Nokia 5530 XpressMusic touch screen smartphone uses a scrolling 'people carousel' to view up to 20 friends' emails, phone calls, photos and social media updates

That 5800 XpressMusic phone Nokia's so proud of now has a variant: the 5530 XpressMusic. It's one of those 'the same, but different' jobs. Though perhaps a more fitting description would be 'the same, but with some 'good' syphoned off'.

You aren't left with a mere shadow of a phone, but rather one that's cheaper than the 5800 -- which is already free on sub-£20 per month contracts. It's got a 74mm (2.9-inch) touchscreen, a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera, 70MB of internal memory (it comes with a 4GB microSD card for storing music), a 3.5mm headphone socket, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and the usual roster of mid-range Nokia features. It'll also support MP3, AAC and WMA music (including iTunes Plus downloads), as well as basic MPEG-4 video.

Unlike the 5800, the home screen on the 5530 will multitask with contacts at the top, your favourite four apps at the bottom and a music player widget in the centre. The interface on 5800 makes users choose between favourite people and favourite programs, a choice that leads to many excursions to the main menu and mournful soul-searching for owners of the phone who decided a shortcut to Snake was more important than their buddies. Hopefully this firmware enhancement will be rolled out to 5800 XpressMusic handsets as well.

The handset also features a pop-up Media Bar to quickly access music, photos, videos, Internet and on-line sharing applications such as Ovi Share, Flickr and VOX.

Videos from social media sites such as Youtube and Facebook can be viewed on its 2.9-inch widescreen display.

The smartphone has a built-in music player with 27 hours of playback time and a 4GB memory card. Users can buy new music from Nokia Music Store.

Nokia said the 5530 XpressMusic will start shipping in the third quarter and sell for $280 before subsidies and taxes.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Specifications:

- Dimensions: 104 x 49 x 13 mm
- Weight: 107 g
- Display: 2.9 inch widescreen (640 x 360 pixels) with up to 16 million colors
- Camera: 3.2 megapixels with autofocus and LED flash
- Video capture: widescreen 640x 360 px up to 30 frames-per-second
- Memory: Up to 70Mb phone memory with 4GB in-box MicroSD card, supports up to 16GB MicroSD memory
- Connectivity: High speed MicroUSB connector, 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, Bluetooth 2.0
- Data connectivity: GPRS/EDGE, WLAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g)
- Talk time: Up to 4.9 hours
- Standby time: Up to 14 days
- Music playback: Up to 27 hours
- Video playback: Up to 7.3 hours

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Key Features:

- Touch-screen responsiveness gives tactile feedback and the fastest, most intuitive access to all the phone, web and multimedia features crammed inside - including music, video, gaming, social networking and messaging.

- Contacts carousel - one-touch access to 20 favorite contacts, each displaying their most recent emails, calls or social media updates and a thumbnail pic chosen by you.

- Media Bar pops-up to give quick access to instant messaging like Windows Live Messenger, on-board videos or YouTube, access to other sharing sites like Ovi Share, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, VOX - or just to browse the web.

- Music features include a world-class quality music player for excellent audio quality, FM radio, stereo speakers with surround sound, dedicated full touch music keys, 4GB built-in storage expandable to 16GB for up to 12,000 songs with album art.

- Listen to music - plug in the superb Nokia Stereo Headset WH-205 that comes in the box, and features a great tangle-free lead, or plug your choice of headphones into the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, or listen over Bluetooth stereo audio.

- Synchronize and manage music with Nokia Music Store, upload and download tracks via WLAN, Bluetooth or MicroUSB. Manage playlists on the go, or via PC with Nokia Ovi Suite.

- 2.9-inch brilliant widescreen with up 16 million colors brings videos, album art, photos and phone menus vividly to life.

- Accelerometer automatically switches between landscape and portrait format whether you want use the phone, browse the web, watch a video or play games.

- 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus for snapping good quality photos and videos.