortunately, other than the easy setup and the low price there isn’t that I like about the NAS-200.

Things I don’t like
The thing I like the least about the NAS-200 is its transfer speeds, they are absolutely terrible. Moving 5 files for a total of 5.30GB, from the PC to the NAS-200 took just under 40 minutes with an average transfer speed of less than 3.60MB/sec. Since it has a 10/100 interface, the theoretical maximum transfer speed was 12.5MB/sec and I was hoping to get somewhere around 8-10MB/sec on writes and reads. The NAS-200 also uses proprietary software to format the drives so you can’t swap them into a computer without formatting them before hand. This is really annoying and in my opinion rather stupid, but what can you do.

Pros:

• Easy to set up, all web driven menus.
• Two hard drive storage
• Can be set for multiple users.
• Cheapest Network Storage available

Cons:

• Priprietary disk format
• Slow transfer speeds

Final Thoughts
If you’re in dire need of a NAS and you don’t have a lot of money to spend than the Linksys NAS-200 is a good deal for you. If you have a little more money or aren’t in need of a NAS right away I would hold up. The proprietary disk format and the low speeds just don’t make the NAS-200 worth the money. I don’t recommend this product and I think Linksys could have done a lot better.

Western Digital - My Book

For years now people have relied on external hard drives to store personal information, videos and other things. The size of external hard drives have been increasing recently and today we’re going to look at the largest external drive around.

Western Digital’s My Book is a sleek 1 TeraByte (1000 GB’s) external hard drive. Its curves seem a bit softer and there is a blue activity light. The old model had two circles: one for activity, and one circle that filled up as the drive was loaded with files. This new version has just a single LED strip that bounces back and forth during activity and then lights up as you fill the drive up.

Here are a few of the technical specifications for the WD My Book:

• Street Price: $349.99
• eSATA, Firewire 400, USB 2.0
• Automatic Backup software included
• Small size

It Holds

• Up to 285,000 digital photos
• Up to 250,000 songs (MP3)
• Up to 25,000 songs (uncompressed CD quality)
• Up to 76 hours of Digital Video (DV)
• Up to 400 hours of DVD quality video
• Up to 100 hours of HD video

Things I like
The fact that this drive allows for eSATA, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connections. This means you’ll be able to use the fastest connection possible to move your data. This drive is meant to be a backup drive for your laptop or desktop. WD realized this and included a great set of software tools to do the backup job. This software works flawlessly and is really easy to use. I’ve had backup software where it would take me 30 minutes just to understand what to press but this isn’t the case. I also like the look of the My Book. It is so sleek and just looks really nice. The final thing I like about this hard drive is the fact that it stays cool even during prolonged usage. Normally external hard drives heat up but the My Book keeps cool.

Things I don’t like
The My Book is fairly expensive and there are a number of cheaper 1TB hard drives. Other than its high price there isn’t anything I don’t like about this drive.

Pros:

• Triple interface
• Great software
• Quiet operation

Cons:

• Pricey
• No eSATA cable included

Final Thoughts
If you’re in need of a large backup external hard drive the Western Digital My Book is definitely the hard drive for you. It looks amazing, has a number of different connection possibilities and stays cool even during prolonged use. I highly recommend this drive to any one.

Rating : 4.75/5

Dell XPS M1730

Dell XPS M1730 is the latest laptop to be released in the XPS series and surely is one hell of a laptop! Equipped with a huge 17″ display and upto 8800GTX graphics card, this one can surely give the gaming desktops a run for their money. The XPS M1730 offers the latest upgrades on offer for the processor to the hard disk. But you surely need to burn a big hole in your pocket to own this monster!

Dell XPS M1730 specifications :

• Dimensions : 16″ x 11.9″ x 2″
• Processor : Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.8 GHz
• Display : 17″ TFT display with 1920 x 1200 resolution
• Hard Drive 1: 400GB SATA2 7200 rpm
• Hard Drive 2: 200GB SATA2 7200 rpm
• Graphics : Nvidia GeForce 8700MGT TurboCache 512MB
• RAM : 4GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz
• Optical Drive : DVD±RW Integrated
• 2 Megapixel webcam
• 9-cell Lithium ion battery
• 3 years warranty

The Dell XPS M1730 is a revolutionary laptop as it brings together all the latest technology available for laptops and putting all the power under one hood. The case of the M1730 has been redesigned which brings back the blinking LEDs beneath the speakers. Dell seems to have used Alineware expertise in this one to make this a delight for gamers.

