Nokia 5530 XpressMusic: Cheap as Predicted

As speculated last May, Nokia announced a cheaper version of their popular Nokia 5800XM this week — the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is now much cheaper by shedding off some key features.
Everybody’s quite familiar with what the 6-month old Nokia 5800 so a better perspective of the new Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is to list what it doesn’t have that merits it a significant price downgrade compared to its older sibling.
What’s Missing?
No 3G/HSDPA. The Nokia 5530 is missing 3G connectivity and only allows for a slow EDGE connection.
No GPS. Though not really a huge deal, GPS is becoming a staple in most phones. The other recent XpressMusic phones have it — 5730XM, 5330XM and 5800XM.
Of course, you still get the full touchscreen, a 4GB storage via microSD, FM, Bluetooth, and 3.15 MP Carl Zeiss optics camera and WiFi. The only upgrade I was able to see where the 5530XM ruled over the 5800XM is the CPU speed — up from 369 MHz to an ARM 11 434 MHz processor.
I’m not sure whether the lack of 3G is a good trade-off over WiFi. Personally, I’d rather have 3G/HSDPA than WiFi as 90% of my mobile internet usage is via 3G. Expect the phone to be under Php15,000 when it arrives in the Philippines sometime before end of September.