5530 Xpress Music

Nokia 5530 and X3 belong to different target markets, but both are compact and attractive music phones.Many buyers are confused between the two.There are more differences than similarities between Nokia 5530 and X3.
Let’s see how different they are, and which one is more suitable for you.

Nokia X3

Nokia 5530

Looks - Nokia 5530 has a candybar form factor whereas X3 is a slider. X3 looks more attractive than 5530, it is similar in looks to Nokia’s first capacitive touch phone, X6. It also has dedicated music keys on left side. Nokia 5530 is not that bad and is much better in looks than old Nokia 5800 with more compact body and metallic lining along its border.

Size and Weight - Both X3 and 5530 are great phones for fashion enthusiasts, who like to carry slim and light phones.They are almost similar in size, with X3 being a tad thicker due to its slider from factor. Both X3 and 5530 weigh little over 100 grams, which is a respectable weight.

Display - Nokia 5530 has a resistive touchscreen display similar to 5800, whereas X3 is a not touch phone. Nokia 5530 lacks hardware numeric keypad so the display is of bigger size (2.9 inch) and with higher resolution (360×640 pixels). Nokia X3 has 2.2 inch display with screen resolution of 240×320 pixels.Nokia 5530 display supports 16 Million colors whereas X3 boasts up to 256K colors.

Memory - Nokia 5530 has 70 MB internal memory whereas X3 has 46 MB phone memory. They both support micro SD cards up to 16 GB. Nokia 5530 sales package contains a 4 GB card and X3 comes with a 2GB memory card.

Software - Here lies the main difference. Nokia 5530 is a Symbian S60 5th Edition smartphone whereas X3 is a  S40 6th Edition feature phone with limited capabilities in comparison to a smartphone. Being a smartphone 5530 offers multitasking and 3rd party application support.Nokia X3 supports Java applications which are not good as Symbian apps. However, Nokia X3 offers limited multitasking.

Hardware - Being a smartphone 5530 has powerful hardware.It boasts 434 Mhz CPU and 128 MB RAM.The newer S40 phones have 64 MB RAM but it is not revealed. So, X3 may have 64 MB RAM.The latest S40 6th Edition offers limited multitasking so 64 MB RAM may offer little help.

Multimedia - Nokia 5530 and X3 are music phones, so both have standard 3.5 mm audio jack .Nokia X3 also has dedicated music keys on left side. Both have Nokia WH-205 in-ear noise isolationg earphones in sales package.The audio quality through speakers is also great as both X3 and 5530 has stereo speakers. They perform equally good in music department, but in terms of video playback 5530 wins.Nokia X3 has very small low resolution screen, moreover there is no application for X3 which can play popular video formats other than 3GP and MP4.Nokia 5530 can play .avi,.flv and many other popular video formats via Smartmovie player 3rd party application.Its big and high resolution screen offers great video playback in comparison to  X3.

Radio - I’m covering this feature separately because X3 needs a special mention here. Nokia X3 has built in antenna for Stereo FM which let’s you play Radio in loudspeaker mode without earphones.in case of 5530 you have to connect earphone, which acts as antenna to play FM in speaker mode. Both 5530 and X3 offers Stereo FM with RDS.

Connectivity - Nokia X3 and 5530 has GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth v2.1 and Micro USB as common connectivity features. 5530 offers Wifi in addition to all these connectivity options.These days you should have at least one feature out of 3G and Wifi for high speed internet browsing.

Camera - Both X3 and 5530 has 3.2 MP camera but X3 has enhanced fixed focus camera, whereas 5530 camera has autofocus with LED flash. Nokia X3 camera lacks Flash. 5530 also offers higher quality video recording. It  can record video up to  640×480 pixels  resolution at 30 fps. X3 records 176×144 p video at 15 fps.

Additional Features - Nokia 5530 has Accelerometer and Proximity sensor.These features are missing in X3.

Battery - Nokia 5530 has a more powerful 1000 mAh battery whereas X3 has 860 mAh battery. However, due to bigger and higher resolution screen 5530 consumes more battery power. So, Nokia C5 offers more talktime than 5530. Nokia 5530 offers talktime up to 4 hr 54 min and music playback up to 27 hours. C5 offers talktime up to 7 hr 30 min and music playback up to 26 hr.

Price – Nokia 5530 is available in the market from long time so it gets a price benefit over here. But still its costlier than X3. Unlocked Nokia 5530 is available for $189 and unlocked X3 for $139 at Amazon.

Conclusion – Both X3 and 5530 are great music phones. Now its up to you whether you need a touchscreen or slider. I find it difficult to type on touch phones but they offer more screen space, which is better for web browsing or watching videos. 5530 offers more functionality with Symbian S60 5th Edition platform. 5530 also offers Wifi, Accelerometer and better Camera. However, it is priced $50 more. So, if you are on a tight budget go for X3 otherwise 5530 offers more value for money.