The case of the laptop has been made of glossy black plastic. The lid of the laptop features a glowing Dell logo as well as a LED lit ridge quite similar to the one found on Alienware laptops. Dell has also included a 10-key numeric keypad which is absent of notebook keyboard. You can also find the Logitech GamePanel LCD which is a great addition for gamers. What makes it unique is that you can choose from 16 colors and four effects to backlit the speaker vents and touchpad.

The 17″ widescreen is a pleasure to work with. It supports 1920 x 1200 resolution which is good enough to play full 1080p HD movies. The sharpness,contrast and color depth are just brilliant as expected. Movies and images turn out wonderful and you couldn’t have asked for more. Some of the standard equipments include a 2.0 megapixel camera with dual microphones. It also has media keys at the front edge so as to be accessible even when the lid is closed.

XPS M1730 gives you the option to choose 8800GTX graphics card and also Blu-ray drive which are state-of-the-art components that you will find today for a laptop. It also includes a Ageia PhysX processor, if you were thinking something was missing! With 4GB of RAM you will never notice any lag whatsoever even when running the most demanding applications.

The performance of the laptop is incredible to say the least. The laptop managed to pull of amazing frame rates in various games and also give competition to some Alienware counterparts. The battery inspite of being a 9-cell one managed to last only an hour and a half on media playback.

Pros :

• Tremendous configuration options
• Blu-ray support (optional)
• Excellent 17″ screen
• Excellent performance
• Dual hard disks
• Numeric keypad
• Brilliant lighting provided

Cons :

• Hugely expensive
• Low battery life

Final Thoughts

The Dell XPS M1730 laptop has all the ingredients of being a perfect laptop apart from its price tag! Right from the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor to Blu-ray drive, it can handle them all. There isn’t much negative about it apart from few expected things such as being bulky and huge and having low battery life. So if you have won a lottery or are crazy about gaming on the move then this is the perfect choice for you!

My Rating : 4/5

Fantom Drives 1TB

People expect a lot from their computers. They expect them to be quick, efficient and store a lot of data. Unfortunately most computer cases can only hold a limited number of things before they become too cramped. If you’re into photography or video editing you want your computer to be very quick and store a lot of data and this just isn’t always possible.

The Fantom Drives 1TB external hard drive will allow you to keep all of the extra things that you can’t fit onto your computer. The FD 1TB external has a very sleek and professional design to it; just looking at it makes me want to buy one. Under the nice case is a fairly fast hard drive that will store your information at a rate of 75mb/s.

Technical specifications for the FD 1TB external hard drive:

• Street price: $339.95
• Firewire 800/400, USB 2.0
• Data Buffer Cache : 32MB minimum
• Access Time : 8.9 ms
• Connectors : 2x FireWire 800, 1x FireWire 400, 1 x USB 2.0
• OS Support : Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Mac OS X v10.2 & greater

Things I like
1Terabyte (1,000 Gigabytes) stores a lot of information. On this external hard drive you could store up to 400 two-hour DVD-quality movies, or 880 days of around-the-clock MP3 audio, or 370,500 vivid digital photos. Unless you’re storing raw video footage it’ll be very hard to fill this thing up.

A great thing about the Fantom Drive is that you don’t need to install anything to get it to work. A lot of external hard drives require you to put some sort of software on your system. With this external hard drive all you have to do is plug it in and start using it, it really couldn’t be simpler.

Things I don’t like
The thing I don’t like about this product is that it uses two drives. I know that may seem a little pick but if one of the drives fails you’re in a lot of trouble. Because Fantom uses their own unique algorithm to store the information between two disk if one of them goes you might not be able to access whatever you put onto the disk. This shouldn’t be a problem because hard drives now a days are lasting a lot longer than they used to but it still scares me.

