If you are thinking of easing into the whole Qwerty keypad buzz this year and do not fancy the sterile look of business phones, then you may want to consider the slightly more fanciful Nokia 5730 XpressMusic.

Incidentally, it is the first in Nokia’s portfolio of music phones that combines both a traditional alphanumeric keypad and a full Qwerty keypad.

But there’s more bulk to the Nokia 5730 aside from the choice of input functionality and a genuinely decent music player.

The 5730 also packs in a built-in GPS, WiFi, a 3.2-megapixel camera and an obligatory secondary camera for video calls.

Build quality

The Nokia 5730 is overly glossy except for the matte black cover at the back.

The unit for review came with a red band around the edges which added a hint of edginess to the overall aesthetics.

Nokia may have gone slightly overboard with the rather overwhelming number of keys it has placed on the façade of the 5730.

Despite the Finnish-mobile phone maker’s good intentions of bringing greater convenience and quicker access to functions and services, the front of the 5730 seems to be a rather tight squeeze.

There’s the alphanumeric keypad, four-way direction keys, function keys, music playback button and dedicated gaming buttons — all crammed on the front panel.

The pair of gaming buttons positioned just below the ear piece allows the phone to be held like a gaming console while the screen switches to landscape mode.

One thing I noticed however was that the end call button also doubled up as a power off button.

One too many frantic push of this button to exit any application or service quickly could also power off the phone.

That said, kudos to Nokia for keeping the screen at decent resolution within a nice, spacious 2.4in size.

The 240 x 320-pixel resolution meant that text was sharp and easily readable. The colours were also vibrant and pleasant to the eyes.

Slide away

Now since the 5730 introduces the Qwerty keypad concept to a more accessible/popular product segment, this functionality is certainly worth a verdict.

The phone is billed as a side-slider so sliding out the keyboard also rotated the screen to landscape mode.

Being relatively new to this whole Qwerty keypad fad, I was fumbling to move around the keys quickly.

Unlike the keyboard on the Nokia E75, which is slightly raised for a more tactile feel, the keys on the 5730 keyboard were flat and the arrangement, rather cramped.

SLIDE AWAY: The 5730 is billed as a side-slider so sliding out the keyboard also rotates the screen to landscape mode.

This proved challenging as I found myself accidentally hitting the neighbouring keys instead. Getting used to this full keyboard took me some time, which then led me to revert to the good ol’ numeric keypad on the front for on-the-fly messaging.

Over and above the other functionalities, Nokia has positioned the 5730 as a music phone first. As such, the 5730 didn’t disappoint in the audio department.

Sound was crisp and clear and the addition of the equaliser and other sound settings proved the versatility of the phone’s music player capabilities.

Access and usability were simple, straightforward and quick thanks largely to the dedicated music keys and Nokia’s S60 music player.

The onboard speakers are also noteworthy for a device this size, but if you fancy a solo moment, then you can use the 3.5mm connector to use just about any headphones in the market.

The review unit did not come with a ­microSD card so do consider investing in one to compile your playlist if there is none in the retail bundle. The onboard memory is only at 100MB, but the handset can take cards of up to 16GB in size.

One function that I found to be rather gimmicky yet entertaining is the Say and Play application.

This basically allows you to start playing music by saying the artiste’s name or the song title. In fact you can even control the volume setting with your voice. All it takes is just to press and hold down the “*” key.

Other features like WiFi worked superbly and without a hitch. The 3.2-megapixel camera, which also comes with an LED flash, was a slight disappointment considering the stellar line-up of features, but that said, it is still decent to say the least.

Conclusion

The Nokia 5730 doesn’t lack character. In fact, it tries to pack in a whole lot of features into a rather bulky and heavy body — all 135g of it.

With all the functions and applications, the 5730 luckily isn’t too sluggish to make it a case of too much for its own good.

The Qwerty keypad is certainly a welcome addition and quite liberating actually — truly a wonder how far mobile phone design has progressed.

I suppose if you’re a big fan of Twitter or are compelled to provide live updates to your blog while on the move, then this functionality would complete you. It just takes some getting used to.

Nokia’s attempt in combining “typical” executive functionalities into a fun and functional chassis strikes a chord for the crowd who’s gaming to jump on the Qwerty bandwagon.

At RM1,350, this phone is positioned as mid to high price range, but if you’re looking for a music phone with more versatile features, then the Nokia 5730 is worth considering.

Pros: Great music features; Qwerty keypad; nice design.

Cons: Buttons overload; heavy.

5730 XpressMusic Specifications