Nokia 5510

Before you may listen music with the device you must transfer music to it. You might be thinking "well that is obvious" but many who are just used copy over audio files to device, method needed here might come as surprise. Device only supports AAC files encrypted according Secure music intiative. AAC or MP3 file does not work out of box. For this you will require Nokia utility and seperate USB device driver, built in USB storage mass device driver included in Windows ME/2000/XP wont work with utility. Also you cannot convert AAC format files into player compatible format nor you can change bitrate of mp3 files during conversions so you must downsample songs if you want fit maximum amount. There is notable difference between 64bit mp3 and 64kbit AAC and becuase of the program this advantage may not be utilised by most. It became problem to me since I had ripped all my CD discs into mp3 files, but for this I decided dig two old CD:s from drawer: Fröbelin Palikat 1992 album (grown up and listens some 90s/early 2000s children band...) and Bomfunk MC in Stereo. I copied these using program and got best possible quality.

Phone also supports saving directly from tape recorder using line in, but I was unable test this feature due lack of cable.
 
 
 

Media keys

Music player (grown up and listens some 90s/early 2000s children band...)

Song in the player is switched using arrow keys and music can be paused using options menu. When you recieve call music will automatically pause.
 
 

Phone back. Clearly 3310/3300	If you want music and HF feature...

Biggest oddity is need for two headphone connectors if you want both handsfree and music player to function. If you use your own headphones you cannot use HF feature. This feature is something I am used in newer Nokia cellphones. Feels like device has been designed by multiple different teams who did not talk each other and just did their own things. 

Second big problem is that device requires music to be in the encrypted format before it can be transferred. Usually digital music players and also later Nokias equipped with digital music player you can just copy music into device. This is not directly Nokia fault as MPAA and RIAA back in day (and even today) try to control how user can use media they bought. In my opinion if you bought audio CD or other media format you should have right to do unencrypted personal backup from it and play it on all of your personal devices. Spreading music illegally is prohibited and punishable by law anyway. And even if all media files would be encrypted on honest person drive it would not stop pirates from disabling encryption and spreading file anyway. This starts to go on sidetrack slowly so lets return back to phone before derailment.

Aside from downside device got lot of good things SPECIALLY when think about era when it was launched. For this article I did research on price of similar MP3 player from around 2001 along with similarly equipped mobile phone (3330) and compared it to price of Nokia 5510. I chose 3330 to comparisation because aside from music player it had exactly same features as 5510. Please not this comparisation is based on Finnish market and prices is shown as Finnish Mark (FIM) and euro). Also in Finland carriers did not sell carrier locked in phones at discount before dark ages in 2006. Also links are in finnish.
 

In 2001 at Mäkitorppa (Finnish operator Radiolinja store back in day) Nokia 3330 was 1850 FIM which is 311 euros when using euro-Finnish Mark ratio 5.94. (http://web.archive.org/web/20010511054810/http://www.makitorppa.fi/3330.asp)

Along with this  Hercules CUBE 32mb MP3 with almost same music playback features as 5510 was according SoneraPlaza Edome article 1195 FIM which is around 200 euros when using euro-Finnish Mark ratio 5.94. (http://web.archive.org/web/20010119103000/http://edome.fi.soneraplaza.net/laitteet/muuviihde.html)

This is total 3045 FIM which is around 511 euros. 

Nokia 5510 on the other hand aroundt 2001 was 2650 FIM which is around 445 euros when using euro-Finnish Mark ratio 5.94. (http://web.archive.org/web/20011206172704/http://www.makitorppa.fi:80/5510.asp)

So 5510 was cheaper to buy than buying phone and mp3 player with same features seperately, I am not sure if Nokia targeted that with their pricing. 

I think line-in was excellent idea which I have not seen in any other phone since 5510 and N-Gage. Ability to save music directly from the tape or MiniDisc player back in day would have been handy for me.

In my own tests music playback worked without any problems and device battery lasted 2 days, mostly since I could not resist urge to listen music when was outside. Without music standby time would have likely been 3310/3330 level. Qwerty keyboard makes writing short messages and names easy and would have been in its element at WAP use which I unfortunately could not test since lack of CSD support. Music quality is good and ability use your own headset is bonus. FM radio got some sort problem since only once audio channel works and every frequency just has buzzing. Likely bad solder in the radio circuit. I intend to open and investigate problem when got time and them will review FM playback.

I think Nokia 5510 is great idea with slightly poor execution. One person who worked on certain factory in Finland that manufactured parts for Nokia said that back in Nokia made big order for these phones and it was meant to be new hot thing, but soon after launch Nokia backpedaled and did not want them. Device could have gotten more popularity if design would have been worked bit more and it would have stayed on the market bit longer. It was that time when most just used phones to call and MinDisc and tape were more popular on portable music players. Device was ahead of it's time and interesting piece of Finnish technology history.
 
 

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