This external gives you a lot of space but it comes at a premium. If you’re willing to pay over $300 for this external hard drive than its a great buy.

Pros:

• Very nice design.
• Large capacity.
• Fast transfer rate.
• Don’t need to install anything.

Cons:

• Costly.
• Two separate drives.

Final Thoughts
The Fantom Drives 1 Terabyte external hard drive is a sizable investment. While it does cost over $300 it does store a lot of information. I personally wouldn’t want to trust all of my information to one external but if you don’t have a lot of space than this drive is for you. If you don’t have a lot of money you could pick up two 500GB external hard drives for cheaper.

Lacie Rugged All-Terrain-120GB

Hard drive is a fragile component and hence is not preferred over flash drives by some people.Lacie has come to the rescue with a rugged all-terrain external hard drive which can stand shocks and hence makes a good companion without you having to worry about its handling.The drive supports triple interface too.

First some of its specifications:

• Dimensions: 3.5″ x 5.7″ x 1″
• Interface: USB 2.0/Firewire 400/Firewire 800
• Spindle speed: 5400 rpm
• Transfer rate: 800 mbps
• Buffer size: 8 MB
• OS compatibility : OS X , Windows , Linux
• Warranty: 3 Years

The drive has a layer of orange color rubber covering on it which gives it extra protection.The drive covering has been made from scratch proof aluminum.The design on the drive is simple yet elegant.Lacie claims that the drive will not sustain any damage if it falls from a height less than 35 inches which comes out approximately to about 3 feet which is roughly the height of a table.The drive comes in two versions.One which has only USB 2.0 interface and other which has additonal triple interface along with Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 interfaces.

Triple interface is handy if you have a firewire port on your PC and it can help you extract the maximum out of the hard disk.The drive is USB powered and does not need any AC adapter to go about doing its task.Also if the drive is not able to draw enough power from one USB port you can connect another cable to the power port provided on the hard drive.This is a boon for old PC users which have limited USB power.

The performance is very good and among some of the best in its category.The drive managed to give an average speed on 16 MB/second while writing data on the disk using the firewire 400 interface.The drive’s write speed managed to climb to 20MB/second when tested using the Firewire 800 interface, an improvement of a neat 25 per cent! The read tests slated the read speeds at 19MB/second and 22MB/second using Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 interfaces respectively. Hence Lacie hard drive managed to pass the tests with flying colors.

Pros:

• Ruggedly built
• Shock proof
• Slim
• Triple interface
• Good performance

Cons:

• Expensive

Final Thoughts

The Lacie rugged all-terrain hard drive is perfect at the job that has been assigned to it! The drive is shock-proof,its body is scratch proof which makes sure it will survive rough handling.The drive is slim with its height measuring only an inch.The inclusion of triple interface makes sure that the drive performs fast and it surely does. All in all the Lacie hard drive has just about everything going about it and is a perfect buy if you need a rugged portable hard drive and have the cash to spend.

Apple Time Capsule

Apple Time Capsule is a unique invention from the invention labs of Apple! If you are a regular follower of Steve Job’s keynotes you would already be familiar with it. For others to get things started, this is a hard drive as well as a wireless router clubbed together. This is a great product for users who love to save space and of course Apple followers would have already bought this one! I will be reviewing the 500GB version of the Time Capsule, although there is a 1TB version also.

Apple Time Capsule specifications :

• Dimensions : 7.8″ x 7.8″ x 1.4″
• Storage Capacity : 500GB
• Hard disk type : 3.5″ SATA-300
• Connectivity : Gigabit Ethernet / 802.11a/b/g/n
• Bandwidth: 2.4GHz and 5GHz
• NAT support,DHCP support,RADIUS support
• Interfaces : Ethernet-USB
• OS Compatibility : Mac OSX 10.4 or later, Windows XP SP2,Vista
• Approx. Price : $300

The Time Capsule comes in a very sober and clean design without any added attractions.The router has an inbuilt antenna, so the Time Capsule resembles exactly like a external hard drive. There is only one LED at the front to give you company while working. The back is filled with all the ports ranging from power input to Ethernet ports. Surprisingly, Apple has not included a power button, so that leaves you with your main power supply switch for doing the ON/OFF task!

