Confidently walked intothe store to buy a pre-shopped/selected titanium slider; walked out with this one, which I had never seen before and didn't initially love the looks of.Why? I know you're thinking. How strange!Answer: More phone for the money, great reception and xcellent service.First things first: It's not a sexy slim thing; while it's fashionably small, it is bit chunky and marshmallow white where it's not black. Not fiercely slick at first glance.But what is it that you most want in your phone?Looks or function?This is what I loved immediately: The slider is smoothly satisfying, display is crazy, colorfully nice, the keyboard is well laid out/lit with good feedback, the interface is completely toss-the-manual-in-the-corner, and it takes pix and video with great zoom and the storage is generous - 1 gig transflash pre-installed, thank you very much. (Oh, and you can replace the included stereo headset with a bluetooth one if you like. Or use your own audiophile earbuds with the included jack adaptor. Choices! Ever looked at the proprietary jack at the top of the titanium slider? Ew.) In other words, it's a really friendly phone on many levels. If you've ever used a Razr, you know the other end of the usability scale.Then someone at the store let me hear the MP3 player through earphones. I heard beautiful jazz.Crisp. Clear. Sweet. Penetrating bass. Ahh.That is some -seriously- good sound!It also sounds pretty darn good through the external speaker.At home I discovered that, as I'd hoped, loading it was as simple as dragging and dropping your (MP3/WMV/AAC) files. Which is as it should be. Do I need a phone to frustrate me? No.Now to the phone: Simple to use. Have not dropped a call since I switched to this phone, and have not had calls go straight to voicemail either (grrrr!) So it does what a phone should do, too. Refreshing.Texting/MMS-ing is a pleasure instead of torture on this phone, and there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many the phone can store. (Whew!) Who knew?IM'ing is also simple, but do buy the message bundle before you fire that thing up.Pictures and video (with sound and banging zoom) look fine; the quality is a bit better than most and there are a million effects (that I would never inflict on anyone.)The phone is customizable to a T, including different MP3 ringers of your choosing for allllll of your friends (and frenimies too. And you do not have to cut the length or bitrate.)Finally, called customer service with new-customer questions a few times .... never waited more than a few minutes to reach a live person. They were always helpful, and I felt like my business was truly appreciated. This is in sharp contrast to my previous carrier, which sounds like "swindler" to me. Now.Naturally, nothing is without its issues/limitations and this phone obviously is no different. I would be in remiss if I did not mention the following. If you need a best in show phone, keep moving 'cause this ain't it - it has an idiosyncratic appeal all its own that grows on you. And don't bet the rent on the voice dialing - you'll lose. (But really, who are you calling with that?!)Note that if you need very loud earpiece/speakerphone volume, this is not your phone. It's adequate; it's just not a bullhorn. And it's likely you'll have to charge this baby every night, depending of course on your use. Screen uses juice.So that's what I know about the Nokia 5300, a phone I'd never heard of that, lucky me, suits all my needs. Give it a look.Who knows? It might be for you, too ....