Late last month Nokia introduced the new 5610 XpressMusic slider handset. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to play around with one for a few minutes. In particular, I was interested in what that new left/right slider control was for. While my guess was somewhat more grandiose, it turns out that the slider has a very simple function: it switches phone modes. That is to say, the slider switch can be used to move easily from the main phone user interface and menus to the 5610's music player or music library.
For example, from the standby screen a nudge left on the control will bring up the categorized list of all the tracks that are loaded onto the phone. Another nudge left brings the user to the actual player, where the play/pause and previous/next track controls are. One more nudge left brings the user back to the standby screen. Conversely, from the standby screen you can nudge the slider right to go directly to the music player. I suppose the best way to think of it is as a 3 sided tube that you are rotating to the left or right: both other screens are always a single nudge left or right away. It's nice.
On top of that, the handset itself, especially in the red and black color scheme, is really good looking. Both the 5610 and its little brother the 5310 have a very modern look to them that manages to be stylish without looking outlandish. I have to say that I'm quite pleased with Nokia's new stylistic direction. Nokia expects that the 5610 XpressMusic will reach retail shelves in the last quarter of this year for an unsubsidized price of about 300EUR (US$422).
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