The Time Capsule combines a Airport Extreme Base Station with a hard drive. A big downside of the hard drive is that backing up and some other features are limited to Mac users which leaves Windows users in the dark. This will bring down its sales with Windows users by a huge margin. The router can connect wirelessly to a Mac or Windows machine. This enables you to wirelessly read/write from the hard drive although speeds will take a hit.

Connecting the Time Capsule to a Windows PC brings up the drive in the network folder. Mac users have many added advantages such as getting to use it for basic storage as well. Leopard users can use the Time Capsule with the Time Machine feature to set up automated backups.Simply put, the Time Capsule is a boon for Mac users while Windows users are offered with limited functionality.

USB port is an ultra-cool feature that lets you plug in any networkable USB device or a series of devices through a hub and share them across the network using the Time Capsule. USB port also accepts printers which is an added advantage, although that can also be done wirelessly if your printer is Wi-Fi capable.

The performance is not a top priority with the Time Capsule but you do get decent performance. You manage to get around 4.5 Mbps/5.1Mbps write/read through Gigabit Ethernet interface. The wireless performance is not impressive at about just 65 Mbps measure at a distance of 15 feet from router.The signal strength drops considerably at larger distances. The hard disk performance is good enough for most of your tasks though.

Pros :

• Neat and clean look
• Upto 1TB hard disk available
• Networking via USB port
• Great for Mac users
• Portable

Cons :

• Average performance
• Limited Windows functionality
• Not advanced storage features

Final Thoughts

The Apple Time Capsule is a great invention in itself and it sets the stone for further such interesting combinations that might crop up in future. Its a good buy for Mac users as they get to exploit the Time Capsule to the maximum. It will not go down too well with Windows users. Performance is a bit of concern especially with networking. If you want to save space, then you won’t get a better product that this!

My Rating : 3.75/5

Asus Lamborghini VX3-A1

Ever wanted to own a Lamborghini? Asus has fulfilled your wish by introducing it for just $3000 odd dollars! Jokes apart, Lamborghini is the latest invention the Asus’ labs. The laptop has been designed specially to look similar to the famous sports car. The laptop comes in both yellow and black colors.

Asus Lamborghini VX3-A1 specifications :

• Dimensions : 12″ x 8.7″ x 1.2″
• Processor : 2.5 GHz Intel Core2 Duo
• Display : 12.1″ TFT with 1280 x 800 resolution
• RAM : 4GB DDR II SDRAM 667 MHz
• Hard Disk : 320GB SATA-150 5400 rpm
• Optical Storage : DVD Writer
• Graphics : Nvidia GeForce 9300M G 256MB
• Webcam : 0.3 Megapixel
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
• Approx : $3100

The laptop has excellent build quality and is mostly targeted towards auto enthusiasts who associate themselves strongly with the Lamborghini brand name. Asus has made sure that the laptop does give you the feel of a Lamborghini by taking great deal of pain in its detailing.

The yellow color variant has a glossy yellow back lid with a Lamborghini badge on it. The wrist pad has been made of leather with a stitched border which gives a nice look. The keyboard features large keys which are snugly fitted and it feels great while typing on the keyboard. Being an ultra-portable laptop, it misses out on dedicated media keys and volume control keys.

When started up, the laptop flashes the Lamborghini logo and plays the sound of a Lamborghini engine revving-up. The display is a glossy 12.1″ TFT screen with a display resolution of 1280 x 800. The screen is not quite anti-reflective though and using it in sunlight will be a tough task.

The configuration of the laptop is quite good but certainly not as good as you would expect in a $3000 laptop. The 4GB RAM and the 2.5 GHz processor will do suffice to all the tasks you want to perform on it. The Nvidia GeForce 9300M will take care for your gaming needs. The graphics card is powerful enough to run most games at medium settings.

The battery life on the laptop is highly disappointing. It can handle just over an hour of DVD playback. Although doing casual routine work on the laptop is not so taxing on the battery and it can last upto 2 hours.

