GLOBAL - Many of us like listening to music on our mobiles, and it’s no surprise with access to services like Nokia Music Store and the much-loved Comes With Music. But to get the most from your mobile music listening you need the right hardware too. Fortunately, Nokia has you covered with some fantastic entertainment-focused handsets for any budget. We’ve raided the Almanac to bring you our three favourite Nokia music phones. Forget throwaway earphones and frustrating interfaces – these are music thoroughbreds.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

5800 XpressMusic snapshot: 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen / 109g / Symbian S60 5^th Edition / 8GB microSD card included / stereo FM radio / Comes With Music / 35 hours music playback

No Nokia handset has done more to advertise Comes With Music than the 5800. As Nokia’s first ever touchscreen phone it was always going to grab the attention, but tacking on CWM made it a serious multimedia powerhouse.

In the box is an 8GB memory card so you can get cracking on downloading all your favourite tunes straight away, and with features like built-in GPS, Wi-Fi and a 3.2-megapixel camera that shoots video too, this is no one-trick pony.

The 5800 has been widely praised for its audio quality, even when played through the on-board stereo speakers, and it remains one of the best music phones around bar none.

Nokia X6

X6 snapshot: 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen / 122g / Symbian S60 5^th Edition / 32GB onboard storage / stereo FM radio / Comes With Music / 35 hours music playback

The first phone in Nokia’s recently introduced X-Series is a music-lover’s dream from start to finish, and throws in plenty of style for good measure too.

The wow factor comes courtesy of a massive 32GB of on-board storage – so no fiddling about with microscopic memory cards – and a finger-friendly capacitive touchscreen so you don’t have to keep hunting around for that stylus.

Its all-round spec makes the X6 an ideal mobile companion whatever your needs are, but its first love is music. And thanks to great built-in speakers, a top-notch media player with bags of settings and of course the feast of tunes offered up by Comes With Music, it more than delivers.

Nokia 5630 XpressMusic

5630 XpressMusic snapshot: 2.2in TFT / 83g / Symbian S60 3^rd Edition / 4GB microSD card included / stereo FM radio / Comes With Music / 25 hours music playback

All the important audio bits are present and correct, from CWM to some seriously good sound quality and a 4GB memory card to store all your favourite tunes.

You don’t get a touchscreen, but the flipside is a lower profile and a feather-light weight of just 83g. Despite that, the 5630 is still good for a full 25 hours of music playback before you’ll need to plug it in for a recharge.

Music is what it does best, but the 5630’s eco credentials also deserve a mention: intelligent power-saving charging, a carbon footprint calculator and an 80 per cent recyclable body all help the 5630 do its bit for the planet.

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The XpressMusic family has walked a long way – and shed a great deal of weight – since the 5700. The music-centric Finns have always felt at home on Symbian ground though, and the Nokia 5630 is the next step for them and they’re getting smarter and faster. A sharp mind in a fit body, the latest XpressMusic smartphone packs the quickest processor Nokia have offered to date.
XpressMusic is not the Nokia 5630’s only virtue. The subdued exterior reveals little of the talent that lays beneath. Along with the music perks go Wi-Fi, a 3-megapixel snapper, N-Gage support, and S60 FP2 to open the door to a whole world of extra apps.

Of course, it’s not without its flaws but think again before casting the first stone. The 5630 XpressMusic is slim enough – both in girth and price – to dodge its critics.
Key features:

* ARM 11 600 MHz processor
* Quad-band GSM support
* 3G with HSDPA
* 12 mm slim
* 2.2″ 16M-color QVGA display of excellent sunlight legibility
* 3 megapixel camera, enhanced fixed focus and dual LED flash
* VGA video-call camera
* Symbian OS with S60 3.2 UI
* Stereo FM radio with RDS
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with UPnP technology
* Bluetooth (with A2DP) and microUSB port
* microSD card slot (16 GB supported, 4GB included)
* Standard 3.5mm audio jack
* Dedicated music keys
* N-Gage support
* Ovi Contacts integration
* Contacts bar on the homescreen
* N-Series-like gallery
* Carrying pouch supplied
* Text-to-speech Message reader system application

Main disadvantages:

* Cheap plastic build
* microSD card very hard to eject
* Screen is on the small side for comfortable web browsing or video watching and has inaccurate color reproduction
* Camera has no autofocus and tends to oversharpen images
* Video recording quality is poor and the framerate – low

We quite like the nice little twist the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic brings in terms of looks and substance. Behind its youthful and playful disguise, there is indeed a power smartphone (along the lines of Nokia E52) to meet all your media and connectivity needs.

The Nokia 5630 is quite reminiscent of the super slim 5310 XpressMusic. It doesn’t have the flashy aluminum accents but the added power and S60 make it a real workhorse. And having in mind it’s a smartphone – and a powerful one too – it makes the slim waistline even more impressive.

So, now that we’ve got you tuned in to the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic, we guess you might be eager to see it in action. Let’s roll.