The 5210 cell phones carry the ruggedness introduced by the 5xxx series of Nokia cell phones to new levels. This is the only phone that has a rubberised protective shell, which to a certain extent makes the phone water and dust resistant.
The 5210 comes in a burnt orange and pastel blue rubber casing, giving the phone its distinct identity and an aggressive character. The keypad layout is good with ample spaces between keys. The only problem with the keys seems to be the power button, which has to be pressed with all your might. The navigational keys also require additional force. The four-way button navigation buttons make menu browsing simpler.
The menu structure is very simple and effective and browsing through it is a breeze as the shortcuts let one jump directly to the required sub-menu by pressing a combination of keys. It sports a high-resolution LCD display, capable of displaying four lines of text, with a pastel orange backlight.
This phone has been available for over a year now, and the ageing is prominent. The 5210 has a 250 capacity address book, and call registration showing the last 20 dialled, 10 received and 10 missed calls. It has support for long messages and supports the SMS chat feature. It comes with an in-built PIM functionality, though the calendar view is restricted to only two weeks at a time. This can be frustrating if you use the calendar frequently.
The phone comes bundled with five games, a ring tone composer, stopwatch, and count down timer, calculator with currency converter, a thermometer and an inbuilt ’IrDA’ port for data transfer. It has a decent standby time of 3 days. As with all Nokia phones, the signal reception is good and voice clarity is excellent.
The only drawbacks are the outdated features and the price. Even after one and half years, the phone still sells at Rs.10, 899. This is expensive, when compared to the features that a phone such as the Sony Ericsson T310 offers for a lower price.