Pros :

• Excellent build quality
• Leather wrist pad
• Good configuration
• Nice graphics card

Cons :

• Highly Expensive
• Not great performance for the configuration
• Poor battery

Final Thoughts

The Asus Lamborghini VX3-A1 laptop is not a value for money laptop but more of a show-off for people who are ready to splurge money. It has a solid build quality and good performance but the price tag is exorbitant. If you are a huge Lamborghini fan or have just won a lottery, go buy this immediately!

My Rating : 2.5/5

HP Pavilion tx2000z

Tablet PCs have hit the scene lately with a bang and most of the credit goes to HP for bringing in new innovations regularly. HP Pavilion tx2000z is the successor to HP Pavilion tx1000. Although it is quite similar to its predecessor but there have been subtle changes made by HP which makes it much better. And the icing in the cake being the same base price as we had on tx1000.

HP Pavilion tx2000z specifications :

• Dimensions : 12″ x 8.8″ x 1.5″
• Processor : AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 2.1 GHz
• Display : 12.1″ TFT with 1280 x 800 resolution
• RAM : 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
• Hard Disk : 160GB SATA-I 5400rpm
• Optical drive : DVD±RW/DVD-RAM
• Graphics : Nvidia GeForce 6150
• Altec Lansing speakers
• Dual headphone jacks
• 6-cell Lithium ion battery
• Approx. Price : $1300

The first thing you notice about HP Pavilion Tablet PCs is their rotating screen. They swivels around the centre and it can be folded over the keyboard. HP has taken good measures to ensure that the hinge feels sturdy and solid and also does not make any creaky sounds.

The big improvement in the tx2000z is the introduction of an active stylus instead of a dummy pen. That simply means that the touch screen coordinates much better with the stylus and works with it for better and more accurate input. This has led to better handwriting recognition. You can use the stylus as a pencil with one end acting as the pencil tip, letting you draw stuff while the other end as a eraser.

The keyboard is not affected by the small size of the laptop and has all the keys of normal size. Also HP has its media keys at the side of the lid making them accessible even when laptop is in tablet mode. The touchpad has good sensitivity and also can be disabled via a button so as to not interfere when typing.

The display has a resolution of 1280 x 800 with a screen size of 12.1″. As with other HP Pavilion notebooks, this one also features a glossy display which is great for watching movies. The processor is an AMD Turion which is not quite popular among laptop manufacturers but does a good job and helps reduce the overall cost of the laptop.

The battery lasted close to 3 hours while watching a DVD-quality movie which is quite impressive. You also get extras such as webcam and fingerprint reader which are always handy. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are present as expected. And the standard HP remote control is also an added bonus with the tablet.

Pros:

• Active stylus
• Good display
• Great battery life
• Remote control
• Media control buttons
• Good pricing

Cons:

• No Firewire support
• Bit bulky
• Limited configuration options

Final Thoughts

The HP Pavilion tx2000z is a great tablet PC and has hardly any significant flaws. You can live without a firewire port and also a bit of weight. The active stylus takes the tablet experience to a new level. Overall it is a very good buy if you are looking for a tablet PC.

My Rating : 4/5

Seagate FreeAgent Pro

Finding a reliable hard drive for taking backups is not an easy job.Most of the drives are plagued by reliability issues and some have low performance.Seagate FreeAgent series has drives to suit everyone’s need.Seagate FreeAgent Pro is a 3.5″ external drives.I am reviewing the 500GB model of it.

Here are its specifications:

• Dimensions : 1.4″ x 6.3″ x 7.5″
• Form factor : 3.5″
• Interface: FireWire/Hi-Speed USB/eSATA
• Spindle Speed: 7200 rpm
• AC powered

Seagate FreeAgent Pro features almost all the modern connection interfaces that you likely to encounter.The provision of eSATA interface makes the drive future proof and makes sure maximum juice is extracted out of the 7200 rpm drives that is hidden behind the enclosure.

The drive is enclosed within an black case with is slick and has a smooth surface.The drive cannot be used as a portable drive as it weighs a heavy 2 pounds.The drive is powered on a touch sensitive button.The base of the drive can be removed as different types of connection interfaces are available on the two bases provided by Seagate.Its good that Seagate has included a full manual rather than just providing one on the drive.

