Nokia 5730 XpressMusic review: Full musical keyboard

Games are N-Gaging

Nokia 5730 comes with N-Gage support, dedicated N-Gage (A/B) button and several preloaded games. They are trial versions but there's an activation code provided so you can activate one of those games for free. You can of course download new games but they are trials all the way unless you are willing to pay.

There's a lot of N-Gage games, but they are trial versions

On top of that, there are plenty of third-party games out there, so Nokia 5730 users can easily download both native and Java titles.

Final words

Whether you call it Eseries in baggy jeans and headphones, or XpressMusic on steroids, the 5730 will raise its QWERTY hand. What are you gonna do? Hit the streets in a cheap sporty roadster (5630) or a budget crossover (5730), which rides like dad's luxury sedan (E75)? We guess the carmaker (Nokia) will be happy either way.

Nokia E75

Well, for starters it can't have been too hard to build the 5730 XpressMusic. Just squeeze all the already available technology in an already available design - with a reinforced QWERTY suspension, alright. Well, the QWERTY keyboard makes all the difference between the 5730 and the 5630 XpressMusic. And it may be more than the 5730 is prepared to handle.

The QWERTY enabled XpressMusic handset is a niche version and the niche of all-in-one smart messengers isn't exactly friendly, to say the least. So, if you go around boasting Eseries and Nseries skill, you'd better be ready to take some Eseries and Nseries beating. It's true most of the big fish there are touchscreens and the 5730 XpressMusic is even more painfully out of its league. The good thing is its price is extremely competitive.

Nokia N97 • Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO • Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 • HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1

In fact, the brand new Nokia 5730 XpressMusic costs a good 100 euro less than a year-old WinMo messenger that's even a few things short of a perfect match in terms of specs. Still, it's almost impossible to imagine direct competition between the conservative and mature HTC S740 and the happy-go-lucky 5730 XpressMusic.

HTC S740

Another important thing to note here is that the XpressMusic lineup feels utterly unchallenged. Even the 5630 XpressMusic was too much already for the competing music-centric phones to beat at such a reasonable price. The 5730 goes even further to add GPS and a full QWERTY keyboard to WLAN.

Nokia 5630 XpressMusic

It feels like the 5730 XpressMusic is trespassing into higher Eseries and Nseries grounds, but perhaps Nokia don't mind as long as it doesn't cost a thing to develop. The 5630 XpressMusic is still more important to them we guess in terms of sales. We're sure QWERTY will make music in the right ears but one 5730 to every ten 5630 units sold sounds like a reasonable target to us.