The FreeAgent and Memeo Backup software are the ones that come bundled with the drive with their setups on the hard drive itself.The Memeo backup software as the name suggests is used to take backups and can be configured to manage multiple backup tasks.The backup can also be stored on Seagate’s Memeo Internet Drive which is basically storage space on Seagate managed servers.You get a cool 500MB trial space for 6 months free with the drive.The monthly and yearly subscription charges are costly though.The lights on the drive,sleep interval times,diagnostics and other stuff can be managed from the FreeAgent Tools software.

Coming to the performance of this drive, the driveg fares rather good in assorted files tests with a write speed of 18 MBps and a read speed of around 20 MBps. The continous write speed test gave an impressive 25MBps as the write speed.This puts the drive in the league of high performing drives.If you have an eSATA compatible PC you can even futher stretch the speeds.

Pros:

• Sleek
• Good software bundle
• Fast transfer speeds
• 5 year warranty

Cons:

• Bundled software not Mac compatible
• Only trial space on Internet Drive included

Final Thoughts

The Seagate FreeAgent Pro is a no nonsense drive that does the job perfectly.Seagate has packaged a good software bundled which further enhances the capabilities of the drive.Fast transfer speeds add to the high capacity that this drive supports.I would highly recommend getting this drive if you want to take large backups without spending too much time on them.This drive is a best bang for its current price of around 225$.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

Slim is in! That has been the motto nokia has been following for its XpressMusic series. The cell phones released under this series are extremely thin and at the same time deliver great performance at a low price. Nokia 5310 is on the low priced models in this series and is complete value for money.

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic specifications :

• Dimensions : 103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 mm
• Weight : 71g
• Display : 31.5 x 41.5 mm TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• GPRS,EDGE,HSCSD
• Bluetooth, microUSB
• 2 MP Camera with
• Stereo FM with RDS
• 3.5 mm AV jack
• Approx. price : $270

At just 9.9mm in thickness it is one of the slimmest phones you will come across. It has almost all the features that one generally needs except that it is not 3G compatible. And it has been labelled XpressMusic which gives you an idea about its music playback capabilities.

The phone comes bundled with a 2G micro-SD card.The bundled package is pretty much the usual but Nokia has been kind enough to provide a microUSB cables for data transfers which are not easy to find.

The dimensions other than the thickness are also compact and by weighing just 71g it ensures that you don’t feel it in your pocket. The phone has been launched in two variations : Blue and Red. Being a music phone, it has dedicated music keys which have been placed at the left corner of the display. The D-pad easy to use, the keypad is also quite convenient to use as it has large keys. The volume rocker finds it place to the right panel of the phone.

Some of the drawbacks of this design are that the display tends to get dirty due to close placement of music keys. Also the memory slot is beneath the battery which makes hot-swapping of the card impossible.

The display is quite of a gem but the small size restricts its capabilities. At 16M colors and a QVGA resolution the display produces great picture clarity. Also it works well under sunlight.

Coming to the music playback of the phone. The dedicated keys help a great deal and are very handy to use. The music player is an upgraded version of the ones you would find in older phones from Nokia. A lot of formats like MP3,AAC,WMA,MIDI etc are supported. Sorting the tracks is same as before. A2DP profile as expected is supported by the phone. What has changed is that, now you can apply themes to customise the look of the player. You get 8 preset equalisers to choose from with custom ones always at your disposal.The audio quality is exceptionally good. The loudspeaker is loud and clear.

The camera does not feature a flash or autofocus which is disappointing. As the phone is a S40 one, the camera interface is not as intuitive as found on its S60 counterparts. But it does have enough controls to make use of the “limited” camera. The photo quality isn’t good either which was expected. Also another major drawback is that the camera is really slow and takes loads of time to save picture and do other stuff.

Pros :

• Slim and lightweight
• Dedicated music keys
• Great display
• Excellent music playback

Cons :

• Below average and slow camera
• No 3G
• Small display
• Memory card under battery

Final Thoughts

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is an excellent phone for the price tag it carries. Although its camera is below par but there are other good points to boast about this phone such as it excellent music playback capabilities and great display. If you do not care about the camera then go ahead and buy this one.

My Rating : 3.75/5